The Dish recently remembered the life and work of the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, who died last week at age eighty-seven. Here’s the opening passage of one of his short stories, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings“: On the third day of rain they had killed so many crabs inside the house that … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
The opening passage of Zadie Smith’s “Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets,” from the latest issue of The Paris Review: “Well, that’s that,” Miss Dee Pendency said, and Miss Adele, looking back over her shoulder, saw that it was. The strip of hooks had separated entirely from the rest of the corset. Dee held up the two … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
The opening paragraphs of Ramona Ausubel’s “Tributaries,” a story in which love becomes more than a feeling: THE GIRLS ARE WORMED OUT ACROSS THE FLOOR under down comforters even though daytime is hardly over, getting a jump-start on the slumber party. “My parents both have perfect love-arms,” Genevieve tells her friends. “Both of them can … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
The haunting opening paragraphs of Kurt Vonnegut’s classic story, “Harrison Bergeron“: THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
Here’s the opening paragraphs of Benjamin Markovits’s “Another Sad, Bizarre Chapter in Human History,” first published in the Fall 2008 Paris Review: I used to be friendly with a kid called Sam Bamburger, whose mother was the first woman I ever heard of to get divorced. Sam was about nine at the time and up … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
by Jessie Roberts Today’s story has remarkable staying power: E.M. Forster wrote “The Machine Stops” in 1909, but it’s proved so prescient that technologist Jaron Lanier has called it “that preternatural oracle of internet culture.” An excerpt: For a moment Vashti felt lonely. Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
The avant-garde writer Yi Sang’s dreamlike 1937 short story Child’s Bone (pdf) – one of 20 modern Korean classics now available free online – opens dramatically: This is the scene that my feelers detect. After a long period of time I open my eyes to find myself on my own, lying in a neat, empty room on the city’s … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
Neil Gaiman’s 1200 word short story, “Down to a Sunless Sea,” makes for a perfect quick dive into fiction. It begins: The Thames is a filthy beast: it winds through London like a snake, or a sea serpent. All the rivers flow into it, the Fleet and the Tyburn and the Neckinger, carrying all the … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
James Franco reads Amie Barrodale’s short story, “William Wei,” first published in the Summer 2011 Paris Review: The opening paragraph: I once brought a girl home because I liked her shoes. That was the only thing I noticed about her. I live in a really small apartment. A lot of my clothes end up piled on … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
The intriguing opening lines of George Saunders’s “Sea Oak“: At Six Mr. Frendt comes on the P.A. and shouts, “Welcome to Joysticks!” Then he announces Shirts Off. We take off our flightjackets and fold them up. We take off our shirts and fold them up. Our scarves we leave on. Thomas Kirster’s our beautiful boy. … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
