story: “The Entire Northern Side Was Covered with Fire”
author: Rivka Galchen
year: 2014
where: casa e lavoro
note: this story is more an experience than a memory-maker
a line: “The novel was a love story, between a bird and a whale. Why was I already low on money? Partially because money just flies, as they say, or I guess it’s time they say about that, the flying, but money, too. Very winged.”
story: “The Lost Order”
author: Rivka Galchen
year: 2014
where: casa dolce casa
note: I can’t recall the stimulus for purchasing Galchen’s book, American Innovations, and this makes me sad. I hate forgetting. This story has a ring like Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing”…a ringing call. The main character also feels like a more morose and confused Lorrie Moore character.
a line: “I have not always–had not even long–been a daylight ghost, a layabout, a mal pensant, a vacancy, a housewife, a person foiled by the challenge of getting dressed and someone who considered eating less a valid primary goal.”
story: “White Rain”
author: Helen McClory
year: 2018
where: outside still, Abu Dhabi
note: another gem from w i g l e a f
a line: “In text she was that way; overeager, pressing. I had withdrawn. She pushed back, then lashed out. Then a spattering of texts and incidental photographs that were obviously sent out in a kind of bruised friendship.”
story: “Now That the Circus Has Shut Down, the Human Cannonball Looks for Work”
author: Meghan Phillips
year: 2018
where: 我的办公室 (again)
note: This short short story has the punch at the end like contemporary English poetry. Maybe it has something to do with its length too; though it would not be mistaken for a prose poem.
a line: “He’s happy to be a reference, but he’s not sure how much weight the words of a clown will carry.”
story: “Here Comes the Sun”
author: Yeo Wei Wei
year: 2017
where: 我的办公室
note: Reminds me of Rachel Heng’s “Vegetarian” from Prairie Schooner
a line: “Before the mynah, other birds, insects and small animals visited the room. Butterflies, moths, dragonflies – they flitted in and out, resting on the bright pink curtains or on the rim of the enamel washbasin with its gaily painted flowers.”
story: Love Machine
author: Samantha Hunt
year: 2017
where: home physically, but mentally with The Man Who Fell to Earth
note: George Saunders, Ovid, and Dostoevsky would have a party in this story
a line: “’Machines,’ he continues, ‘have one of only two choices. Either they are run by humans or else they run themselves. And the way I see it, either choice is no good for me.’”
story: The Black Cat
author: Edgar Allen Poe
year: 1843
where: mio ufficio
note: Someone left this fine story at the printer! Snatched! Also, this story was first printed in Philadelphia, my home city. A good story for a Halloween mood.
a line: “My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame.”
