"The Secret Miracle." Jorge Luis Borges.

Summary: Jaromir Hladik, a Czechoslovakian writer, confronts a German firing squad. He prays to God for a full year in order to complete his play. A tear starts from his eye. In the time that the tear falls, he mentally finishes, without hurry, revising as he writes, his play. When the tear finishes its fall, at that moment, he is shot to death by the firing squad. A miracle.

Comment: Somewhere, in one of the many books I have read, I remember the (true?) story of a Jewish scholar, imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, who could remember perfectly the details of every book he had ever read. Re-tracing these books was how he passed his time. That’s what I was thinking of as I read this story. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956. Pp. 17-23.

"My Sister Antonia." Ramon del Vade-Inclan

Note: I am resuming my summaries of short stories. 6/15/2011. RayS.

Summary: A skeletal, evil-looking, cadaverous student in love with the narrator’s sister, Antonia, puts a curse on their mother who experiences a black cat that claws her back; she screams in agony. Finally, the curse is broken. The mother has died and the student’s ears have been cut off through the efforts of the family servant and a voodoo-like snipping of symbols. After the funeral, the house is closed and the narrator and his sister Antonia go off with the grandmother.

Comment: A story of witchcraft and the effects of a curse. Frightful mood of the dark house and the emotions that accompany the strange goings on. Told from the point of view of a child who understands more than the adults around him think he does. Nightmarish. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956. Pp. 1-16.

"One Day in the Life of Mrs, Riley." Maureen Pople.

Short Story International. Ed. Sylvia Tankel. New York: Great Neck, vol. 5, #27, August 1981, pp. 9-15.

Summary: Everyone expects Mr. Riley to die. He’s demanding, obnoxious. His sons have never amounted to anything because they are just like their father. Mrs. Riley goes about the house preparing for his funeral, which is expected any time soon. Finished cleaning the house to what she perceives as her relatives’ expectations, she climbs the stairs to take a nap. She thinks, “He’s[Mr. Riley] settled down and the house is clean. They’ll [the relatives] be here by six. There’s nothing more I can do. And she slept.”

“The family arrived at six and found Mr. Riley, as usual, banging his stick on the floor for his dinner, and Mrs. Riley…for the very first time…not answering.”

“The funeral was held two days later. Mrs. Riley looked splendid and not one of the family had a word of criticism.”

"To the Measures Fall." Richard Powers.

The New Yorker (October 18, 2010), 72-77.

Summary: In and out of the world of books throughout her life. Early in her academic career, interested in a controversial writer named Wentworth. Plans to do a dissertation on him.

“Mistaking books for life.”

Through the decades she shifts from one interest to another, including the Internet, but she again returns to her interest in books.

What do books amount to? A life wasted on them. They occasionally elucidate life, but mostly books are about other worlds. Not hers.

"The Tree Line., Kansas, 1934." David Means.

I'm back. RayS.

The New Yorker (Oct. 25, 2010), 75-77.

Two agents. Waiting on the tree line watching the farm’s fields for signs that a crook named Carson has returned to his relative’s farm where he has buried some loot.

The boring nature of the wait, but afraid not to stop watching for fear that Carson would suddenly appear. Monotony. The time is taken up by the younger agent, streaming his thoughts endlessly on his theories about what was happening with Carson. The older agent listens without hearing, busy with his own thoughts, critical of the younger agent’s naiveté.

Certain that Carson would not show up, the younger agent stands up and walks out of the tree line, to be blasted away by Carson and his men.

"On a Journey." Slawomir Mrozek.

The coach is passing a series of men spaced evenly by the side of the road. Because the poles were stolen and no wire is available, these men have become a “wireless telegraph,” passing on messages from man to man. The men are employed by the state for their duties.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After this sampling of short stories, I have decided to end this blog. RayS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Everythng Is Good at the End of the World." Zsigmund Moricz.

“Mother Dear” had nine children, ten if you count four-year-old Rozi who was a state-supported child. “Mother Dear” made Rozi wait her turn when the other nine took a bath. Rozi waited for bread, and if none was left she got none. When she stole some and went out to the barn to eat it “Mother Dear” beat her. Rozi didn’t cry because no one cared and no one would sympathize with her. Rozi did not even know that “Mother Dear” was not her mother. When the lady from the state realized how Rozi was being treated by “Mother Dear,” she took her away and gave her to a nice plump woman in town. But Rozi ran away to be with “Mother Dear” again. Rozi felt that everything would be good at the end of the world and she looked forward to it and waited patiently for it. Her job was to wait.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.