Short stories 191-200

“The Pier” by Mori Ogwai. An elegant story about the sorrow of parting from a loved one and not being able to express one’s feelings. Recommended.

“A Domestic Animal” by Shimazaki Toson. A heart-warming tale about how one’s appearance can affect people’s attitudes. Recommended. (The link will take you to a page from which you can jump to the book containing the translations of this story and the previous one, in various different formats, including pdf and Kindle).

Here end the Japanese tales, and we jump back to Europe, to The Netherlands.

“The Story of Saïdjah” by Eduard Douwes Dekker. Originally from the novel Max Havelaar. What at first seems to be a simple story about young lovers turns out to be scathing criticism of the behaviour of the Dutch colonialists in Java. Recommended. (The same translation, only the version I read was edited to make it shorter).

“Grandfather’s Birthday Present” by Herman Heijermans. Originally from Sketches. A lovely, funny story about a surprise birthday present. Recommended. (This appears to be the same translation).

Next stop: Hungary.

“The Invisible Wound” by Karoly Kisfaludi. A chilling tale of jealousy and its consequences. Recommended. This appears to be the same translation).

“Familiar” by Lynn Viehl. Free short story, published online by the author. An interesting take on the Dr. Dolittle theme. I read this at work one lunch hour and decided to include it in the short story challenge.

“A Ball” by Maurus Jokai. A funny little letter written as if by a frivolous young lady (one related in spirit to Lydia Bennet).

“The Green Fly” by Kalman Mikszath. A funny story about reverse psychology in action. Recommended.

“The Silver Hilt” by Ferenc Molnar. A humorous tale about a clever swindler. Recommended.

Now to the Russians:

“The Snow Storm” by Alexander Pushkin. An unlikely but well told little drama that would suit very well as a source for a short play or TV film. (same translation)

Comments

Book 7: Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński (reading notes)

-This reads like fiction - prose more beautiful than one has come to expect from non-fiction and many of the chapters are structured like fiction stories. There is little continuity between most of the chapters, although some of the narratives or stories spread over more than one chapter. This is therefore more a collection of short narratives than a cohesive entirety. You could pick it up and read the chapters at random and still get a good sense of what is going on. -Here is an author who is not trying to find himself, recover from a broken heart, set a record, visit 30 countries in 3 weeks or build a perfectly enviable home in a perfectly enviable location, which is a rarity within travel literature, but of course Kapuściński was in Africa to work, and not to travel for spiritual, mental or entertainment purposes (he was the Polish Press Agency's Africa correspondent for nearly 30 years). -I have no way of knowing how well Kapuściński knew Africa - I have never been there...

Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

Book 40: The Martian by Andy Weir, audiobook read by Wil Wheaton

Note : This will be a general scattershot discussion about my thoughts on the book and the movie, and not a cohesive review. When movies are based on books I am interested in reading but haven't yet read, I generally wait to read the book until I have seen the movie, but when a movie is made based on a book I have already read, I try to abstain from rereading the book until I have seen the movie. The reason is simple: I am one of those people who can be reduced to near-incoherent rage when a movie severely alters the perfectly good story line of a beloved book, changes the ending beyond recognition or adds unnecessarily to the story ( The Hobbit , anyone?) without any apparent reason. I don't mind omissions of unnecessary parts so much (I did not, for example, become enraged to find Tom Bombadil missing from The Lord of the Rings ), because one expects that - movies based on books would be TV-series long if they tried to include everything, so the material must be pared down ...

Reading in Reykjavík

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