31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 23: “Ogbuefi” by Vincent Anioke
The passage into manhood for Chibuike involves the shedding of innocent blood.
A Blog About Books and Reading
A Blog About Books and Reading
The passage into manhood for Chibuike involves the shedding of innocent blood.
"Fiction is a more subtle and sophisticated revenge porn."
"But that is exactly how we live: lost in time and space."
Whittall manages a delicate balancing act: she addresses an incident of sexual assault without turning her story into a simple trauma narrative.
"Glimmer" is a lean story, right from its declarative opening sentence.
"Dead Set" is a story that takes direct aim at the punishments that accrue to women in an unfair society.
"Tomorrow" is a voice story and its narrative approach is, typical of Faulkner, complex.
In the Soviet Union, Sorokin implies, the government is able to act in a most atrocious manner, while the minor functionaries who work the factories and offices have to carry shit.
The critic Delbert Russell referred to the story as "a mordant criticism of the artificiality and emptiness of the life of the haute bourgeoisie of Quebec."
King's accomplishment here is in combining his three levels of fear – terror, horror, and disgust – in a surprising and highly literary manner.