31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 23: “Letter to a Young Lady in Paris” by Julio Cortázar; Paul Blackburn, trans.
One of the pervasive themes running through the story is the conflict between order and chaos.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 21: “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off” by Nadine Gordimer
Gordimer refuses to level judgment herself in the story.
“The only way I can explain my behaviour”
Martin Amis, sui generis.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 19: “The Harvest” by Amy Hempel
How much of "The Harvest" is true to the facts of Hempel's experience is unclear, and also unimportant.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 18: “Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire” by Neil Gaiman
Gaiman is commenting on our various prejudices regarding where genre work falls in the realm of literary respectability.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 16: “Wedding Day” by Gwendolyn Bennett
Bennett's story, though relatively brief, is a subtle excavation of racial, class, and gendered power dynamics.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 13: “Title” by John Barth and “Elements of the Short Story” by Stuart Ross
Barth, like Ross, writes in a highly ironic mode.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 9: “Striding Folly” by Dorothy L. Sayers
If "Striding Folly" does not represent Sayers at the height of her powers, it is nevertheless an intriguing oddity.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 7: “The Robot and the Baby” by John McCarthy
The story may not work as fiction, but it does illuminate some of the philosophical and ontological dilemmas swirling around the notion of sentient robots.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 5: “The Earring” by Jo Nesbø; Robert Ferguson, trans.
The author's trick in "The Earring" is to convince his reader to sympathize with sad-sack Amund.