August 8 - "The Lost Regiment"

“The Lost Regiment”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * * * (Great) Fable

An army regiment becomes uneasy and eventually lost while parading through a city.

There is a lot of beautiful imagery in this story of a lost regiment on parade. Calvino does a brilliant job describing the regiment’s unease as they begin marching through the town. He does this by describing how one soldier’s tentative steps are picked up by another and then another until the whole regiment is cautiously tiptoeing through the streets. Later when the villagers attempt to lead the regiment back to their base by way of climbing over the roofs of the buildings I could easily picture this parade gone awry, and it is a truly marvelous thing to behold. This being a fable I know there is deeper meaning here, but I’m happy with just the images now. Maybe upon rereading or further reflection I’ll take something more away from the story, but for now I’m content.

[This story was read on August 8. The review was not posted until later due to falling asleep in the Chair of Unexpected Sleep.]

July 29 - "Mantage"

“Mantage”
by Richard Matheson
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1994)

* * * * (Great) Fable

A writer wished that the time spent struggling and waiting for success could be condensed as it is in movie montage. When life begins to fly by, the writer questions whether his wish came true, or if life truly speeds by as quickly as it appears.

Time does speed by. Days slip and weeks fall away. Soon months are gone, seasons change, and years pass by. And yet I know when a week does drag on the first thing I wish is for it to speed up, forgetting somehow that that time is gone forever. It’s a sad story to recognize that you lose everything you love in time – to time. I like how Matheson leaves the interpretation up to the reader: did the man’s wish come true, or did life simply pass it does? It’s hinted that the wish may have come true, but I tend to think life is just life.

And why, “mantage?” It’s spelled “montage.” Unless it is supposed to be a man’s life done in a montage?

July 22 - "A Chaparral Prince"

“A Chaparral Prince”
by O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories (2002)

* * * * (Great) Fable

Lena, a child of eleven, toils at the Quarrymen’s Hotel while dreaming of a prince out of Grimm’s tales to rescue and return her to her loving mother.

Okay, I don’t understand the title here. The word chaparral has something to do with a dense growth of shrubs or small trees. I thought Lena’s prince was the band of mail thieves that rescued her from the hotel? The robber band do tie the mailman whose load contained Lena’s letter to a tree, and it is his cart they slip the child in to carry her home, but what does that have to do with a “chaparral prince”? Anyway, I did enjoy the story mostly for the personal wish I had at the moment of reading for a rescuer to come and save me from my punishing ride across Iowa (RAGBRAI). Granted, my wish was for a rich princess to swoop in with a helicopter to carry me away from the ride, but it’s the same basic idea.

July 9 - "Wind in a City"

“Wind in a City”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * * (Good) Fable

A man who enjoys the wind meets a friend, Ada Ida, on the street and walks her home, sharing tales and making observations.

This is another of those stories I’m convinced has a deeper meaning I can’t uncover. It’s like a puzzle with one missing piece; the overall idea is there, but incomplete in some small meaningful way. As always, Calvino does a fantastic job of creating a feeling of whimsy and otherworldliness in his descriptions. The world seems as real as the world inside a dream. A feeling such as this can overshadow – and forgive – any confusion or lack of clarity.

June 9 - "Pattern for Survival"

A Week of Richard Matheson“Pattern for Survival”
by Richard Matheson
Button, Button: Uncanny Stories (2008)

* * * (Good) Fable

The manuscript for a new story by Richard Allen Shaggley moves from author’s hand to reader’s enjoyment along a connected chain of increasing appreciation.

I hate the feeling of not quite knowing the point of a story. Even after two reads – I did go back and reread the story – I’m still left scratching my head. Did the manuscript of the story actually exist, or were each of the characters in contact with the manuscript simply different aspects of Richard Allen Shaggley? Even the characters in his manuscript appear to be aspects of himself (Ras and his beautiful priestess of Shahglee - from his name, Richard Allen Shaggley). But in between the confused thoughts, I found myself enjoying the story – even if I had no clue what it all meant.

April 14 - "Tomorrow's Bird"

“Tomorrow’s Bird”
by Ian Frazier
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * * (Good) Fable

A man working for the crows of the world helps to spread their desire to become “Your Only Bird.”

Another only average story – this one with a cute premise: the rebranding and mass marketing of crows as the world’s new, and only, bird. One possible underlying message – evil or darkness (you pick the big bad) is permeating the world – stands, rather obviously, right behind the words on the page. It’s easy to see the author’s point, but it’s all a little too neat. Too pat. There are, however, some nice little details that shine through, such as the descriptions of the crows’ movements and actions (so real and easily pictured), or the insane power grabs (crows owning the Tombstone Frozen Pizza company, and other ventures). It’s a nice balance of the real and the asinine. I actually wish this could be developed into something more – there’s some unexplored potential here.

