‘Proof of the Pudding’ by O. Henry

O. Henry knew a thing or two about dissembling: before being crowned the humour king of American letters, he did time for embezzlement. Many of his characters end up on the wrong side of the law. “Proof of the Pudding”, however, relates a fully legit transaction between its two protagonists: a magazine editor and a fiction writer who cannot agree on the question of style. “No human being ever uttered banal colloquialisms when confronted by sudden tragedy,” the editor claims. The writer counters that in such situations, “[t]hey talk naturally, and a little worse”.

To find out who is right, a cunning plan is concocted. Before it can be implemented, however, fate intervenes, as it often does in O. Henry’s stories. “My God, why hast Thou given me this cup to drink?” one of the characters exclaims in the finale. The other goes, “Ain’t it hell, now, Shack – ain’t it?” The truth of the matter is thus revealed, and no mistake.

Collected in 100 Selected Stories, Wordsworth Classics, 1995

Introduction

In this selection I have focused on some of my favourite short story collections and have tried to highlight the stories I like best within each collection. These are the stories I keep returning to, always finding something new in each reading.

I love short stories, and I particularly love long short stories that boldly take up space with large casts of characters, and/or numbered sections that unfold like small chapters. I love how a story can be big and long and still slowly circle in around a tiny potent moment, or stay with a conversation, or illuminate a character’s silent solitary thoughts in tight-woven poetic language, with no excess.

‘Prelude’ by Katherine Mansfield

One of the first short stories I remember reading was Prelude by Katherine Mansfield. I read it first in the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield, the first book I bought at Shakespeare and Co. in Paris in 1995! I remember the excitement of reading Katherine Mansfield for the first time, and the feeling of absolute immersion in the world of the Burnell children, as Kezia and Lotty are left behind with neighbours as the family move house.

I was immediately seduced by the voices, the silent observations of characters, the way they moved through houses and gardens and lingered in rooms:

“As she stood there, the day flickered out and dark came. With the dark crept the wind snuffling and howling. The windows of the empty house shook, a creaking came from the walls and floors, a piece of loose iron on the roof banged forlornly. Kezia was suddenly quite, quite still, with wide open eyes and knees pressed together. She was frightened.”

…and the careful descriptions of the objects inside:

“A little piano stood against the wall with yellow pleated silk let into the carved front. Above it hung an oil painting by Beryl of a large cluster of surprised-looking clematis. Each flower was the size of a small saucer, with a centre like an astonished eye fringed in black.”

Soon we are with the rest of the household in their new home, following their movements and interactions, and observing the many small private moments in the day that make up a whole life.

First published by the Hogarth Press in July 1918; collected in Bliss and Other Stories, 1920. Available to read online here

‘At The Bay’ by Katherine Mansfield

In the story ‘At the Bay’, Katherine Mansfield continues her observations of the Burnell family, and also their cousins, friends, servants, all in a single perfect summer’s day. So much is captured in the colours and glimpses of life by the sea, the new people they meet, the conversations that conceal dangers beneath their sunlit surface. Even the most placid conversations and languid friendly encounters hold a power to corrupt the idyll.

“That’s right, breathed the voice, and it teased, You’re not frightened, are you?… She was terrified, and it seemed to her everything was different. The moonlight stared and glittered; the shadows were like bars of iron. Her hand was taken.”

First published in The London Mercury in January 1922, Collected in The Garden Party and Other Stories, 1922. Available to read online here

‘When She is Old and I am Famous’ by Julie Orringer

Every single story in How To Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer is unique and moving and wonderful. I have chosen ‘When She is Old and I am Famous’ mainly because it is also very funny. With just the right note of derision, Orringer captures the rivalry between two teenaged cousins as the protagonist Mira is forced to spend her summer in Florence with her cousin Aida, a fashion model.

“Aida. That is her terrible name. Ai-ee-duh: two cries of pain and one of stupidity.”

As Mira navigates her insecurities, wrestling with her envy and resentment of her cousin, she glimpses truths about Aida’s life and learns to understand her.

First published in The Paris Review 149, Winter 1998, and available to subscribers to read online here; Collected in How To Breathe Underwater, Penguin Books, 2003

‘The Woman Who Borrowed Memories’ by Tove Jansson, translated by Silvester Mazzarella

In her precise, pared-down prose, the calm, clear gaze of Tove Jansson observes the return of successful painter Stella to her old studio where her friend Wanda has been living for many years. It is soon clear that Wanda has claimed Stella’s past and identity for her own, and an unnerving struggle between the two women ensues. An eerie story of friendship and envy.

First published in Swedish in Resa med lätt baggage, 1987. First published in English in Travelling Light, Sort of Books, 2010; also in The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories, NYRB Books, 2014

‘Captives’ by Romesh Gunesekera

In Captives by Romesh Gunesekera a couple arrive at a hotel near the ancient fortress of Sigiriya Rock in Sri Lanka and are closely observed by the manager. This is a story of misreadings and the divide between tourists and locals; the tensions between old colonial power and the once colonised.

First published in Monkfish Moon, Granta, 1992

‘Ranvali’ by Romesh Gunesekera

‘Ranvali’ by Romesh Gunesekera is a story that captures, in lush detailed prose the romance of the rural landscape and old dilapidated country houses in Sri Lanka. A daughter is driving down to her late-father’s beach bungalow and reflects on his misplaced idealism and efforts to create a more unified country, giving away his valuable land for strangers to gather in, a project doomed to fail.

“For father the gama was his precious link to the peasants, his masses, even though they treated him like a lord. They brought him pineapple and jak fruit, plantains, jaggery and curd while he sat on the veranda… looking more like Tolstoy than his Lenin.”

