April 10 - "Like a Flight of Ducks"

“Like a Flight of Ducks”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * (Okay) Realistic

Natale moves from one side of a war to the other, a simple-minded fool and plaything taken advantage of by each side.

The confusion in Natale’s head likened to a flight of ducks is one of the best similes I’ve come across in a while. If anything, it sounds more refined to picture a flight of ducks when cracked over the head with a stick than to see a chorus of tweeting birds. The problem I had with the story was that I didn’t fully understand it. This could be a combination of a lack of intelligence and a massive headache, but I had no idea what was happening most of the time. Sure, Natale is a simpleton and those around him treat him as a joke, but what’s the point of it all?

April 9 - "Passport"

“Passport”
by Deb Olin Unferth
Minor Robberies (2007)

* * (Okay) Realistic

A multitude of possibilities flood a woman’s mind when she is asked for her passport.

The story tries a little too hard to be clever with its format. The repeated “or” at the beginning of a seemingly endless collection of sentence fragments, the random – incomplete – story of searching for a forged Mexican passport, the eventual crux of the tale – the passport’s whereabouts in question: it all seems a trifle trite. It is a short, short story that could stand some trimming.

April 8 - "And Seven!"

“And Seven!”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A lazy woman, challenged with tasks of increasing difficulty by her soon to be husband, is aided by three magical old ladies, each asking only to be invited to the upcoming wedding. When the wedding day arrives, the lazy woman cannot recall the names of her saviors and faces foretold doom on her happy day.

Women are not portrayed very well in these folktales. The hero of this story ends up being rewarded for her gluttony and sloth. I’m curious to see if this depiction of women carries through the collection of Italian folktales assembled here. The neat thing about these stories is that while they may seem predictable, the endings always twist in funny ways – not ways you would expect a story to twist. My favorite part of the story was the scene in the beginning with the mother serving bowl after bowl after bowl of soup to her fat daughter before finally ceasing with seven and a wooden spoon to the indolent daughter's head. It’s just a striking - pun intended - image, and a great way to start the story.

April 7 - "The Man Who Came Out Only at Night"

“The Man Who Came Out Only at Night”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A cursed man leaves his new wife with a magical diamond ring to circle the word –tortoise by day and man by night – to break the curse and live happily ever after with his bride.

If you give someone power, there is no guarantee they’ll wield it well or wisely. The woman in this story appears to be noble and loving, but as she begins to use the power of her diamond ring, we see her for what she truly is – a…witch. And the townspeople see the same thing. They send the police to arrest her, only to, what, give up and forget when her husband returns? The story would have been more complete if she either was punished for her abuses, or if she hadn’t succumbed to the power of the diamond in the first place. In the end, all sympathy is lost and the woman becomes little more than throwaway character in a happily ever after story.

April 6 - "Homage"

“Homage”
by Nadine Gordimer
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * * (Good) Realistic

After assassinating an important state official, a man without a country, lives his life in obscurity, trapped in the city where even his name is buried with that now memorialized important official.

There are moments when this story works, and moments when things are just a bit too obscure, too secretive – moments when we see Gordimer trying too hard to be mysterious. I found it amusing that this hitman would have to find work to justify the money he was paid for this assassination, and that this dilemma could have been worse had he been paid the full amount of the contract upon completion. It is the little moments – the everyday concerns in the not-so-common situations – that make a story seem realistic. When you can string together a handful of these, you might as well be casting spells, spreading magic between the lines. Unfortunately here there was only the one moment. Still, it did make me pause; it made me take notice.

April 5 - "Night Surf"

Sundays with Uncle Stevie“Night Surf”
by Stephen King
Night Shift (1979)

* * (Okay) Realistic

In the aftermath of the A6 super flu – Captain Trips – a group of friends spend the night on a deserted beach after burning a dying man on the pier.

