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Selected Shorts Archive

May 2006

Lonely

Sunday, May 28, 2006

“There was something about gambling that you could not resist. There was suspense, and the feeling that the future was not already written by white hands—or finished.”
--Charles Johnson, “A Soldier for the Crown”


A lonesome cowboy and a lonesome soldier, each in unexpected circumstances.


Glimpses

Sunday, May 21, 2006

“’My granny always says there are no good men left in the world,’ Marcus said…’Well, if that’s so,’ the man said, ‘it wouldn’t be a good thing for the world.’”
--Edward P. Jones, “The Orange Line Train to Ballston”


It’s the small things that matter— a view lost, a man glimpsed.


Personal Odyssey

Sunday, May 14, 2006

“Because they don’t want to be perfect, because only God is perfect, Indian people sew flaws into their pow wow regalia.”
--Sherman Alexie, “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem”

A Native American undertakes a personal odyssey; and Raymond Carver anatomizes grief.


Great Men, Small Lives

Sunday, May 07, 2006

"We were about to be rescued from centuries of utter inconsequence. We were about to receive a visit from the most powerful man in the world."
--Meera Nair, "A Warm Welcome to the President, In’Sh Allah!"

Great men, and great events, affect small lives, in these two serio-comic stories.