Category Archives: short story

BOOKS: “HK24” by The Hong Kong Writers Circle

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HK24: Twenty-Four Hours of Hong Kong Stories (Hong Kong Writers Circle Anthology Book 13)HK24: Twenty-Four Hours of Hong Kong Stories by Stewart McKay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Hong Kong Writers Circle

This collection of twenty short stories is connected by the theme of events taking place in a single day in Hong Kong. Besides this commonality of setting, there is no other connective tissue between the stories. Tonally, the pieces range from hilarious to tragic. There are suspenseful genre fiction stories as well as realist literary fiction (i.e. telling the story of work-a-day characters engaged in events of everyday life.)

I found “Mummy, Daddy, Angry Birds” by Carsten John and “Rent” by Sharon Tang to be the best humor pieces, and “Egrets” (Paul Clinton Corrigan,) “Help Yourself” (Edmund Price,) and “Joss” (Dimple Shah) to be the most thrilling and intriguing dramatic pieces. All the stories were well-crafted, but some did stand out more than others. A few of those realist pieces that explored “mundane” expat life in Hong Kong made for engaging and distinctive reading. And Hong Kong is uniquely situated for tales of an urban shaman or a Triad shooting.

This is the thirteenth volume of a series put out by the Hong Kong Writers Circle. Each volume has a different theme (besides being Hong Kong connected.) Hong Kong is one of those places that is authentically itself, not to be confused with anywhere else, and that offers a great opportunity to build fascinating tales that could only take place there. [I found it interesting that “should I stay or should I go” was a repeated theme across multiple stories.]

I picked this book up as a piece of travel literature for an upcoming visit to Hong Kong (I make sure to read a work of literature from every country I visit — provided I can find anything translated.) I’d highly recommend this book for readers interested in short fiction with that distinctive Hong Kong flavor. I intend to look into other volumes in the series, myself.

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BOOKS: “Sightseeing” by Rattawut Lapcharoensap

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SightseeingSightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Atlantic

This collection of seven short stories offers insight into Thailand and its culture, but the stories are also gripping and clever. It’s a rare thing for stories to so engage with issues such as poverty, class, the refugee experience, the human experience, and foreignness and to still be highly entertaining.

Farangs is about the interaction of Thais and foreigners in the form of a love triangle featuring a Thai protagonist, a Western girl, and the girl’s erstwhile (also foreign) boyfriend.

At the Cafe Lovely is about two brothers, the older of whom takes the younger brother to a “cafe” that is more of a bar with built-in brothel. The story shows the seedy side of Bangkok, but also the bond between brothers.

Draft Day is about two friends, one from a wealthy family and the other not, who have to go to the draft lottery to determine whether they will have to serve in the military or not. This story is potent observation on social justice.

Sightseeing is about a mother and son’s last trip before the mother loses her vision.

Priscilla and the Cambodians is about a Cambodian girl who, in a rough-and-tumble manner, befriends two geeky Thai boys. The story explores the woes of being poor outsiders in a world that cares neither for the poor, nor for outsiders.

Don’t Let Me Die in this Place is about an old American man who moves in with his son and the son’s Thai wife and their children in Bangkok after the man has suffered a stroke and is in recovery. It’s about the old man’s struggle to adapt to a very different life while at the same time coping with not being able to take care of himself.

Cockfighter is the longest and also probably the most visceral of the stories. It centers on a teenaged girl whose father is the titular “Cockfighter” and whose mother makes hand-sewn bras. It’s an intensely psychological work of fiction with some hilarious moments, as well.

I’d highly recommend this collection for all readers of short fiction. I chose it as my travel literature for Thailand (I read a work [or works] of literature from all countries I visit,) but I don’t think one has to have a particular interest in Thailand to find the stories fascinating and profound.

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BOOK: “The Short Story: A Very Short Introduction” by Andrew Kahn

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The Short Story: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)The Short Story: A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Kahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – OUP

This guide provides an overview of the short story, particularly literary short stories (though it’s not without mention of genre fiction.) The book is well organized and offers some fascinating food for thought, particularly regarding the psychology of character and the distinctions between short stories and novels. (The former are not to be thought of as pared down versions of the latter.)

I will say that, for a concise introduction, the book does occasionally get into the weeds on specific issues, potentially losing the non-specialist reader who this series is ostensibly geared toward.

I found the book’s organization to be logical and productive to its task. After an introduction that explores the advent and history of the short story, most of the chapters deal with structural or compositional aspects of story, including: openings, voice, setting, plot, irony / reversal, and endings. One chapter (Ch. 6) stands out as a bit different in that it zooms in on Chekhov and his influence on the short story as we’ve come to know it. While this could be said to demonstrate the author’s tendency to zoom in the specificity more than is usual for such a guide, I did find the chapter interesting and enlightening.

If one is interested in the short story (as a reader, writer, or both) one will find this guide worth one’s attention.

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BOOKS: “Face Meat” by Bonten Taro

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Face MeatFace Meat by Bonten Taro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Living the Line

Release: May 20, 2025

This is a creative collection of fourteen dark and creepy tales. It’s full of monsters, curses, killers, folkloric themes, and death. Many, but not all, of the stories are placed in Japanese settings — e.g. the wild west and 19th century Europe are also featured. (And some of the stories seem to be of ambiguous setting — presumably on purpose.) Most, but not all, of the stories feature supernatural elements.

It’s a translation of a manga, and isn’t reformatted, such that one will need to get comfortable with the “backwards” reading that such books entail. The art is mostly line drawn and lightly shaded black and white, with a few color pages (mostly story covers) in sepia-reminiscent tones.

I found the tales to be taut and disturbing and would recommend the book for readers of horror and dark speculative fiction. It is sexually as well as violently graphic –so, if you’re one of those weirdos who is ok with a severed head but scandalized by an unclad breast, this book isn’t for you.

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BOOKS: “The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country” by Neil Gaiman

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The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream CountryThe Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

DC Site

If you love a good story, you really can’t go wrong with Gaiman. This volume consists of four standalone pieces of short fiction set in the Sandman universe.

“Calliope,” like Greek Mythology, envisions an anthropomorphized muse, but takes the idea into a dark and modern twist as said muse is held captive and violated.

“A Dream of a Thousand Cats” imagines dreams do shape the real world and asks what if animals dreamt as big as humans.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is built around the premise that Shakespeare had a patron, none other than Morpheus, a.k.a. Dream, himself.

“Facade” is about a supernatural woman who can only go out in public by taking risky measures to look “normal,” and explores her lonely existence.

All of these stories are clever and compelling, and I’d highly recommend this collection for readers of speculative fiction.

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BOOKS: “The Penguin Book of Indian Ghost Stories” ed. by Ruskin Bond

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Penguin Book of Indian Ghost StoriesPenguin Book of Indian Ghost Stories by Ruskin Bond
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Website

This is an anthology of stories of the supernatural set in India or built around characters and contexts of India. About half of the stories are by writers of non-Indian ancestry, though some were born or lived extensively in India (e.g. Rudyard Kipling and C.A. Kincaid.) Not all of the pieces are “ghost stories” in a technical sense, but they all revolve around the supernatural or surreal experience.

I enjoyed all the stories in this collection, but among my favorites were: “The Brown Hand” by Arthur Conan Doyle; “The Strange Ride of the Morrowbie Jukes” by Rudyard Kipling; “The Fire-Jogi” by A.C. Renny; “Fritz” by Satyajit Ray; “Anath Babu’s Terror” by Satyajit Ray; “The Yellow-Legged Man” by Sudhir Thapliyal, and “Topaz” by Ruskin Bond.

If you enjoy scary stories, I’d highly recommend this book.

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BOOKS: “Best Literary Translations 2024” ed. by Jane Hirschfield, et. al.

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Best Literary Translations 2024Best Literary Translations 2024 by Jane Hirshfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

This “best of” annual celebrates the unsung translator. Many of the original works are recent but some are old or even ancient; it is these translations to English that are in all cases recent. Spanish and Arabic translations are well-represented, but with respect to the twenty or so languages included, almost all are the sole representative for that particular source language. Poetry makes up the bulk of the collection (including prose poems,) but there are several pieces of short fiction and a piece of creative nonfiction or two.

Among my favorites were: “Grazing Land” (Greek,) “The Snail’s Spiral” (Spanish,) “The Lion” (Kurdish,) “Deterioration” (Persian,) “Graceless” (Chinese,) “Our Village” (Tigrinya,) and “The Sea Krait” (Tagalog.) But, as one would expect of a carefully curated “best of” collection, there were no stinkers in the batch.

If you enjoy literature in translation, this book is well worth investigating.

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BOOKS: “Gothic Tales” by Marquis de Sade [Trans. by Margaret Crossland]

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Gothic TalesGothic Tales by Marquis de Sade
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: September 3, 2024

This collection of short fiction is an excellent entry point for the reader wishing to be introduced to the philosophy and literary stylings of the Marquis de Sade. It is less visceral and explicitly violent than the works for which Sade is most famous (i.e. Justine, 120 Days of Sodom, and Philosophy in the Boudoir.) While it does deal in libidinal issues throughout and has a few stories that are explicitly erotica (notably the last couple pieces,) it never ventures up to or over whatever thin line separates erotica from pornography.

