Alan Bean Plus Four By Tom Hanks Review

 

The New Yorker magazine has published a story by famous American actor Tom Hanks. The story talks about a company of four friends that travels to the moon in a spacecraft named after Alan Bean. Alan LaVern Bean was an American astronaut who was the fourth person to walk on the Moon.

The story mentions mobile devices and applications. The main characters are taking selfies using the Earth as a background, which can be seen in the window. The story might be classified as science fiction and maybe as a comic book.

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/27/alan-bean-plus-four

Landlady by Roald Dahl — Review

 

British writer Roald Dahl in his short story “Landlady” very successfully uses the technique of an unexpected ending. Readers love a surprise ending. A conclusion with an unexpected twist is made even more powerful when it is terrifying and chilling. The intrigue begins with the first phrases and continues until the end.

 

The expectation of something terrifying is even more impressive than the horror itself! The narration is meaningful.  It's like a warning that you need to listen to your inner voice and not follow the first thoughts. Before making decisions, it’s better to think.

 

The final scene breaks off abruptly, without even starting.  And this is both shocking and intriguing and gives space for imagination.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/landlady_text.pdf

Flowering Judas by Katherine Anne Porter — Review

The story “Flowering Judas” by American writer, Katherine Anne Porter, is the story of the revolutionary leader Braggioni, who cynically manipulates his associates, while he himself enjoys his prosperity and power.

 

The title of the story is the name of the tree on which Judas hung himself, and it contains a bitter allusion to the dubiousness of all revolutions, including religious revolutions.

According to the author, everything that seems progressive, indisputable, extremely necessary for improving the life of mankind, upon closer examination, turns out to be distorted and destructive.

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://vitaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/Porter-Katherine-Anne-Flowering-Judas.pdf

Something Better Than This by Mary Gaitskill -- Review

The title of the story “Something Better Than This” by Mary Gaitskill covers the plot. The story starts with a long introduction. Before the reader is introduced to the main character, Susan, the story gives a description of a city street and people there. It seems that Yonge Street in Toronto is quite a dreadful place to be on Saturday morning. 

Susan is a young woman who sells the trinkets for a wage. There is a certain disconnection between her inner monologue and Susan's outward persona. She has been waiting for something better than this.

Here is the link to the text of the story:

http://fictionaut.com/stories/mary-gaitskill/something-better-than-this

 

Two Kinds by Amy Tan — Review

The story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan tells about the childhood of the protagonist, a Chinese-American teenager and the consequences of her mother's high expectations of being a child prodigy. 

Possible interpretations of the title "Two Kinds" is mentioned by the narrator's mother: Only two kinds of daughters,… those who are obedient and those who follow their own minds….

 

Also, the narrator mentions two types of music, "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented" and concludes, “… they were two halves of the same song”.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/scschoolfiles/400/two_kinds_by_amy_tan.pdf

A Worn Path by Eudora Welty — Review

The story “A Worn Path” by American writer Eudora Welty tells about an old African American woman walking through the woods into town. She encounters many obstacles on her way - a ditch, barbed-wire fence, a thorny bush, etc. 

Through many difficulties, she goes to get medicine for her grandson, who accidentally swallowed lye several years ago. Her love for him is so strong and deep that, despite her old age, she starts this difficult journey on the eve of each Christmas.

 

The concept of "path" is universal. The way people go - reflects their lives.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://surry.haikulearning.com/c/4833729/file/show/55954873

The Young Folks by Jerome David Salinger — Review

The short story “The Young Folks” by Jerome David Salinger belongs to the early stories of this writer. It is rather not even a story, but a sketch.  

 

Party, teenagers, a girl who is pretending to be herself, a good host, a young man who has fallen into the spell of a girl, a conversation about nothing, alcohol, cigarettes.  Everything is as it should be. 

 

The narration is simple and naturalistic. The author gives the reader a unique opportunity just to observe people and make their own conclusions. Every person goes through this stage. Therefore, everyone can recognize themselves in these teenagers and refresh memories in the memory. 