First published in Monkfish Moon, Granta, 1992

‘Once In A Lifetime’, ‘Year’s End’ and ‘Going Ashore’ by Jhumpa Lahiri

The next three stories are a trio of linked stories by Jhumpa Lahiri about Hema and Kaushik, two children of migrants to the US who first meet as their parents settle into new lives, then meet again many years later.

In quiet elegant prose Lahiri captures the growing years of Hema and Kaushik, following them as their families set up home in a new country, navigate sickness and prosper rootless in new land. The stories capture the trials of the death of a parent, a father’s remarriage; step-siblings; travel alone to Europe. When Hema and Kaushik meet by chance they both experience a sense of connection.

“She still remembered her first impression of him, a quiet teenager in a jacket and tie, refusing her mother’s food. She remembered the ridiculous attraction she had felt that night, when she was thirteen years old and that she had secretly nurtured during the weeks they lived together. It was as if no time had passed.”

‘Once In A Lifetime’ and ‘Year’s End’ first published in The New Yorker, and available to subscribers to read here and here. All three stories collected in Unaccustomed Earth, Bloomsbury 2008

‘Chance’, ‘Soon’ and ‘Silence’ by Alice Munro

The following are three linked stories by Alice Munro, about the life of Juliette, an intelligent successful woman and mother. In the story ‘Chance’, Juliette is a young post-graduate student travelling by bus and ferry to meet Eric, a man she had previously met on a train following the suicide of another passenger. In ‘Soon’, we see Juliette, now a young mother, of Penelope, returning to visit her parents and feeling out of place in their home, back in the small town of her childhood. She is soon reminded of the old-fashioned prejudice and hostility of neighbours that she experienced as an ambitious clever young woman, and how it has affected, and been accommodated by, her parents. In ‘Silence’, Juliette, is middle-aged and waiting for the return of an adult Penelope from a spiritual retreat, while it becomes increasingly clear that Penelope may never return to her.

“My father used to say of someone he disliked, that he had no use for that person. Couldn’t those words mean simply what they say? Penelope does not have a use for me. Maybe she can’t stand me. It’s possible.”

Juliette, in ‘Silence’, is the ultimate unreliable narrator, (especially since the real-life revelations of Alice Munro’s daughter in recent years) and possibly there is much that has been held back by Munro in these stories. Yet there is still a cautious careful exploration of the shame and damage suffered by women who go on to damage their daughters in turn. The three stories of Juliette show a whole life in glimpses: the moments of bad choices and irredeemable mistakes and the uneasy resignation of old age.

‘Chance’, ‘Soon’ and ‘Silence’ all first published in The New Yorker, and available to subscribers to read here, here and here. All three collected in Runaway, Vintage, 2005, and then in New Selected Stories, 2011 and Lying under the Apple Tree, 2014

‘Fox 8’ by George Saunders

‘Fox 8’ was my introduction to George Saunders, when the story was printed in The Guardian in 2017. While Fox 8 himself – whose fox family all go by numbers – is sassy, funny, and optimistic, his optimism is shaken by the ecological destruction done by Yumans as they build their Par King and Mawl, so he decides to write a letter to the Yumans, telling them how it is for the foxes.

Some may be put off by Fox 8’s unique spellings – try not to be. The spellings add a huge amount to the story, not least atmosphere.

“Deer Reeder:
First may I say, sorry for any werds I spel rong. Because I am a fox! So don’t rite or spel perfect. But here is how I lerned to rite and spel as gud as I do!…”

First published in The Guardian in 2017, and in print as a standalone, Fox 8, Bloomsbury, 2018. You can listen to it here, read by George Saunders himself, but you lose the amazing spellings

‘The Open Window’ by Saki (H. H. Munro)

I first read this story as a teenager, when I was probably about the same age as the mischievous and self-possessed young woman in the story. It is rightly famous. I was nowhere near as mischievous and self-possessed as she is, however. It took me quite a while to work out what was going on, and these days I feel terribly sorry for the vulnerable visitor. But it is still very funny.

First published in The Westminster Gazette, 1911, and later included in his collection Beasts and Super-Beasts, 1914. You can read it here

The Plankton Collector by Cath Barton

A wonderful short magical realist novella, beautifully written, which won the Novella Prize at the Welsh Writing Awards in 2017.

At the heart of this story is a deeply unhappy family. A mysterious character, who seems to be able to bend space and time, appears differently to each family member, being just the person they need to meet at that moment. Wonderfully humane, this story is about healing and redemption.

Parthian Books, 2017

‘Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You’ by M.R. James

An old ghost/horror story, by one of the masters of the uncanny, with layers of atmosphere, wit and humour. Again, I first read this as a teenager. Despite its age it wears well, with a chatty narrator who is clearly enjoying himself, and who is not completely neutral. This technique is relatively rare these days, but on re-reading the story I still enjoy the narrative bias, and all the many asides. The story begins: “‘I suppose you will be getting away pretty soon, now Full term is over, Professor,’ said a person not in the story…”

The premise is truly nightmarish. Professor Parkins invites a malign ghostly presence into his life simply by blowing a whistle which he has dug up from an ancient ruin. He blows the whistle in all innocence and is slowly terrified almost out of his wits, as was I the first time I read it. The mysterious inscription on the whistle isn’t completely explained, but perhaps part of it means O thief, you will blow [it], you will weep…

There are plenty more stories to read at the link – four books’ worth of stories, according to the introduction by M.R. James himself. There is also a short chapter by the author at the end: “Stories I have tried to write” – how wonderfully honest of him! And generous too, as he offers these ideas to anyone who can make something of them.

First published in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Edward Arnold, 1904. You can find this story in the Canadian Gutenberg collection of M.R. James’s collected ghost stories here