May 1 - "One Thousand Dollars"

“One Thousand Dollars”
by O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories (2002)

* * * (Good) Realistic

Young Gillian ponders how best to spend his inheritance, the troubling sum of one thousand dollars, neither enough nor little to truly matter.

You read any of Henry and you come to expect the twist ending. In fact, you expect – you even try to predict it. And it’s fun. You feel as though you win if you can correctly guess how the story will end. Some might be put off by this type of game – clearly not me – but it keeps you reading, on edge, guessing what will happen next. There’s also an appeal to reading stories so set in their era that you can’t help but chuckling. Money ages poorly in stories.