jeudi 8 juin 2017

Classic Lunchtime Short Stories Readers Can't Get Enough Of

By Matthew Martin


Most employees have an hour or so during the day to take off and get something to eat. For book lovers, there is nothing better than grabbing a salad or sandwich and relaxing on a park bench with their favorite lunchtime short stories. Everyone has their favorite tales that can be read and enjoyed in one sitting. Some classic examples follow in no particular order of fame, subject matter, or significance.

Margaret Atwood's characters are always memorable, and Verna is no exception. In "Stone Mattress", she notices a man from her past at a pre-cruise reception. He was a one time suitor who got her pregnant and humiliated and abandoned her. Verna decides he deserves to die, like her other husbands did, at her own hand. She uses a billion year old fossil to accomplish it.

Ernest Hemingway readers have strong opinions about his work. One that most will agree succeeds is "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". This story is set in Africa. Harry and Helen are there to escape their life in Paris, and Harry, it turns out, has a fatal gangrene infection. Before he dies, Harry thinks back to his past loves and the decisions that lead to his current situation.

Leo Tolstoy is known for his lengthy Russian novels, but he wrote shorter works as well. "Three Questions" is a simple parable about a king on a quest for answers to the most important questions in life. He visits a hermit and nurses a wounded traitor. Eventually the king realizes the answers were lying within him all along.

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was Mark Twain's first success. This is a cynical tale of a man who would bet on anything. Jim Smiley went in search of the best jumping frog and found Dan'l Webster. He met a stranger who easily tricked him and took off with Jim's money. Twain wrote the story in an attempt to win a bet of his own against a group of fellow story tellers.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for his literary theme of great wealth destroying glittering but weak men and women during the Age of Jazz. John Unger is no exception when he meets Percy at prep school. Percy boasts of enormous family wealth obtained from the acquisition of "The Diamond As Big As the Ritz". Family secrets nearly destroy several lives.

James Joyce was a prolific short story writer. One of many examples is "Eveline". It's the tale of a young woman who has to choose between her brutal family life and picking up and taking off with her lover. She has to decide between what she knows and the unknown possibilities she is being offered.

Book lovers find it easy to get lost in the stories they read. These may be novels of a thousand pages or short stories of a thousand words. As long as a story is well told, it doesn't really matter.




About the Author:



Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire