Alice Munro's "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" (novelette, senility, non-genre, free)

It's a decently readable story, but I find the subject of senility depressing.

Story summary.

An old woman who's losing her wits is put in some kind of old age care home by her husband of 50 years. It's mostly about his depressing visits to see her periodically, her growing fondness for another man at the place, & the complicated relations that develop between the two couples.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 27 December 1999.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Alice Munro.

Alice Munro's "The Moons of Jupiter" (short story, non-genre)

I'd not heard the name of the author until a few days back - when the announcement that she'd won this year's Literature Nobel Prize came. When I looked around for her works, a short story collection with the title "The Moons of Jupiter" sounded like sf - so I picked it up. But at least this title story is not sf.

Story summary.

Story is mostly about a woman's relationship with her father & her two grown up daughters, but mostly father who's about to undergo heart surgery. Nice language & some very interesting observations on everyday life.

Title comes from some small talk she's having with her father in hospital about her visit to a local planetarium, a game where dad is going to name the moons of Jupiter.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 22 May 1978?
Rating: A.

Lara Vapnyar's "Katania" (short story, non-genre, free): A woman cannot let go of her childhood longings

I think I liked it because it's both mundane & absurd. And nice language.

I'm not sure how accurate the political aspects of Soviet Union are: a neighborhood in Moscow of mostly women, men either dead, defected to West, or in labor camps of Siberia. But political aspects are just background; main story is simple enough.

Story summary.

It's the story of two girls - friends, neighbors & classmates, one envious of what the other has. And what the envious one grows up into in adulthood.

Title, "Katania" is an imaginary country thought up for their dolls, combing their own names - Katya & Tania.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 14 October 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

Zadie Smith's "Meet the President!" (short story, augmented reality, free)

While the story didn't do anything for me, I'm noting it mostly because I haven't read many stories involving widespread use of mobile augmented reality gadgets.

Story summary.

A world divided into rich elite having access to latest electronics, & provincials with only ordinary human senses. A world where an agency (government?) casually kills people.

This is the story of a teenage boy from electronic elite & his total disconnect from normal reality.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 12 August 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Thomas Pierce's "Shirley Temple Three" (short story, mammoths, free)

Tommy runs a TV show on prehistoric beasts. His team somehow brings to life a prehistoric beast, & he does the show with that.

A mess at the show, & he's left with a "Bread Island Dwarf Mammoth", a cousin of wooly mammoth, to hide. And he hides it at the home of his "Mawmaw". Title is the name Tommy & his mawmaw have given to the mammoth.

Story is mostly troubles & emotions of mawmaw keeping the animal out of its time happy, & of her relationship with her difficult son.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 24 December 2012.
Download full text from publisher's site. [via QuasarDragon]
Author elaborates on the story background in this talk with Cressida Leyshon.
Rating: B. 

Margaret Atwood's "Stone Mattress" (short story, non-genre, free): A woman abused as a teenager gets her revenge

Verna Pritchard, 14 year old, was raped by 2 teenage boys, an event that set the tone for rest of her life. Now, 50+ years later, she has her chance for revenge...

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 19 December 2011.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Author's talk with publisher's fiction editor on genesis of this story.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2011" list.
Related: Stories of Margaret Atwood.

Daniel Alarcón's "Second Lives" (short story, non-genre, free): Portraits of some "typical" people from Mexico of 1980s

Actually, I'm not sure it's Mexico; it's some Spanish-speaking country of South America, probably Mexico.

Story is from the point of view of a 10 year old boy - personalities in his family & neighborhood. Some of his concerns near the end sounded like those of adults - at least I didn't think like that at 10; but may be kids grow up at different rates in different places?

Notes.

Thing that caught my attention & made me write this post was this quote near end: "The new President privatized everything, selling the state off piece by piece and dividing the profits among his friends." Something that has been recently happening in India.

A naive me of an earlier time believed selling public companies could only bring good:

1. They would pay part of government's fund requirements - so we will have less debt & lower taxes.
2. They would bring in responsible management, & should become tax payers instead of receivers of subsidies.

What we are actually seeing is nothing of the first, & only partially of the second. Government overspending way beyond its means, gobbling up all the money generated by selling public companies, & still raising both taxes & deficit even more! And, naturally, most of the money meant for the piously benevolent social service programs with supermassive outlays introduced in recent years goes into the pockets of cronies of the those in power.

Question: Anyone knows why government deficit is stated as a percentage of national GDP rather than as a percentage of government's annual receipts? My naive guess would be: to mislead the public - 7% looks like a smaller number than 35% ! But I'm no economist. Anyone would care to clarify?

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 16 August 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Junot Díaz's "The Pura Principle" (short story, non-genre, free): Mother's pain from a sick irresponsible grown son

It actually started off bad - too much swearing & liberal use of words from a language I don't recognize, but than it picked up.

A totally irresponsible & mean man is suffering from a serious case of cancer. Lives with his mother & younger brother. Narrated by brother. What I saw here was mother's suffering - I know of similar real cases (without cancer).

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 22 March 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Jonathan Franzen's "Agreeable" (short story, non-genre, free): A teenager's alienation from parents

While the themes are universal, specifics are too US centric, making this story far less interesting outside of that country.

Includes an incident of a teenager's rape, & of her parents' practical difficulties pressing the charges - an event that will even more alienate her from them than she already is.

Notes.

1.  The Darkwood Review notes this is a novel excerpt that The New Yorker has mislabeled as short story, something they seen to be doing rather often: 'It's an excerpt. Not just that. It's the SECOND excerpt of Franzen's new novel that the New Yorker has published in the last year. In the 5/8/2009 issue they ran "Good Neighbors"'.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 31 May 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

For those looking for a story about recent volcanic eruption in Iceland that disrupted European air traffic

Today's story in The New Yorker, Roddy Doyle's "Ash" (download).

Not much to the story, but it's the first one I've seen on the subject.

Some recent B-fiction (16 May 2010)

I've dropped very crappy stuff, but there is nothing excellent here either; all B-stories, & on the lower side of my B-pile. Better reads tend to come early in list below.

1. Dagoberto Gilb's "Uncle Rock"; download; The New Yorker, 10 May 2010; non-genre: A poor Mexican woman in US receives passes from all kinds of men. Told from the perspective of her 11 year old son.
2. Denise McCune's "Shuffle Up and Deal"; download; JBU, #23 (February 2010); humor: This plot probably has been done 10,000 times in various garbs.
   
   Aliens have landed & one of them requested the government to let him play an about to begin
   
   Poker tournament. Someone overhears an alien delegate as saying the winner takes Earth! So panic sets in, & everyone must ensure the alien loses the tournament!
3. [ff] Duncan Shields' "Shuffler"; download; 365tomorrows, 10 May 2010: Using a teleporting device to make humanity more tolerant of interracial differences!
4. Steven Popkes' "Crocodiles"; download (online only for a couple of months); F&SF, May/June 2010; zombie: Germans, during World War II, have created zombie soldiers that can turn enemy into zombies by biting.
   
   Very nasty & dark story. European & US readers might identify with it in ways I cannot.
   
   Also included are standard prejudices of many US sources: Americans are smart, Germans are evil, Russians couldn't care less for their own.
5. Jacqueline Rochow's "The Truth Will Out"; download; 365tomorrows, 5 May 2010; fanfic: Effectively retells an episode from Pierre Poulle's "Planet of the Apes", but without explicitly naming the original: A few scientists have evidence that their ancestors were merely lab animals of humans, & are debating the social implications of making the information public.

Related: Fiction from 2010.

Nathan Englander's "Free Fruit for Young Widows" (short story, non-genre, free): Turning a man into a monster

It's a very dark story, & a familiar one too:

1. Innumerable Partition stories in India. There have been a lot of movies on the subject too.
2. Tobias Wolff's "A Mature Student" rationalizes sometimes barbarous behavior of US soldiers in Afganistan & Iraq.
3. Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Yellow Card Man" has some beastly human behavior on display in Thailand in situations where survival is all that matters.

This is the story of a survivor of World War II concentration camps - one who wasn't quite human again: "they killed him. After the war, we still lost people. They killed what was left of him in the end."

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 17 May 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2010" list.
Related: Author interview that includes information on the origins of this story [via Digital Dunes].

Humor: Recycling stuff (cartoon)

In The New Yorker.

Related: Vegetable SF.

E L Doctorow's "Edgemont Drive" (short story, non-genre, free): History repeats!

For several days, an old stranger has been parking his battered car outside a house - comes in when the husband leaves, goes away when he returns. Concerned husband confronts him, & a chain of events unfold, events that foretell what the the future has in store for the couple...

Related.

1. A much longer discussion of this story at TCBoyle Message Board.
   

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 26 April 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

Humor: ebook Readers (cartoon)

In The New Yorker.

Humor: Robot-operated sales kiosks (cartoon)

In The New Yorker.

Janet Frame's "Gavin Highly" (short story, non-genre, free): Children's myth-building about a neighbor

Not exactly original - there are any number of stories about children's imagination creating fantastic stories about a recluse neighbor. But still a good read, & beautiful language. Set apparently somewhere in UK.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 5 April 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

David Means' "The Knocking" (short story, non-genre, humor, free): The art of driving your neighbor nuts

Readers in closely packed urban apartments will likely appreciate this story better than others.

Author is almost describing a milder version of my neighbor - one I share a wall with, rather than roof the narrator of the story shares with the neighbor - a neighbor who's driving him nuts by making all kinds of irritating noises at all hours of day & night.

Notes.

1. Day before yesterday, Bombay saw two killings related to this kind of "knocking" - a man enraged by it gunned down an innocent who just happened to be available, & gunman himself was killed by cops.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 15 March 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Claire Keegan's "Foster" (novelette, non-genre, free)

A story about a completely different culture, & yet I find so much familiar here! Last para escaped me, but rest was a very good read.

It's mostly a character portrait. A little girl from an impoverished family is left in the care of related & wealthier family for some months while her mother is pregnant. Through her eyes, we see many typical people.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 15 February 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2010" list.

T Coraghessan Boyle's "A Death in Kitchawank" (novelette, non-genre, free)

A nostalgic look at life of a woman - happy days while kids were small & neighborhood familiar, & slow progression towards old age with yearning for what was & won't be anymore. Sad ending, but generally a good read.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 18 January 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

E O Wilson's "Trailhead" (short story, hard sf, free): Life-cycle of a colony of ants

I'm not qualified to judge its technical accuracy, & may be it reads like a documentary, but very beautiful.

The life cycle of the Trailhead Colony of ants - from the first flight (from the nest of its birth) of the young female ant that would eventually become Trailhead Queen, her mating, her founding of the colony, its initial nurturing, its growth, & final decay following the death of the queen 20 years later.

See also.

1. Alice Sheldon's "Love is the Plan the Plan is Death" (download): A Hugo & Nebula award winner that's also about insect-inspired life, though far more colorful.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 25 January 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2010" list.
Related: Ants in fiction (& some non-fiction).

Jennifer Egan's "Safari" (short story, non-genre, free)

This is one of those stories I shouldn't have liked but ended up liking.

It's about a group of (US?) tourists in Africa - a few events, & interactions among the people. Story is from the point of view of a family that is part of the group.

Kind of ... less colorful version of Hindi movie "Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd" (at IMDB: movie details; at YouTube: my favorite music video from the movie).

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 11 January 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

Ian McEwan's "The Use of Poetry" (short story, love story, free)

I suppose you could call it marginally science fictional, though I won't do that. At least this class of stories aren't exactly unknown in genre venues. And it's a very well told one.

Story summary.

Main story is a love story - a very smart young man's somewhat filmy seduction of a girl who doesn't think highly of science students. Some interesting & funny tidbits here.

And in bits, we're exposed to gender issues, "science is better or arts" debate, loveless families, & a certain marriage that would certainly appear very Heinleinisque to at least readers from India.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 7 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Related: Science fictional love stories.

Free fiction: Couple of recent stories of Stephen King

Neither particularly noteworthy, but well ... it's Stephen King. Of the two, I personally prefer "Premium Harmony".

1. "Premium Harmony"; download; The New Yorker, 9 November 2009; non genre: A man unhappy with his marriage that seems to be coming apart gets a far worse emotional shock.
2. "The Bone Church"; download; Playboy (US), November 2009: This is actually presented as verse, but reads well enough as prose too.
   
   An old man is describing an adventure of his younger years - when a group of more than 2 dozen traveled over the dangerous "greenroof" to some sort of gorge at the bottom of which lie a lot of bones of those long dead. Ghosts & sundry other dangers killed everyone except narrator.

Related: Stories of Stephen King.

Javier Marías' "While the Women Are Sleeping" (novelette, non-genre, free): Too much adoration considered harmful!

I guess "psychopath" is the right word for the central character in this story, though he behaves a bit different from traditional psychopaths.

Story summary.

Narrator & his wife, holidaying on some island, get into the habit of watching a curious couple that's also regular on the beach - beautiful self-centered woman & much older fat balding man madly in love with her. One night, narrator will get in conversation with the man, & what an unusual conversation it turns out to be...

Fact sheet.

First published: ? (in Spanish)
Rating: B.
Download full text of English translation by Margaret Jull Costa from The New Yorker.
Related: Fiction from The New Yorker.

Paul Simms' "Attention, People of Earth" (short story, humor, free): Earth just received a "friendly" message from aliens

It's a long message, but this piece is representative: "We mean you no harm. Truth be told, there is a faction of us who want to completely annihilate you."

They're almost here - should be landing in just "four hundred and fifty to five hundred years"!

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 21 September 2009.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Orhan Pamuk's "Distant Relations" (short story, non-genre, free): High society life in Turky some decades back

Not the kind of story I normally like, but this one made a good read. A rich young man about to be married to a snob, his attraction towards another girl he's known since childhood but cannot marry, ...

Fact sheet.

First published (in Turkish): ?
Rating: A.
Download an English translation by Maureen Freely from The New Yorker.

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's "The Fountain House" (short story, zombie, free)

Explosion in a bus killed a 15 year old girl. But unconsolable father cannot believe the child is gone. So he puts everything he has at stake in the hope that child can be revived, & ... gods smile at him.

Fact sheet.

First published (in Russian): ?
Rating: B.
Download an English translation by Keith Gessen & Anna Summers from The New Yorker.

Dave Eggers' "Max at Sea" (short story, fantasy, free): When Max ended up on the island of talking animals

Fun & nonsense.

A third grader unhappy with his family runs away from home ... on an unusual adventure...

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 24 August 2009.
Rating: B.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Joshua Ferris' "The Valetudinarian" (short story, non-genre, humor, free): All the lonely old man needed was shock therapy!

Arty Groys, a lonely & depressed widower, loves to babble about his health problems to everyone. But then comes an unusual birthday gift from his friend, & lonely life begins to turn into an adventure...

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 2 August 2009.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Added to my "best of the year 2009" list.

Tim Gautreaux's "Idols" (novelette, non-genre, free)

When the old man inherited his ancestral mansion after over a generation of litigation, little did he realize the troubles it will cause him...

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 22 June 2009.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Salman Rushdie's "In the South" (short story, non-genre, free): An old man's view of life

This is a portrait - of two 81-year-old friends, but more importantly, of how life looks like if we are lucky to live long enough. Very beautiful.

"South" of title refers to South India, known simply as the South here. Story is set in an unnamed coastal city of Tamil Nadu (some locations in the city are named; so someone familiar with the city should be able to identify it - unless it's a fictional one).

Last few paras look at the tsunami of a few years ago, as seen from the eyes of one of these men. But the story is not primarily about tsunami - it's about old age; it just happens to be set during the days leading up to tsunami.

Notes.

1. Are there still places in India where Vespa scooters are common? I don't recall having seen one in years.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 18 May 2009.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Added to my "best of the year 2009" list.

Gail Hareven's "The Slows" (short story, enhanced humans, free): Days of normal slowly-growing humans are numbered

"Accelerated Offspring Growth (A.O.G.)" medical procedure, probably coupled with artificial fertilization & incubation, has enabled humans to mature very rapidly from being a baby to being an adult. Colonization of other worlds has ensured there is no worry about population, & having dozens of kids who in turn begin reproducing quickly is the norm. Of course, without affecting the kids' life expectancy. This also ensures the parent/child bond is rather weak.

But some people stick to conventional ways of child birth & rearing. They are "Slows", also called "savages", live on fringes of society, & are now very few in numbers.

The paranoid normals have been attributing the reversal of some of their colonies to nature-ordained child rearing to some sort of infection they might be getting from the Slows. So it's time to wipe out the remaining Slows population...