 

Everyone had such unpretentious but at the same time very important memories.  And after reading this short story, the reader can immerse themselves in it. 

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.ae-lib.org.ua/texts/salinger__early_stories__en.htm#01

The Force of Circumstance by W.S. Maugham — Review

The story “The  Force of Circumstance” by British writer W.S. Maugham tells about the relationship between a loving husband and wife after the truth about the past is revealed.

 

The actions of the story take place on the island of Sembulu in Polynesia at the time when it was a British colony.

 

The main character acts according to circumstances, and, without hesitation, does not think about the effect on other people. The main idea of ​​the author is that some people, because of their selfishness, destroy other people's destinies. The story is realistic and has a gripping plot and deep emotional impact on the reader.

 

Here is the link to the plot of the story:

http://literature4everyone.blogspot.com/2008/07/force-of-circumstance-w-somerset.html

Chicxulub by T. Coraghessan Boyle — Review

The author of the short story “Chicxulub” by T. Coraghessan Boyle uses an interesting trick for presenting the plot: he alternates the sections between a meteor crash as scientific fact and a meteor crash as a metaphor. 

The writer links artistic recreation with personal tragedy. Readers see here the reality vs world catastrophe comparison. It is a narration of emotions with remarkable credibility. 

 

The point of the story is that anyone could die at any moment. Every second is an unpredictable spin of the roulette wheel.

 

The author continues to intrigue the reader throughout the story and leaves the twist all the way until the end. The story was published in the magazine The New Yorker.

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/03/01/chicxulub

“My Remarkable Uncle” by Stephen Leacock — Review

"My Remarkable Uncle," is a comedic short story written by Canadian writer Stephen Leacock.

 

The main character is a remarkable person. He introduces himself as the president of a railway, and the head of a bank. A very deductive part of the narration is how society reacts to his imagined stories in Canada and in the UK.

 

Readers can appreciate the pictures of human folly that have been described by Stephen Leacock.

This is a link to the text of the story:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700011h.html#s01

Paste by Henry James — Review

 

The story "Paste" by Henry James readers is sometimes compared with the story  "The Necklace" by Guy De Maupassant.

 

The story tells about a young woman named Charlotte who received a pearl necklace. It belonged to her deceased aunt. The stepson of Charlotte’s aunt, Arthur, gave this necklace to her. He believed that the pearls were fake and ‘paste’ (that is, worthless).

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://americanliterature.com/author/henry-james/short-story/paste

 

“Death By Scrabble” by Charlie Fish — Review

“Death By Scrabble” by Charlie Fish is a short story about an unhappy husband who expresses his rage toward his wife through the game Scrabble. He is searching for signs in the words he creates, so he tries to command fate and use coincidences to excuse his anger.

 

The first line of the story, “it’s a hot day and I hate my wife,” presents the juxtaposition of funny and unexpected things. This genre is referred to as black humor.

 

This is a link to the text of the story:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DeatScra.shtml

 

Thrawn Janet by Robert Louis Stevenson — Review

 

The main characters of the story “Thrawn Janet” by Robert Louis Stevenson are the pastor and his maid. Someone considers that the maid is the offspring of the devil, or maybe she died long ago, and the devil is now hidden in her body.  

 

The pastor is captured by the fact that everyone rejects her, that she is infinitely unhappy, and he should protect her.

 

The genre was claimed to be mystic, but all that happened can have an explanation and accordingly the story may be classified as a detective story.  

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://asls.arts.gla.ac.uk/pdfs/Strange_Tales.pdf

Gooseberries By Anton Chekhov — Review

“Gooseberries” is a sad story written by famous Russian author Anton Chekhov. The main character, a veterinary surgeon Ivan Ivanich, tells the story of his brother, Nicholai Ivanich, who had the desire to be financially successful. He associated it with living in the countryside and growing gooseberries.

 

The main, visible message for readers, leads to personality degradation and the irreversible loss of the true quality of a rich social life. The wife of Nicholai Ivanich suffered innocently for his idea, before her death. The attitude of the narrator is expressed by the author in this quote: "don't be satisfied, don't let yourself be lulled to sleep! While you are young, strong, wealthy, do not cease to do good! Happiness does not exist, nor should it, and if there is any meaning or purpose in life, they are not in our peddling little happiness, but in something reasonable and grand. Do good!"