Wow, that’s bleak. And unfortunately, boring. In what appears to be the seed of the larger – greater – story, The Stand, we are introduced to the idea of the final few survivors of a super flu that decimates the world’s population. Where this story fails to achieve the normal Kingian levels of greatness is in its brevity. We are given just a snapshot of these characters and this situation. I’m more interested in who they are, and how they came together, and where they go from here. Instead, we are offered just a few hours of one night – even the burning of the body is told in only a paragraph or two of flashback. The whole – story? – was simply less than expected. It’s a great idea, only not fully realized (yet).

April 4 - "The Purple Dress"

“The Purple Dress”
by O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories (2002)

* * * (Good) Realistic

Maida has saved and planned and dreamed of the purple dress she will wear to the annual Thanksgiving dinner at work. When she selflessly loans the final $4 due on the tailored dress to her rent-starved friend, Madia’s purple dream appears to fade away.

Schmaltzy – and sometimes the right word just pops into your head – but entirely the appropriate tone for the story. Not all stories need be built out of intricate plots, clever coincidences, and slick dialogue. Sometimes, the perfect purple party dress and the kindness of friends and strangers is enough. And in this instance, there is no irony in the twist ending, just good people finding happy endings. A simple Saturday story.

April 3 - "Her Voice in a Bottle"

“Her Voice in a Bottle”
by Tim Pratt
Subterranean: Winter 2009 (2009)

* * * * * (Excellent) Fantasy

Tim Pratt recalls the mysterious Meredith, a weeklong love from college who vanished from sight only to return years later before vanishing once again. She floats in and out of his life in those moments of loneliness, last time leaving a message in a small blue bottle for when Tim needs to call on her again.

It was difficult finding the correct label for this story – fictionalized reality, memoir, or fantasy? I settled on fantasy because of the ephemeral nature of Meredith, and because of Pratt’s short digression about fantasy.

“…and just because I write fantasy doesn’t mean I believe that stuff. I’m a skeptic. Sure, I knock on wood, I have little superstitious rituals, but I know they’re merely magical thinking, that they don’t exert any influence on the world, that at most they exert influence on my mind, which is enough, sometimes.”

There’s a quality here, something slightly off, slightly magical, in Pratt’s recollection of his time with Meredith. There’s even a weird mix of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, Pratt’s first novel, which I enjoyed, but remember in only broad strokes (as is true of most fiction I read) and Pratt’s own mentioning of a faulty memory, a mind incorrectly (maybe) filling in the past. Everything about this story – there’s even a mention of air hockey – clicked for me tonight in ways I know I won’t be able to articulate, or even remember correctly, come tomorrow. This is a story worth saving, a hopeful story for lonely hearts in troubled times.

April 2 - "Life with Father"

“Life with Father”
by Bentley Little
The Collection (2002)

- (Bleh) Realistic

Father does not waste. Everything can be reused and recycled, including his two daughters and The Pets.

There are stories that are just not for me. Stories in which characters or situations go beyond what I consider to be in good taste. I don’t run across these very often; I can handle quite a lot – tolerate much. The younger girl’s decision to kill their vampire of a father allows the story its only saving grace. It’s not much – it is but one detail in a story full of horrific events – that allows me to make any connection other than disgust.

April 1 - "An Indian Ghost in England"

“An Indian Ghost in England”
by Rudyard Kipling
Tales of Horror & Fantasy (2008)

* * * (Good) Supernatural

A weary man on horseback decides to spend the night in a small town not far from his destination. After his meal he turns in to bed only to hear the not-so-distant wail of the ghost said to haunt this very village.

Kipling does a great job, in some fine and rambling sentences, of describing the setting of the story. In fact, aside from a few key actions, this story is essentially a painted picture of rural England in the chill and breeze of February. There is beautiful imagery, but not enough narrative. I’ve come to assume the twist ending, but this ending fell flat. You come expecting a ghost story – the setup and description and atmosphere promise as much – and you walk away with something…less. Grumbling aside, I thought the second paragraph – the one with the abundance of dashes (which I love to use and see) – was a treat. Following the meandering flow of the sentences was its own kind of grammatical adventure.