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