Reviews of Short Stories

For my review of all the stories that were given over the winter session, I will be using how much I enjoyed reading the story as a major factor in who receives the best review. The creativeness of the stories as well the author’s performance in writing will be used in considering who will receive the upper hand.

1.     She Unnames Them, Ursula K. Le Guin

a.     I absolutely enjoyed this short story because of the powerful solution that Le Guin provides about how identity may be barrier that causes the divisions that humans often uses to gain an advantage on one another. The simply written piece uses the metaphors as a great manner to illustrate the current issues that society faces today. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone that would like a different perspective of the fight for gender equality and should be used in academic literature.

2.     Happy Endings, Margaret Atwood

a.     In this unorthodox style of short-fiction writing, Margaret Atwood does an tremendous job in questioning readers on how they judge story-telling by challenging them to read her scenarios through questioning their purpose. Atwood does a tremendous job in giving readers a literature reminder on how to view writing as well as inspire to question their purpose of their life stage. It is an excellent reading for those who are interested in being introduced in short-fiction.

3.     The Corpse Exhibition, Hassan Blasim

a.     I have to applaud Hassan Blasim for writing such a dark story of how war can create killing and human cruelty such a normal activity. The matter of how normal the instructor appeared when giving instruction on how to accomplish murder and the amount of importance on how they accomplish their task is given gives a taste on what the people of his home country are going through on a daily basis. It is recommendable to those who want a literature view of how war crimes are a part of life for those who are in war-torn countries.

4.     Five Stories, Lydia Davis

a.     In probably the weirdest form of writing and shortest stories I have ever read in my life, Five Stories does a tremendous job in sending its many messages in the most simplistic and fastest manner possible. Whether it is the use of imagery to allow readers to solve the actions that are occurring in The Outing or the questioning of whether anything lost is actually lost in Lost Things, Lydia Davis did a phenomenal job in creating thought provoking thinking in the shortest matter possible.

5.     Lab Coats, Yoko Ogawa

a.     In probably the most bizarre short story of the winter session, Yoko Ogawa does an impressive job making an announcement of a murder so normal and calm. I have never read a story in which there was a drastic discovery like the secretary murdering her lover for such a random reason and only get a normal reaction from her coworker. This definitely shows how humans will look pass anything in order to continue their obsession.  

6.     The Garden of Forking Paths, Jorge Luis Borges

a.     If the story was not as long and difficult to understand who exactly was the speaker, this story could have had a higher ranking. I found it funny how Yu Tsun and Dr. Albert crossed paths in the most random of times and that at times it seems as if the story didn’t sound believable. However, this development as well as the story being held during World War 1 got my attention and did a good job in creating a story that seems impossible to believe.

7.     House Taken Over, Julio Cortazar

a.     This is another story in which a long dialogue hurt the story’s chance in being ranked higher. However, the impressive illustration of the house as well as the amount of emphasis on how dependent the narrator and Irene were with the house made an interesting read. I feel the boringness of how the story develops gives an accurate representation of the two characters and the amount of exaggerated detail can be an example of how much time these two characters had. It is not the most exciting reading however, it is good for case study on human dependency.

8.     The Night Face Up, Julio Cortazar

a.     Julio Cortazar did an excellent job in deceiving readers into believing the dream was about the Aztecs chasing the man who was in the motorcycle accident. The only reason this is not ranked higher (and it should be) is because of how the difficulty in solving the main character and what life time he is in. That and the very long dialogue only made it lost its appeal as the story went on. However, the amount of detail in the imagery was impressive–especially in the Aztec scenes.

9.     A Country  Doctor, Franz Kafka

a.     This was an interesting reading for those who enjoy looking for symbolism and analyze the mental state of narrators. However, it did not come off as exciting and the weirdness of the plot actually hurt the understanding of the story. Even though the structure of how the text is presented is unique, it became unappealing and didn’t really serve its purpose.

10.  The Smallest Woman in the World, Clarice Lispector

a.     As a full disclosure, the reason for the low ranking is because I did not enjoy reading this selection because it was not appealing for me. However, I will admit the story did a great job in exploiting western society’s tendency to discriminate those who are not part of their culture.  

11.  The Antipodes and the Century, Ignacio Padilla

a.     This was one of the few difficult readings that required some time to understand its plot. Although it was interesting to read how a replica city could pop up one day and completely vanish the next day, it was not the most enjoyable reading from the winter session.

12.  The Hen, Clarice Lispector

a.     It was interesting that Clarice Lispector used a chicken to show human tendency to place certain groups over others because of gender and other factors. The story could have been extended further more however, it did not generate much interest for me. If the ending was not as sudden as it was or used human representation to deliver the message, the story could had been better.

13.  No Room at Solitaire, Richard Rive

a.     Richard Rive’s story of how going against popular opinion was very similar to how communism was viewed during the Cold War. Other than using this historical reference to advance the story, the plot was uninteresting and at times difficult to understand who was speaking

14.  The Aquatic Uncle, Italo Calvino

a.     It was neat how Calvino decided to use a plot to illustrate the progress of evolution amount animals and addresses the never ending conflicts between past and future generations. The names made it very easy be distracted by the plot and was became more unappealing to read as it went further on.  

15.  All At One Point, Italo Calvino

a.     It was very difficult to understand what actually was occurring throughout the duration of the plot. The names that represented the elements made it very distracting to follow what was occurring. The difficult metaphors only added on the confusion and for that, landed this story at the bottom of the rankings.