A short story is a challenging read as it is a challenging write for the writer. To tell a compelling story in the shortest stretch possible (typically between 10-20 pages), the author weaves it with tight sentences, power words, witty remarks, nuanced descriptions, twisted plots or interesting turn of events that capture your attention but require more efforts to follow than a plain-talking non-fiction book would.
And even after you have got all the words and expressions, syntax and semantics figured out, you only get half the story of what the author wants to convey... Those clues, metaphors, hidden meanings, etc., only get revealed during the section by section discussion when our discussion facilitator poses questions and we respond and ask our own questions and share our own thoughts... Then at the end of the two-hour session we suddenly realize how much more we have got out of the story than when we first read it by ourselves!
There are about 6 or 7 regular attendees to the meeting besides our discussion facilitator Doug, a thin, tall gentleman in his 70's who has been leading book groups like this and teaching English literature for years. Kathy has a well rounded reading voice and a perceptive mind; Cris is a fun loving lady who sometimes burst out laughing when reading a part of the story that seems so funny to her; Merrie is light speaking and articulate (they all are!); Marcy is a sharp Jewish lady who doesn't always read the story beforehand but can get the hang of it right as the story proceeds; Charles is analytical and inquisitive; Bob is a retired school principal with many interesting life stories to share; and for a couple weeks Frank is this neat, gentle, and relatively quiet guy who lives in a homeless shelter sitting right next to me.
The short stories we read are from the "Best American Short Stories" book series, a yearly collections of notable works from hundreds of periodicals selected by reputable editors per year. This particular one we are reading is from year 2006. The stories we have read so far include
Secret: An adolescent girl's coming of age story with hippie parents and some outsider kids in the 1960's
Dominion: The confusing, mythical fear of death in an old man's mind exemplified in real world as the hounding coyotes surrounding a pond and a country house, all cleared up in one fell swoop by his no-nonsense wife
So Much for Artemis: The frustrating story of a laid-off NASA engineer at the end of Space Age seen from his son's eyes
Self-Reliance: A rich reflection and surreal depiction of the life and death of a retired doctor who learned of her terminal cancer and decided to end her life her own way
Tattooizm: A dreamy, rootless young woman with an aspiring tattoo artist boy friend who she plans to dump but ends up having a "souvenir" non-tattoo done on her thigh
The Dog: Set in contemporary China, the story between a Beijing couple and their rural relatives and an outlawed fight dog exposes the conflicts the economic prosperity brings to the old communist social orders
After a Life: A touching story, also backgrounded in contemporary Beijing, on love and hope, lost and rebirthed, between couples and parents-children
How We Avenge the Blums: A somehow comical but realistic story on anti-Semitism that happened in suburban Long Island in the 1980's
Can't wait to read the next story and for the next discussion!
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