Calling presentism a prejudice is a little like calling 45 a bad president: It's not strong enough.
The "Bestiary" narrates pre-adolescent Isabel's summer vacation with her cousin Nino and ... a tiger.
Brothers Geronimo and Carlo travel the roads of 19th century Italy, entertaining passers-by with song, but one plants a seed…
Ted Chiang's "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" considers the ethical effects of the consulation with a paraself, a self…
G. Keller's "The Little Dance Legend" is a quizzical story about Musa, a dancer among the saints whose dance and…
William Trevor's "Beyond the Pale" tells of four friends visiting an idyllic Irish island, on the occasion of the return…
Natalia Ginzburg's "The Mother" is a story about a "mother" from the perspective of her two boys who receive from…
Hoffmann's "Don Juan" is a theatre review written as a short story, bound to enlighten lovers of Don Giovanni and…
In Johann Peter Hebel's "An Unexpected Reunion" death seems to separate a betrothed couple, but after the passing of much…
Goethe's "The Attorney" shows that though habit and nature are not easily conquered, the powers of the sovereign will as…
Writing explores writing in Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling," in a story constructed of two…
Cultural consumption involved George Saunders' consummately misanthropic CivilWarLand, as well as Pygmalion (1938) and The 49th Parallel (1944)
During this lovely autumn month I will read a new short story each day and then write a brief post…
George Saunders' short story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, was born in a minimum security prison in central Pennysylvania
During the hot days of August my tremendous appetite to read was momentarily sated by more Tolstoy (eternally), James Baldwin,…