Notes.

Did author wonder about how big a number exponential growth ensures across even a few generations? There is a popular story in India.

Someone did something to make the king very happy. King wants the man to name a gift which the treasury will fulfill. Man, wanting to teach the king a lesson that some things money cannot buy, asks for rice - in very precise quantity:

Place one single grain of rice on a square of a chessboard. Place double as many on the next square. Keep doubling till all squares are filled. That's the quantity of rice the man wants!

Exercise: Calculate how much quantity that would be.

See also.

1. Ted Chiang's "Catching the Crumbs from the Table" (2000): Normal humans living an uncomfortable & unhappy existence alongside "metahumans" - of vastly superior intelligence. Anyone can become metahuman, but treatment is prenatal. Problem is: this makes the parents appear as morons compared to their own (super)kids - reason most people stay opted out.
2. Lester del Rey's "Kindness" (1944): A mutation has diverged humanity into supers & normal - normals dying out over time. This is the story of the last normal - his extreme discomfort in a society where he's too dumb compared to everyone else.
3. Robert Arthur's "Evolution's End" (1941): A mutation has turned humans into supers, & these supers look at normals as vastly inferior & keep them as slaves. But one super has been gazing at the future of his race, & has come to an unusual conclusion that demands a very uncomfortable action.

Fact sheet.

First published: ?
This post is based on the English translation in The New Yorker, 4 May 2009, by Yaacov Jeffrey Green from original Hebrew.
Rating: B.
Download full text of English translation from The New Yorker.

Guillermo Martínez's "Vast Hell" (short story, non-genre, free): This little town loves gossip

Among the best I've seen so far from The New Yorker.

Story summary.

When the stranger pitched his tent outside the little town of Puente Viejo, & began visiting the barber Cerviño's shop everyday - the same Cerviño with the enigmatic wife known as "French Woman", it set the tongues wagging - about his affair with the "French Woman".

Then, one fine day, both disappear - stranger & "French Woman". There is talk of possible murder. Some people keep looking for bodies. What they finally find is far worse than anyone suspected.

Fact sheet.

First published: Probably as part of author's Spanish collection Infierno Grande (1989). At least this collection's title is translated to English as "Vast Hell". English translation by Alberto Manguel at The New Yorker, 27 April 2009.
Rating: A.
Download English translation by Alberto Manguel from The New Yorker.

Chris Adrian's "A Tiny Feast" (novelette, free): Faeries kidnap a human baby for a pet, & magic begins to happen

Oberon, a faerie husband, has kidnapped a human baby & presented it to his wife Titania as a pet - a gift to mollify her after a domestic quarrel. This is a lighthearted story of the pet becoming the son, as the growing boy stirs strange emotions in his faerie parents.

Large parts of the story are about the child's struggle with leukemia. Even this part is light, sometimes humorous, read - except for his eventual death near end.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 20 April 2009.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Colm Tóibín's "The Color of Shadows" (novelette, non-genre, free): Description of an old woman's last days

Very moving story of the last couple of years of life of a woman, & her relationship with the nephew she'd raised alone since his childhood.

Caution: Readers from cultures with different old age care expectations will probably find parts of it horrifying. But there is familiar here too. And it's a moving story nevertheless.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 13 April 2009.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Craig Raine's "Julia and Byron" (short story, free): A woman's fight with cancer of bone marrow

Discovery of the ailment, her reaction, being a guinea pig for 2 experimental treatments that might do the miracle. Death. That's the first half.

Later half is of her husband's grief during her terminal days & after her death.

Title is the names of woman & her husband.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 30 March 2009.
Rating: B.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Italo Calvino's "The Daughters of the Moon" (short story, fantasy, consumerism, free)

Reason for this post is the source: genre fiction is not too common at The New Yorker; I would not have posted it otherwise. This story didn't work for me - but then most fantasy fiction doesn't work for me. Your take will likely vary if you like fantasy.

Story summary.

On a parallel earth that is too similar to ours, consumerism is rampant: people discarding used products too quickly & going for new ones.

Now the moon of this world has withered too. It has lost mass, orbit, & is on its way down to earth. But likely holocaust is not the issue - issue is the ugly sight in the skies!

