Tag: Short Story

  • Short Story Review: “Hobbies” by Robbie Herbst

    (The short story “Hobbies” by Robbie Herbst appeared in X-R-A-Y on August 30th.)

    (SPOILERS, people! SPOILERS!)

    Art by Bri Chapman

    There sure are a great number of short stories and novels that cover the subject matter of the male midlife crisis. Or, as a friend calls them, “Sorry your penis stopped working, stories.” In one way or another, midlife crisis stories are about virility; the lack of it, the fear of losing it, of losing it, or desperately keeping it. And it is an attractive cliché to work with, as it is soaked in drama due to impending change, and can lend itself to comedy or drama, or a little of both.

    “Hobbies” by Robbie Herbst is just a short story that could have taken a turn down the midlife crisis trope. In fact, I kept expecting that it would, but it didn’t, and that was a completely refreshing development. In fact, the whole story is told in this realist yet absurdist style; claiming to be neither, but clearly dabbling a toe in both. In this way, the story stays lite, but also rooted in an honesty.

    The protagonist is a man sliding into a transition. The story opens with a mysterious letter from a woman named Therese that the he does not know, and rather than share the letter with his wife, he burns it, thus keeping it a secret. As we learn more about him, we see that he is a good person, with two good kids, happily married, with a good job, living a good life. But that night he wakes up having no idea who he is, but slowly, the details of his being return to him. This moment starts his journey to see if he is missing something. This is the fear of losing virility. Or maybe relevance. Either way, the hero is in a place of security and yet feels incomplete.

    And what follows is the breaking of the midlife crisis cliché. Here, the marriage is still fine, the kids are okay, and the job is fine. Yet, there is a threat that looms over him and the family – something that has to be prepared for. It’s not identified, nor does it need to be, as it is a fear that takes the form of whatever it needs to be for each person. But our hero keeps making choices, figuring out what he needs to do to confront whatever is coming.

    This was a smart story, and also very funny. Herbst is very good at keeping the story moving, throwing in details, and never letting the narrative get bogged down. But most of all, “Hobbies” took what I thought would be cliched, and gave it a twist and an insight that I wasn’t expecting.

  • Short Story Review: “The Autopsy” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya (Translated, from the Russian, by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.)

    (The short story “The Autopsy” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya appeared in the August 28th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (You know there are SPOILERS, right?)

    Photograph by Tereza Zelenková for The New Yorker

    First of all, I do want to give credit and say thank you to the Fiction Editor at The New Yorker, for exposing me to another Russian author. (I haven’t read this much Russian literature since I was a freshman theatre major.) In the writers of late, I have found this very interesting dynamic in their storytelling, where they take a pragmatic and a fantasifull world, and then combine them in a seamless fold of a believable surrealism.

    “The Autopsy” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya continues this form. It is a simple story that moves between a coroner, a mother, and her son. The storytelling is impressive, and with a few lines, I was pulled into this piece. The economy of words, simple yet pushing the story forward, lulls the reader into the throws of this very pragmatic world, first starting with a coroner. Then the story shifts to a mother who is looking for her missing son. Again, the beautiful simple language tells us of her wrenching, difficult life story, and the heartbreaking love she has for her son. Then the story shifts to the son’s perspective, and again we are betwixt by the magic of these words, though the language stays in it’s realistic form, we now move into an ethereal realm. All leading to the final section, and a completion of this story that leaves us feeling that this journey has fulfilled its purpose.

    I loved this story. I loved how it ran me through these lives, how they were connected to each other, and how strong and painful love and loving someone can be. There was a tragedy to this love, but also a dignity to loving someone so much. I appreciated that Ulitskaya swung for the fences on this, and made these two realms fit together. But most of all, I loved they style in which this story was presented; never going down a rabbit hole of flourishes or needless details. It got the job done in an effective use of language (And I know this was a translation) that never felt like a word was wasted.

  • Short Story Review: “The True Margaret” by Karan Mahajan

    (The short story “The True Margaret” by Karan Mahajan appeared in the August 14th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Photograph by Eliza Bourner for The New Yorker

    “The True Margaret” by Karan Mahajan, is an interesting short story, which ultimately is a well-crafted piece of fiction, yet I never found myself engrossed by it. The story has a great opening paragraph, which is compelling, but what follows is a deliberate plodding paced story that never rises in intensity, even as the climax approaches. As I finished the story, I liked it, but I was left feeling unsatisfied. I will say this; I do recommend reading this story.

    All the pieces are here for an effective short story. It is set in the past of 1959 London. An arranged marriage, an Indian bride brought 5,000 miles from her home. The adjustment to a new city and culture. The shadow of colonialism, patriarchy, class, and sexism. Questions about the idea of freedom being a reality or an illusion. How threats grow larger and more diabolical in our minds as we dwell on them. The duality of one’s nature. The courage to escape one’s situation, and a resolution that delivers our protagonist to a safer place, but not a rewarding place. There is a lot going on here, and it is all brought up in a natural way, never feeling forced.

