My 2020 Reads, The Short Stories, Part 1

This is a follow up to my 2020 Reads where I discuss and evaluate the short stories I read for the year.  Thirteen of the short reads were short stories, and as I have done in the past I rate the short stories as “exceptional,” “good,” “ordinary,” and “duds.”  Of the exceptional, I give my award for the best short story read for the year.  That’s one of the annual highlights of this blog. 

First, here’s how I rate the short stories.

Exceptional

“The Blue Hotel,” a short story by Stephan Crane.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find.” A short story by Flannery O’Connor.

“Times Square,” a short story by William Baer

“Dédé,” a short story by Mavis Gallant.

Good

“The Turkey,” a short story by Flannery O’Connor.

 “The Trouble,” a short story by J. F. Powers.

“Theft,” a short story by Katherine Ann Porter. 

“The Thistles in Sweden,” a short story by William Maxwell. 

 

Ordinary

“Leaf by Niggle,” a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien.

“The Magic Paint,” a short story by Primo Levi.

“God Rest You Merry Gentleman,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.

“Hermann the Irascible—A Story of the Great Weep,” a short story by Saki (H.H. Munro).

“Blessed Harry,” a short story by Edith Pearlman. 

Duds

-None-

Amazingly there were no duds this year. 

Of the twelve authors—I read two stories by Flannery O’Connor—most of them are considered masters of the short form.  J.R.R. Tolkien is known for his long works.  The one read here is only one of two stories that is listed in his bibliography.  William Baer is a contemporary writer who written in many forms, and has a couple of short story collections.  Edith Pearlman is also a contemporary writer, but has worked exclusively in the short story.  William Maxwell a writer of many forms from perhaps a generation prior to contemporary was a long time fiction editor at The New Yorker magazine, and so edited many well-known short story writers.  The others—Crane, O’Connor, Gallant, Powers, Porter, Levi, Hemingway, and Saki—are recognized masters of the short story.  Of course that doesn’t mean they write great stories every time.

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So let’s describe each one, and at the end I will award the annual prize for the best short story read in the year.  Let’s first look at the “Ordinary” stories.

“Leaf by Niggle,” by J.R.R. Tolkien is an allegorical story about a man who attempts to paint art but is stymied by the outside world.  The story seemed overly didactic, the characters two dimensional, and it kind of reminded me of those in a Samuel Beckett play where each had some sort of allegorical significance but where you couldn't exactly pin down what the significance was. You can read the story online here.  You can hear it discussed by Joseph Pearce here.  

“The Magic Paint,” by Primo Levi is about a paint manufacturer who is sent a sample of paint that prevents misfortune.  Some moments of humor in this comic story, and perhaps a profound implication, but a rather ordinary story.

I rated “God Rest You Merry Gentleman,” by Ernest Hemingway ordinary but it’s rather unordinary.  It’s actually rather macabre and repulsive but finely written like most Hemingway stories that it sort of averages to ordinary.  Two doctors at an emergency room and a narrator (journalist, perhaps) discuss the occurrence of a boy who mutilated his genitals.  A podcast at The Hemingway Society discusses this story at length.  They thought more of it than I

“Hermann the Irascible—A Story of the Great Weep,” by Saki (H.H. Munro) has the woman’s suffragette movement raging in post WWI England, and King Hermann has the idea of passing legislation that mandates all must under penalty of law vote.  The satire is rich but not too original.  You can read the story online here and listen to it being read on YouTube here. 

“Blessed Harry,” by Edith Pearlman comes from her collection titled, Honeydew. A quiet, unassuming Latin teacher from Massachusetts gets an invitation to lecture at a college in London with a plot twist.  Characters were well drawn out but plot was too contrived.

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Now for the “Good” categorized stories.

In “The Turkey,” by Flannery O’Connor, a boy chases down a wounded turkey, imagines how esteemed he will be to his family and townsfolk carrying that turkey back, but, while parading around town with it, a bunch of boys takes it from him.  There is a very short Wikipedia entry on this story here.    You can find all of O’Connor’s stories online here.  This story is on page 55. 

 “The Trouble,” is a short story by J. F. Powers, the Catholic novelist and story writer.  It is a story told from first person of a black child who is watching a race riot from her window when they carry in her mother critically injured and allow a white man to seclude himself in their home while the riots raging.  It wasn’t too subtle a story but it was engaging and puts the reader into the drama. 

“Theft,” by Katherine Ann Porter, is a story about a theft of a woman’s purse by the building’s janitress and the socio-economic misjudgments.  The woman’s who’s purse was stolen was just as poor as the one who stole.  A very skilled and nuanced story.  You can read an analysis of this story at The Sitting Bee blog.     

“The Thistles in Sweden,” is an oddly written story by William Maxwell that I didn’t think would work when I was reading the beginning but turned into a fine story by the end.  It started as what seemed excessive description but slowly the narrative took hold and through the descriptive changes the reader was able to understand character and feel progression.  Time moves on and things become part of one’s life.  An interesting perspective on this story is given at Short Story Magic Tricks.

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Let’s hold off the exceptional for their own post, and I’ll try to add a little more detail to each of those stories.  Sorry, you’ll have to wait for the prize winner until I get to Part 2.