On a certain day, when moon is hanging low in the skies, it seems to have a group of naked girl worshipers in New York City who seem to be guiding it to gently land somewhere. But "authorities" have other ideas. They pick it up out of skies with a huge crane & dump it in a garbage yard to rot!

Various things happen next day, resulting in both moon & earth magically reinventing themselves as a new green worlds. In an instant, earth's cities die & are taken over by vegetation, & moon becomes habitable & rises up in the skies to occupy it normal perch!

Fact sheet.

First published: 1968 (where?). Translation from original Italian by Martin McLaughlin, & this English translation reprinted in The New Yorker, 23 February 2009.
Rating: C.
Download full text of English translation.
Related: Fiction about environment, consumerism, or moon.

Steven Millhauser's "The Invasion from Outer Space" (short story, science fiction, free)

When aliens arrived, no one expected them to be like this. Just "harmless" powdery dust of "primitive" single-celled "pollen" that grow very fast by photosynthesis. So fast that "harmless" may well be an inaccurate description...

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 9 February 2009.
Rating: B.
Download full text.

Julian Barnes' "The Limner" (short story, non-genre, free)

James Wadsworth is a deaf & mute painter, on a 5-day contract to make a canvas portrait of Mr Tuttle, a "collector of customs" & a despicable man. Story is of James' experiences in Tuttle household during the assignment. Mostly a light reading.

Most interesting thing I found about this story is a perspective on the way people once looked upon their portraits, at least in some societies. And of the art itself.

I'm not sure of the period the story is set in or location. But it's obviously before the camera came on the scene. And in a country where dollar is the currency. And during a period where $12 in local currency were fair wages for a 5-day contract of this nature, horses are normal personal transport & people have stables rather than garages.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 5 January 2009.
Rating: A.
Download full text.

Aravind Adiga's "The Elephant" (novelette, non-genre, free)

Life story of 29 year old Chenayya, a rickshaw puller in Kittur, Karnataka(?), India. He works as one of the delivery men for Ganesh Pai Fan and Furniture Store - home delivering items purchased in his pedaled rickshaw. A man completely frustrated with life & the universe. Generally realistic portrait, but conveyed in a dark mood.

I'm not sure of the period the story is set in. It's post-India Gandhi assassination - probably only a few years after that - late 1980s or early 1990s. But some prices don't tally - in which city could you hire a luggage delivery man for a flat Rs 2 per trip during this period??

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 5 January 2009.
Rating: B.
Download full text.

Joyce Carol Oates' "Pumpkin Head" (short story, non-genre, free)

A recently widowed woman somewhere in New Jersey, US, is receiving romantic overtures from a younger immigrant man.

Story was ok but for the bizarre ending.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 5 January 2009.
Rating: B.
Download full text.

Best of The New Yorker fiction, 2008

In this post titled "2008: The Year in Fiction", the magazine editors (?) select their 12 choice pieces from this year - all supposedly online (but 1 is actually not online).

Since my original free fiction feed began picking up The New Yorker fiction may be a month back, I've been noticing normally 1 new fiction piece every Monday (but there was a week when there were 2 stories). So these are 12 selections from over 50 stories during the year.

Two of the stories are clearly science fiction - Jonathan Lethem's "Lostronaut" (download) that received a lot of publicity in sf blogosphere last month, & Rivka Galchen's "The Region of Unlikeness" (download) (included in Horton's "Science Fiction: Best of the Year, 2009 Edition").

Among this list are also 2 stories set in South Asia:

1. Daniyal Mueenuddin's "A Spoiled Man"; download: Apparently set in Pakistan.
2. Hari Kunzru's "Raj, Bohemian"; download: I cannot off hand guess the location.

The year also saw at least one more story from the magazine set in the region - Daniyal Mueenuddin's "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders" (download). This one is set in Lahore, Pakistan - apparently sometime in late 1940s or early 1950s. Except for the fact that the author seems to think Lahore is in India, it's a good story.

PS: The year also saw at least one good non-genre story in Playboy (US) set in South India (I think Mysore) - Tony D'Souza's "The Cook". India seen from the eyes of 3 Americans (one of them a sadist), & set probably half a century back. It's an interesting illustration of how cultural lens can color what you see - author usually (but not always) gets the data right but interpretation often completely at odds with what an Indian would see.