    And still, I couldn’t shake the feeling of not being satisfied with the ending. Finally, I had to come to the conclusion that this ending was the point. That the plodding pace was there to help illustrate this point. Doing the right thing, breaking the mold, saving yourself doesn’t mean you get the happy ending – it only means you survived to live another day. And even if you get years beyond that incident, to where it doesn’t necessarily feel real anymore, it sometime can never be forgotten, or forgiven.

  • Short Story Review: “Yogurt Days” by Jamie Quatro

    (The short story “Yogurt Days” by Jamie Quatro appeared in the August 7th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (SPOILERS! Though I think you know that, and I should stop announcing it now…)

    Illustration by Alex Merto;

    Source photograph by Bonnie Taylor Barry / Shutterstock

    Ah… religion and faith, and rules and guidelines, and patriarchy and pragmatism. This all has to do with Christianity and not religion in general. Christianity does get a bad rap in most fiction – used mainly to highlight the hypocrisy in human nature. Every now and then we get a work of fiction that is nuanced toward its representation of Christianity in the world around us. That’s what I felt reading “Yogurt Days” by Jamie Quatro – a story that is strong on theme, ideas, and structure. While the prose is adequate for the piece, Quatro strength is in taking all the tricks that are taught in writing classes, and uses them effectively to accomplish her goal of delivery a solid story that is honest, and even a tad melancholic.

    This is a story about faith, and the actions behind faith, and those motivations. The story is about the narrator’s mother who has more faith than sense, and is blessed with an affluent lifestyle which allows her to survive with that disposition. This mother isn’t a bad person at all, and the narrator, even as a child, is aware of that. The story jumps from the past to the present, and how the past situation is still influencing the narrator in the present.

    I said writing tricks because that’s what they are, but it works. The opening sentence is a textbook in making the reader want to find out more. The first paragraph previews the theme of the story. An early example of the mother’s faith is given to show why she behaves the way she does. There is the breaking up of, what could have been, a simple linear story through time jumps, in essence to create more drama, but also pad out the story. I’m not saying this to be mean, or to imply this is a “color-by-number” story, but to say that Quatro’s structure is easy to follow, and allows us to know that this story is going to land.

    But what Quatro does very well, and I think it is a strength of the story, is that by using this standard structure, it gives the story freedom to flow and bring life to little truths about faith, or the illusion of faith, and how faith can even infect the unfaithful. And best of all, in the middle of this story, the daughter (narrator) forgives the mother for her past transgressions. I think most writers would have made this the climax of the story, but I appreciated that this type of cliché was avoided. Instead, by putting the forgiveness in the middle, what we received was a better understanding of how faith had influenced the narrator’s life, along with a better understanding of the relationship between mother and daughter.

  • Short Story Review: “A French Doll” By Cynthia Ozick

    (The short story “A French Doll” By Cynthia Ozick appeared in the July 31st, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (SPOILERS! There will always be SPOILERS!)

    Photo illustration by Joan Wong; Source photographs from Getty; NYPL

    And then sometimes, The New Yorker just publishes a good story. Why beat around the bush here; “A French Doll” by Cynthia Ozick is a very good story. A shorter piece by New Yorker standards, but not flash fiction as the story is at 3,300+ words. Yet, I did find a flash fiction ethos within this story – it didn’t rely on a hero cycle, or a plotless character study, nor was this the tried and true beginning/middle/end with a rise in action. No, this was a story that played with language, mood, atmosphere, and an inevitable lesson that is reinforced in the actions taken by the characters. Since plot and development weren’t necessary, that’s why I say it’s more flash than traditional short fiction.

    There are so many points that I could ding as examples of why Ozick’s story works so beautifully well, but I fear I could get mired down in unending details. The opening section serves many purposes of creating the mood, theme, and setting for the piece. I loved how the narrator, as a child talking to the elderly neighbor, would lie about not being able to help the old woman, but in the end would still do the requested tasks – just like a kid would do. I loved how the bookending of the elderly couples passing was used to reinforce the theme of the inevitability of passing away, and wanting to leave something, even the most basic truths, for someone to acknowledge later. And then the use of the doll, telegraphed to us with the title, but still manages to delicately make the point of life and art.

    And yet, with all of that said, the best part of this story was the language used by Ozick. The words that were crafted, how they painted and played with creating a picture and a world that this story took place in. This language made me slow down, savor what I was reading. Not only was this world given vibrant life within the words, it also created a rhythm – like a dance – for descriptions to unfold. My favorite example being, “The sublime defiled, the sacred embedded in a thing of vanity, ridiculed, pirated, usurped, stolen. A felony, a wickedness, a sin.” This is a writer that enjoyed making words pirouette, tumble, and slide off the page.

    I have told you nothing about the story, and that was on purpose. Cynthia Ozick created something very unique “A French Doll” and you should read it. Let the surprises and turns hit you like they did me. Because this isn’t a plot story – this is about mood and understanding. You just need to read it.