The Side Effects of Endorphins

In the last 10 years or so, I’ve come to fall in love with short stories. I believe this started when somebody in our Book Club recommended the short stories of Raymond Carver.

Where in I found one of my early favorites.

I rather love Cathedral by Raymond Carver. Cathedral” is a famous short story about an unnamed narrator’s transformative encounter with his wife’s blind friend, Robert, who comes to stay with them.

I read this often while writing short stories of my own. Years later I once again fell in love with “What’s in Alaska.” This story takes place during a dinner with friends and is a random story of entertaining as a couple. It is awkward and spot on perfect.

I discussed it a few years back just after reading it.

Swim in the Pond in The Rain

This book is tremendous. George Saunders introduces us to 10 famous short stories and dissects them in his own voice. I’ve read this book often

I particularly fell in love with Alyosha The Pot, a short story by Leo Tolstoy that chronicles the life of a simple, uncomplaining peasant worker. Often cited as a masterpiece of “rare perfection” by literary critics, it serves as a profound meditation on the Tolstoyan principles of meekness, non-resistance, and spiritual peace. 

I use it in my own writing, often I use the name Alyosha in my own stories and I often model the subtle delivery in this story.

The Awk

Recently I’ve finished a collection of short stories, and there was one that truly hit home. It’s just stuck with me.

Overview

In Ben Shattuck’s The History of Sound, “The Auk” tells the poignant story of Will Hunt, who uses a taxidermied great auk and its egg (found in his attic) to rekindle his wife Nora’s fading memory and spirits, staging a fake “sighting” to create a shared adventure, revealing the bird as a symbol of lost hope, memory, and a poignant act of love rather than an actual discovery of the extinct species, a mystery explained in the linked Radiolab episode.

I write short stories for a hobby, and some have been published. I can’t say I’m a great writer, but I love to tell stories. I also love to read masterful stories.. I hope to write a classic someday.

I encourage others to do so as our lives are short stories in the vast dimension of time.