 

But some readers find in the narration another moral. They say in comments that a more pleasant figure is the landowner Alekhin, who does his business from morning to evening, not even having the opportunity to wash. He has no time to fly in the clouds, to think about the meaning of life.  His meaning is life - land and to work on it, and the rest, perhaps, does not matter.

 

This is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.colorado.edu/globalstudiesrap/sites/default/files/attached-files/gooseberries_by_anton_chekhov_1898.pdf

The Coup de Grace by Ambrose Bierce - Review

The short story “The Coup de Grace” by Ambrose Bierce is difficult to read.

It is written well, but it is an uncomfortable read. The plot and actions there are terrible and very unpleasant.

 

The meaning of "coup de grâce" (french) is a final blow or shot given to kill a wounded person or animal.

 

The narration includes a detailed scene of human agony and the moral torment of another person. One, turned into a massive pain, having lost his mind, the other has no way to make a choice.

 

The story is very realistic, brutal and cynically harsh as war truly is.

This is a link to the text of the story:

https://americanliterature.com/author/ambrose-bierce/short-story/the-coup-de-grace

A Father's Story by Andre Dubus — Review

 

“A Father's Story” by American writer Andre Dubus is set in a place in the countryside. The narrator tells about his life in northeastern Massachusetts. Readers can vividly imagine the scenes, pain, grief, and emotions of this period in time.

 

The main character is the man who owns a stable of thirty horses and teaches riding to young people. His wife left with their children. Only his daughter returns to visit the town for summer vacation.

 

The main character expresses his attitude for life, according to conscious and moral principles. When the narrator faces a moral dilemma, the author sets off on a theological evaluation of family values. 

 

Here is the link to the story:

https://mbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/AndreDubus_AFathersStory.pdf

Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl — Review

The short story “Beware of the Dog” by British writer Roald Dahl was closely connected to the former profession of the author, as he was a pilot. Roald Dahl also wrote a well-known book worldwide for children called “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

 

The story includes many vivid descriptions and a suspenseful plot which leads to an unexpected ending. The narration pictures, the actions, the thoughts, the feelings of the main character in detail, and this phrase - "Garde au chien" (beware the dog) stay in the memory after finishing reading.

 

This is a link to the text of the story:

https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/botd.html

 

Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian — Review

The short story “Cat Person" by Kristen Roupenian was published in December 2017 in The New Yorker. It's a narration about a brief relationship between a twenty-year-old girl and an older man.

As their relationship develops, the girl’s imagination moves rapidly between imagining the guy as the desired person who is impressed by her young beauty to imagining him as a dangerous and murderous brute.

The story is analyzed by many famous mass media such as The BBC, The Washington Post and The Atlantic. It also attracts attention from a large internet audience. This shows that the way this kind of love story is written is related to real feelings which people often experience.



Here is the link to the story:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway — Review

The short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway doesn’t have a detailed description of the lives of the characters. There are only a few dialogues in the story, but the author leaves readers a place for imagination about the lives of the characters and their emotional state.

If the old man and the older waiter are definitely lonely, then the complete contrast to them is the young waiter hurrying home to his wife. The old man is not a drunkard, he is trying to drown his loneliness in alcohol.

Nevertheless, there is something that unites them: a place where it is clean and light. One possible interpretation of the moral of this story is: if the light in the soul is extinguished, then the person is involuntarily drawn to the place where it is light.

This is the link to the text of the story:
https://literaryfictions.com/fiction-1/a-clean-well-lighted-place/

Forewarned by Saki — Review

The short story Forewarned '' was written by British writer Saki, who is also well known as H. H. Munro, is about prejudice and how powerful these feelings can be.

The story starts with a description of the arrival of the main character, Alethia, for a visit with her cousin. During her trip, a new circumstance appears, which becomes the source of fear for the main heroine. The narration describes the emotions and feelings of Alethia, and through them, readers can see typical, maybe a little exaggerated features of British society.

