Five Things To Read

I'm constantly making lists in my head -- favorites, least favorites. Things to do, places to go. Movies, episodes of television, books.

Not long ago, I made a definitely list of my five favorite short stories, in no particular order:

1) "Rape Fantasies" by Margaret Atwood

Although it sounds like you know what this story is like, I promise that you don't. It's a story about a woman who is told by the other women at work that all women have rape fantasies, and then she elaborates on how hers are different from those of everyone else. The would-be rapist who has a cold is my favorite.

2) "Lust" by Susan Minot

(full text can be found here, although I do find the interspliced pictures a bit distracting...)

We waded into the sea, the waves round and plowing in, buffalo-headed, slapping our thighs. I put my arms around his freckled shoulders and he held me up, buoyed by the water, and rocked me like a sea shell.

Of all of the books and movies out there about growing up and discovering one's sexuality as there are, none (in my opinion) are as simple and poignant as Minot's.

Even now, I've forgotten how real it feels, reading it:

They look at you seriously, their eyes at a low bum and their hands no matter what starting off shy and with such a gentle touch that the only thing you can do is take that tenderness and let yourself be swept away. When, with one attentive finger they tuck the hair behind your ear, you— You do everything they want.

3) "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway

(full text here)

I don't think it's possible to read this and not think that Hemingway was a genius with words. It's all set up as a conversation between two lovers; the writing is subtle and beautiful. You can almost see them sitting a table beside you; you can almost see their faces.

‘And we could have all this,’ she said. ‘And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I said we could have everything.’

‘We can have everything.’

‘No, we can’t.’

‘We can have the whole world.’

‘No, we can’t.’

‘We can go everywhere.’

‘No, we can’t. It isn’t ours any more.’

‘It’s ours.’

‘No, it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back.’

4) "The First Seven Years" by Bernard Malamud

One of my favorite stories about love and sacrifice, about our parents and how they want the best person to fall in love with us, ignoring the perfect person who is there already.

5) "The School" by Donald Barthelme

(full text here)

Simultaneously one of the funniest and -- later -- existentially sweet stories I've ever read, this one starts with a classroom of kindergarten students whose classroom pets keep dying and ends with their demand for an explanation about death, and about the meaning of life. It's absurd, yes, but absurdly beautiful too.