While all the pieces share Sade’s signature philosophy and interests, it is in other ways a quite diverse collection of writings. The first piece, “Eugenie De Franval,” is a novella that takes up about half the book, and it is followed by a piece that, in today’s parlance, might be called flash fiction, “The Horse-Chestnut Flower.” Pieces such as “Eugenie De Franval” and “Florville and Courval” are tragedies while the comedies include: “Emilie De Tourville,”[granted with grim elements] “The Husband Who Played Priest,” “Room for Two,” and “The Self-Made Cuckold.” Those last three – as well as “The Horse-Chestnut Flower”– are comedic in a modern sense, not just the literary sense.

I can’t say how much of the difference in tone and intensity of these pieces from Sade’s other stories is owed to the selected source material and how much is owed to translation and editorial decisions, but it makes for a read that is more intriguing in story and less shocking and disturbing than many other translations of Sade’s work.

I enjoyed these stories. They had many clever twists and turns that I don’t recall experiencing in Sade’s novels. Several stories rely on a great deal of deus ex machina coincidences, but I think that works just fine — particularly in the more humorous stories. I’d highly recommend this for readers looking to ease into the work of the Marquis de Sade.

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BOOKS: A Double-Barreled Detective Story by Mark Twain

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A Double Barrelled Detective StoryA Double Barrelled Detective Story by Mark Twain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

This novella is Mark Twain’s satirical jab at the whole Sherlock Holmes concept. In particular, it pokes fun at a detective who eschews everything supernatural in favor of cold rationality, but who produces results so impossible that they are themselves supernatural.

The story has two temporally disjointed parts that almost seem like independent stories until the very end when all is tied up. (Holmes only appears in the second part.) This works nicely for parody of Holmesian detective fiction as it’s an approach that was used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on occasion — e.g. in A Study in Scarlet. The first part tells the tale of a woman who is treated foully by Jacob Fuller, the husband she eloped with but who harbored resentment towards her father, a man Fuller believed felt wasn’t good enough for his daughter. The woman makes her son, named Archy Stillman, promise that he will track down Fuller and make the man’s life a living hell.

The second part revolves around a murder that seems to be independent of the case described above, the killing of a man named Flint Buckner. Here Sherlock Holmes, who happens to be in town visiting his nephew – Fetlock Jones, “solves” the case only to be shown to be entirely and humiliatingly wrong by Archy Stillman using only a superior sense of smell and basic observation of the facts (with no elaborated inductions.)

While I never had anything against the Sherlock Holmes stories — in fact, I enjoyed them all — I did find Twain’s satire amusing and compelling as a story. [And it’s true that Arthur Conan Doyle did regularly strain credulity — that’s what made Holmes an intriguing character.]

Well worth reading.

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BOOK REVIEW: Twain Illustrated: Three Stories by Mark Twain by Mark Twain [Ed. by Jerome Tiller]

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Twain Illustrated: Three Stories by Mark TwainTwain Illustrated: Three Stories by Mark Twain by Mark Twain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

This collection gathers three pieces of Twain’s short fiction and presents them in an edited and illustrated volume. The stories are edited from the original published editions. My understanding is that the editing was confined to making the volume more readable to a present-day audience (and probably to younger readers, specifically.) As far as I can tell, that’s the case.

The three stories have in common that Twain, himself, features as a character. [This is less explicit for the second story than for the first and third, it being merely written in first person while the others reference Twain by name.] The first story, “Emerson, Holmes, and Longfellow,” is essentially a roast of those three important 19th century American poets. The story is written as though Twain is traveling on walkabout and happens upon a miner’s household where, as luck would have it, the three titular poets had stopped in previously. Supposedly, this was first a speech given in Boston at a celebration for another poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, and it went down like a lead balloon.

The middle story, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut,” is about a mysterious visitor who comes calling who seems to know about all the narrator’s misdeeds. It turns out that said visitor is the narrator’s conscience. This personification of conscience is a clever plot device and makes for a hilarious story.

The final story is entitled “Running for Governor,” and it shows that fake news is far from a new phenomenon in American politics. It imagines Twain running for governor of New York and the one news story after the next presenting outlandish, contrived claims that begin to stick as Twain ignores them. This reminded me of the Twain essay that disabused me of the popular notion that we are [at any given time] in uniquely contentiously partisan times for American politics.

I enjoyed this collection. I would probably have preferred an unedited text, but it’s readable, engaging, and humorous as is. The illustrations are line-drawn, and many are cartoonishly jocular while others are more realistic caricatures. It’s certainly an entertaining read.


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