 

 

This is a link to the text of the story:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Fore.shtml

After The Race by James Joyce — Review

The short story “After The Race” written by the most famous Irish writer James Joyce gives readers a lot of options for interpretation. We have here the description of one day, just a few episodes of life in Irish society.

James Joyce put in the first place not a plot but something which readers may see behind the text. The site genious.com gives people a tool for giving different interpretations (see link in the last line).

For example, see how one contributor of the story describes his/her interpretation of the meaning of this work:

“The Irish cheering of the French is misplaced and plain wrong; they didn’t even win ! This demonstrates the perversion in the action of the Irish people … supporting the enemies of the England”



Here is the text of the story with interpretation of some parts of the. narration:

https://genius.com/3462563

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury — Review

"There Will Be Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury is a futuristic story about the actions of an automated house after its inhabitants were destroyed, probably with a nuclear weapon.

Dishes are prepared but not eaten. Bridge games are installed, but no one is playing them. Martinis are made, but not drunk. Poems are read, but there is no one to listen to. An automatic voice recounting times and dates, which has no sense without a human presence.

Instead of describing the moment of the explosion, Bradbury shows readers a charred black wall, except when the paint remains intact in the form of a woman picking flowers, a man moving on a lawn, and two children throwing a ball. These four people were a family who lived in the house.

"There Will Be Soft Rains" is a part of the series“ The Martian Chronicles ” and one of the most famous stories in the world of fiction: touching, fatal, shocking.



This is the link to the text of the story:
https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/7_There%20Will%20Come%20Soft%20Rains%20by%20Ray%20Bradbury.pdf

All Will Be Well, by Yiyun Li — Review

The story “All Will Be Well”, by Yiyun Li was published in 2019 in the magazine “The New Yorker”. It is written in autobiographical style although the plotline refers to the acquaintance of the author. 

It is possible to classify the work as a love story, this term is mentioned a few times in the text. Desires become stronger in the distance - this idea makes the story remarkable.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/all-will-be-well

Riddle by Ogbewe Amadin — Review

Riddle by Ogbewe Amadin belongs to the genre of flash fiction. It is short and it has an unexpected ending. In the beginning, a mother said to her little daughter that her aunt is a witch.

According to her mother, it is bad, but the girl becomes less and less sure as the story goes on. The story also presents the moment of childhood when children realize that their parents may hold views of which they don't always agree.

However, the reader doesn't have enough facts to conclude if the aunt is a good or bad person, the main character only made her assumptions, which gives the reader space for interpretation.



This is a link to the text of the story:
https://firesidefiction.com/riddle

The Iliad of Sandy Bar by Bret Harte — Review

American writer, Bret Harte, is famous for his stories about life of gold diggers in California. This period of time in the history of the USA is associated with adventures, discoveries and exploitations. 

The story, “The Iliad of Sandy Bar, '' describes consequences which can occur after a slight quarrel. The narration begins with the sentence, “Before nine o'clock, it was pretty well known all along the river that the two parties of the 'Amity Claim' had quarreled and separated at daybreak.”

 

The story displays typical characters and relationships in American society.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

http://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/u_s_a/illiad.html

The Yellow Streak by William Somerset Maugham — Review

According to the dictionary,  “yellow streak” means a tendency to be cowardly or easily frightened.

The story,  “The Yellow Streak,” by British writer William Somerset Maugham included a rich and colorful description of the trip which a group of people had in Malaysia. Nevertheless, the main idea of the author was to present the peoples’ characters in extreme circumstances.

 

The title gives readers a clue about which part of human nature was represented in the story.

Here is the link to the text of the story, see page 44:

https://www.bookfrom.net/w-somerset-maugham/36264-65_short_stories.html

The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford — Review

The short story “The Upper Berth” by American writer F. Marion Crawford tells a story that happened with the narrator while he was sailing on the Kamchatka ship.

