wtorek, 6 czerwca 2017

Classic Lunchtime Short Stories Readers Can't Get Enough Of

By Matthew Martin


The majority of employees are allowed an hour in the middle of the day to get something to eat and relax. Some shop at the mall or hit the gym for a short workout. Still others like nothing more than to sit somewhere quiet and read one of their favorite lunchtime short stories. Sometimes it is easier to read something through to completion rather than try to read a few pages that are part of a larger work. There are many classics that can be absorbed in less than an hour.

Margaret Atwood is best known for her novels, but she wrote a great quick read called "Stone Mattress". The protagonist is Verna, a serial husband killer, who recognizes an old boyfriend at a pre-cruise function. It turns out he is the same boy who got her pregnant and then humiliated her. Verna decides to eliminate him once and for all using a billion year old fossil as the murder weapon.

Love him or hate him, Ernest Hemingway was a brilliant prose writer. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a good short story whether you like the author or not. In it Harry, a jaded writer, along with his wife, Helen, have fled Paris for Africa. Dying from gangrene, Harry reminisces about his loves lost and opportunities squandered.

"Three Questions" is Leo Tolstoy's parable of a king in search of answers to the most important questions in life. He seeks out a hermit and winds up nursing a would be assassin. In the end, the king finds the answers he was looking for had been with him all along.

Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, became a household name with the publication of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". This is a cautionary story about Jim Smiley, a man ready to place a bet on anything, even how high a frog can jump. Jim met his match in a stranger who saw him coming, cheated him out of his money and took off.

"The Diamond As Big As the Ritz" is F. Scott Fitzgerald's tale about John Unger who meets Percy Washington at an exclusive prep school. Percy boasts his is the richest family in the world because they are sitting on top of a diamond as big as the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Those familiar with Fitzgerald will recognize the theme of a youthful man destroyed by a woman's wealth.

James Joyce was an Irishman who wrote about Ireland and the dynamics of Irish family life. "Eveline" is a fine example of that. Eveline finds herself having to choose between a brutish father and the life she knows and a lover who wants her to run away with him to another country. Her final decision is sad, but realistic.

People who love to read easily get lost in good stories. They don't have to be long and complicated to engross a book lover. Well written stories come in all shapes and sizes.




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