Category Archives: short stories

About Short Stories

Posted on April 13, 2016 by booksandbuttons

Maybe you remember last summer when I had a whirl with American plays. Lately I’ve been in the mood for short stories. So much so that I organized a desk around them and am trying to become acquainted with  the … Continue reading →

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The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín

Posted on April 6, 2016 by booksandbuttons

The Empty Family –hm.  Collection of nine short stories published in 2011. (Just after Brooklyn)  Starts with an interesting anecdote by Henry James . . .

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Dole Girl by Barbara Hamby

Posted on July 9, 2015 by booksandbuttons

“Dole Girl” is a short story that just won the Aura Estrada Short Story Contest for 2015.   It is currently published by Boston Review in the July-August issue and can be read for free through the internet.  Just look … Continue reading →

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“Araby” by James Joyce

Posted on October 24, 2014 by booksandbuttons

In “Araby,” another of the short stories of Dubliners, the narrator is again a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle.  The boy has become attracted to a neighborhood girl, the “big sister” of one of his friends.

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“The Boarding House” by James Joyce

Posted on October 23, 2014 by booksandbuttons

This is another story in the Dubliners collection.  James Joyce wrote about the people of Dublin–not the down and outers like those in Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, but, a step up, about people making their livings, barely—with scanty occupations and little visible … Continue reading →

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“The Sisters” by James Joyce

Posted on October 22, 2014 by booksandbuttons

This is the first of fifteen short stories in James Joyce’s collection Dubliners.  (It’s not “The” Dubliners,  just Dubliners.) The first line:  “There was no hope for him this time: it was his third stroke.” That’s Joyce for you—-off and … Continue reading →

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Book Review: A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

Posted on December 23, 2013 by booksandbuttons

“Imagine a morning in late November.” That’s the first line and off we go with a beautiful tale about a little boy and an older woman who is his distant cousin.  They are loose-end relatives and are each other’s best … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Habit of Widowhood by Robert Barnard

Posted on December 4, 2013 by booksandbuttons

Tra-la-la!  Robert Barnard makes murder look so easy.  And so tidy.  (But rather upsetting.)

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