 

The narrator bought a ticket for a place in cabin number 105. As it turned out, two people had already committed suicide before him. On the very first night, a man who also happened to be there and occupied the upper shelf (above the narrator) suddenly ran out into the corridor and never returned ... And no one saw him again ...

 

Despite all the prejudice, the narrator decided to find out the secret of the 105th cabin ...

This is the link to the text of the story:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0604221h.html

The Barber's Uncle by William Saroyan — Review

The short story “The Barber's Uncle” by William Saroyan tells about a teenager who feels the pressure of society. This feeling and the story about Uncle Misak who obeyed the circumstances and followed the social rules have a logical link between them.

Readers can decide what moral they could find in this story.

Here is the link to the story:
http://englishonlineclub.com/pdf/G.C.Thornley%20-%20British%20and%20American%20Short%20Stories%20%5BEnglishOnlineClub.com%5D.pdf

The Doll's House by Katherine Mansfield — Review

The story, “The Doll's House,” was written by one of the most famous New Zealand writers - Katherine Mansfield. The plot of this work was built around a wonderful doll’s house presented to children (three sisters) of the Burnel family.

 

The sisters “burned to tell everybody” their doll's house. The story opened showing readers the world of childhood, but the harmony of it was ruined by adults who displayed arrogant models of behaviour for children.

 

Only the youngest of the Burnell sisters was able to overcome powerful social barriers which adults built.

 

The main visual symbol of this story was a beautiful small lamp in the doll’s house. It was connected by the author to the beauty of the soul of one of the little girls.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://katherinemansfieldsociety.org/assets/KM-Stories/THE-DOLLS-HOUSE.pdf

 

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain — Review

The short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was the first publication of an unknown American writer (of that time), Mark Twain, in a famous magazine.

 

Mark Twain dedicated his story to one of the good-natured eccentrics. The idea of the story was that a world without eccentrics would be terribly boring.

 

The quote from the story “... all a frog wanted was education, and he could do most anything ... “ carries a humanistic and also deep meaning.

This is the link to the text of the story:

https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/price/frog.htm

 

Springtime À La Carte by O. Henry — Review

There is a legend or anecdote related to this story. One day an American writer, Irwin Cobb, was sitting with O. Henry in a New York cafe and he asked O. Henry where he found the plots for his works. "Everywhere." answered O. Henry. "For example, here's a story for you."And, picking up the menu, improvising, he told Cobb the future story, "Springtime À La Carte."

The story starts with an unusual introduction. “It was a day in March. Never, never begin a story this way when you write one.” After that, the story turns to the bill of fare and it has a happy-ending as a classical love story.



This is the link to the text of the story:
https://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/springtime-a-la-carte

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe — Review

The story “The Fall of the House of Usher” was written by Edgar Allan Poe. It conveys to readers the atmosphere of events, creates a depressing feeling and maintains it throughout the entire work. The narration fills the story with mysticism and a sense of hopelessness.

The story includes rather complex verbal phrases, thanks to which this feeling of being in this gloomy place is created. Even the air in the room feels heavy while reading.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story: 

https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/the_fall_of_the_house_of_usher.pdf

The Secret Life of by James Thurber —- Review

The short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was written in 1939 by American writer James Thurber. It became his most well-known story. 

A man named Walter Mitty was imagining himself as a hero of his stories, where he played the main role: a pilot, a surgeon, and other characters.

The story became so famous that a person who constantly imagines himself as a fantastic  hero can be named a Walter Mitty

Here is the link to the text of the story:

http://101books.ru/pdf/The_Secret_Life_of_Walter_Mitty-James_Thurber.pdf

The Vessel of Wrath by William Somerset Maugham -- Review

The short story "The Vessel of Wrath" by William Somerset Maugham starts with a description of the advantage of documentary geographic books which give a lot of information about described places. The life of the main characters of the story, Dutch citizens, in the Malaysian islands was also described by the author with many details such as documentary narration.

Readers can find in the story an intriguing plot and an unexpected ending. 

This is the link to the text of the story:

https://bookfrom.net/w-somerset-maugham/36269-collected_short_stories_volume_2.html