What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
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Joy Williams “Honored Guest”|Short Story #344
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “Honored Guest” author: Joy Williams year: 2004 where: Philadelphia, the first day of Thanksgiving break note: As can be expected, I have been reading a lot of short stories since returning to school full-time this August. With repatriating, Covid, schoolwork, bouts of melancholia, missing traveling, city life, dates, and hunkering down, and….and….and… I have…
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Stefano Benni “Fratello Bancomat” | Short Story #343
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “Fratello Bancomat” author: Stefano Benni year: 1994 where: Dubai note: This is a fun story we read in my Italian class. a line: “Bancomat: Perché siamo stanchi e disgustati.” theme(s): Humor, money, marriage
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Jamel Brinkley “Comfort” | Short Story #342
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “Comfort” author: Jamel Brinkley year: 2020, Ploughshares where: Quarantine, Duja Tower, Dubai note: Today, I ventured to the gym for the first time in months. I booked an appointment and I had the 52nd floor all to myself with a view of Rashid Tower, the first skyscraper in the UAE. a line: “Other than…
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Alice Munro “Night” | Short Story #341
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “Night” author: Alice Munro year: 2012 from Dear Life where: Quarantine note: This story made me think about what Zadie Smith said about the difference between the past and now, and how in the past, folks discussed things so much less. I really liked the brief rumination on psychiatry near the end. a line:…
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Alice Munro “Carried Away” | Short Story #340
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “Carried Away” author: Alice Munro year: 1991 where: Quarantine note: This story came to me by a mention from Lorrie Moore. It is such an elegant story, full of historic markers big and small. There’s something at the end (the conflation of men and memory) that reminds me of what did Susan Minot did…
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Blake Butler “The Disappeared” | Short Story #339
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “The Disappeared” author: Blake Butler year: 2013 where: Quarantine note: I learned about this story from a charming essay on Lit Hub by Nick Ripatrazone. It was described as “a story about a boy’s longing for his missing mother during a pandemic, and how we have to hold on to hope even when the…
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Danielle Evans “Harvest” | Short Story #338
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “Harvest” author: Danielle Evans year: 2010 from before you suffocate your own fool self where: Quarantine note: When I began this story, I thought it was going to be a first-person plural POV, but it surprised me into shifting into first-person singular. a line: “Every time I call my house, even those times when I…
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Danielle Evans “Snakes” | Short Story #337
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “Snakes” author: Danielle Evans year: 2010 from before you suffocate your own fool self where: Quarantine note: I like how this story showed how fear can develop; the example here is a fear of snakes, but it hints at the fear of abandonment and the “other” too. a line: “A confession: because I didn’t…
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Rebecca Makkai “A Story for Your Daughters, A Story for Your Sons” | Short Story #336
Samantha Neugebauer
story: “A Story for Your Daughters, A Story for Your Sons” author: Rebecca Makkai year: 2020 where: Quarantine note: This is a new story from the Spring 2020 issue of The Paris Review; the first paragraph is gorgeous and reads like a fairy tale. For people interested in stories of female utopias (Charlotte Perkins Gillman,…
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C. Namwali Serpell “The Sack” | Short Story #335
Samantha Neugebauer
*This video has many problems: lighting, weird ending, excessive “likes”…apologies.
SAMANTHA NEUGEBAUER 