March 28 - "Good For Nothing"

A Week of Italo Calvino"Good For Nothing"
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * * * (Great) Fable

A man's shoelace continues to come untied while he walks through town. The same, light-eyed man points out this frustrating fact to him, with increasing regularity.

There are days when no matter what you do, nothing goes right. And to have this fault pointed out to you repeatedly would make anyone upset. After the confrontation with the light-eyed man, we learn that the man never did learn how to tie his shoes. It was something that he didn't care to learn. When asked who would teach his kids to tie their shoes, he assumed someone else would teach them. The light-eyed man then asked what would happen if everyone only did the things they enjoyed? I think about this occasionally; for I am the man with untied shoelaces, relying on others to do the things I find, well, boring.

And beyond the moralizing, this is a story with some great descriptions. The setting and the man's feelings of growing frustration at the continued sight of this disapproving, light-eyed man are well realized in this short tale.

March 27 - "The Black Sheep"

A Week of Italo Calvino“The Black Sheep”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * * * (Great) Fable

There was a town in which everyone was a thief. In this town, from next-door neighbor to government official, everyone stole from one another. And then an honest man arrived.

They say man is an animal at heart, naturally evil. This story presents a bleak, but entirely logical, lesson about the nature of man and his tendencies. It presents a utopia formed from universal thieving. In the story’s scant two pages, this utopia is challenged, and we are forced to question our own ideals. I quite enjoyed it. I suppose that has to do with my own cynical tendencies, but I digress. What I found most fascinating were the progressively logical sentences, for example:

“So everybody lived happily together, nobody lost out, since each stole from the other, and that other from another gain, and so on and on until you got to a last person who stole from the first.”

Everyone is equal. (And now I wonder: Was Calvino a Socialist? I hate to think this deeply.)

March 24 - "Solidarity"

A Week of Italo Calvino“Solidarity”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark

* * * * (Great) Fable

A man moves seamlessly between robbers and cops during a break-in, equally co-conspirator and colleague.

The idea of being comfortable on opposite sides has a certain appeal, to be every man’s friend and no man’s enemy. The story plays out like one of those screwball comedies from the 1930’s in which an ordinary everyman finds himself stuck in an impossible – but hilarious to the viewer/reader – situation. The short, precise sentences help to convey the urgency of the situation along with the ease in which the man comfortably and effortlessly blends with each group. There is no question where this man belongs; he is simply part of the team.

March 24 - "Conscience"

A Week of Italo Calvino“Conscience”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * (Okay) Fable

Luigi joined the army believing he’d be able to kill Alberto, an enemy of his.

The problem with fables, or stories with morals, is that they can often come off sounding preachy. This story doesn’t quite go that far, but it comes close. There isn’t a lot of story here, just a few awkward sounding sentences strung together to hammer home a point about the reason we fight wars. In search of the one man he truly wants to kill, Luigi kills many other “innocent” people. For this killing he is awarded medal upon medal. When the war is over – his Alberto never found – it is his conscience he must reconcile. The reasons we fight are often our own, and it is those reasons we have to live and battle with once the war has ended. It’s not a terrible message; it’s just not well expressed in this brief tale.

March 16 - "Making Do"

“Making Do”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * * * (Great) Fable

The citizens in a town where all is forbidden, except the play of tip-cat, react strongly when they are free to do as they please.

I should have seen the ending coming, but I didn’t, and it nearly sent me off the road laughing. (Yes, I was reading while driving – but it was an empty stretch of road and a very short story.) This allegorical fable probably had such an impact on me because I could easily relate to the obsessive attitude of the folks in this town of forbidden activities and newly forced freedom. I have no idea how to play tip-cat (or even what it may be), but I do understand the frustration of others forcing me to do something I do not wish to do. Take away all freedoms, save one, and then ask people to give up that final freedom – what do you expect will happen?

February 18 - "Water Names"

“Water Names”
by Lan Samantha Chang
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * * (Good) Fable

Three young girls take a moment from sisterly squabble to listen to their grandmother regale them with a tale brought forth from memory by the prairie crickets chirping beyond the cramped front porch.

I get the feeling that I’m missing something, like there’s a deeper meaning hidden in the text that I simply don’t see. That bothers me – makes me feel as though I’m not smart enough, not good enough as a reader. I did enjoy the story: the fable the grandmother tells to the young sisters. Ancient Chinese myths and tales have always interested me. They are a bit different from the fairy tales and folklore of America and Western Europe. From out of that uniqueness comes their charm, and my fascination. The promise of greener grass - in this case an undersea prince and marriage into his kingdom – is a common story trope, but it doesn’t feel tired here due to the flow of the sentences, and the set up to the myth sharing. Instead, you become as enraptured in the story, and thus as frustrated with its open ending, as the three sisters sitting at their grandmother’s feet.