We haven’t featured any of Raymond Carver’s short stories on the Dish yet – a major oversight, given the writer’s reputation and influence. “Cathedral” generally is considered one of his finer works, and here’s what Carver said about it in an interview: The story “Cathedral” seemed to me completely different from everything I’d written before. … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
In his critical essay on the science fiction writer J.G. Ballard, Hitch singled out one of his short stories as “ultra-macabre” – that story, “The Drowned Giant” (pdf), is our selection this week. How the Jonathan Swift-inspired tale begins: On the morning after the storm the body of a drowned giant was washed ashore on the beach five miles to the … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
This weekend’s short story is Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” (pdf), which grabs you from its first sentence: I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron. “I wish you would manage the time to come in and talk with me about your daughter. I’m sure you can … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
Though Halloween was yesterday, it still seems fitting to feature a classic, frightful short story, W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey Paw,” this weekend. The story begins with the White family at home on a cold and wet night, with father and son playing chess, when a visitor arrives at their door: The Sargeant-Major took hands and taking … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
This weekend’s short story, E.M. Forster’s “Arthur Snatchfold,” was written in 1928 but published only in 1972, two years after Forster’s death. The reason why? Like his novel Maurice, also published posthumously, the story deals with homosexuality – though this is a story that you don’t want to say too much about, for fear of spoiling its … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
This weekend’s short story is Nick Ripatrazone’s “Advent,” first published in the Blue Mesa Review in December 2012. Here’s how it begins: People said that Father Mark was working at Macy’s. It all started with his sermon during the last Mass of Thanksgiving weekend. Evening services drew two crowds: those who slept-in, and others who enjoyed … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
Today’s selection, “A Tiny Feast” by Chris Adrian, comes from the still-ungated archives of The New Yorker. How the story begins: It took them both a long time to understand that the boy was sick, though she would point out that she had been the first to notice that he was unhappy, and had sought to remedy his … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
The critic Dwight Garner recently contended that reading Donald Antrim’s books “is like driving 90 miles an hour while in third gear, in the back seat of a jalopy the author has stolen, while he disposes of his drugs by throwing them out the window.” That sounded like an endorsement to us, so this weekend’s … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
This week’s story is a classic of feminist literature, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Its opening lines give the sense that something is amiss – but you’ll want to keep reading to find out what’s really going on: It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
This week’s short story, Andre Dubus’ “Killings” (pdf), is notable not just for the way it portrays the way one family grieves, but for being turned into a brilliant film by director Todd Field, In the Bedroom. We suggest reading the story – it’s not long – then watching the movie counterpart. Here’s how the story … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
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