The best short story of all time is a subjective concept as different people have different preferences. However, there are some short stories that have stood the test of time and are widely regarded as masterpieces. One such story could be "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. In this story, a small town holds an annual lottery with a shocking and unexpected outcome. The simple yet powerful narrative keeps the reader on the edge of their seat until the very end. Another contender for the title of the best short story could be "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. This heartwarming tale of a young couple's selfless love and sacrifice during Christmas is both touching and thought-provoking. These are just a few examples of the many great short stories that have been written throughout history, each with its own unique charm and appeal.

So good.

I've been sitting here for a solid five minutes, earnestly attempting to pinpoint exactly what it is about Wolff's style that I found so incredibly engaging. However, I'm completely at a loss. I truly don't know if I could identify a clear throughline in these stories, other than simply stating that each one was surprising in some unique way.

These stories are mostly really quick reads. I stayed up way too late last night because I just couldn't resist the urge to finish reading it. This morning, when I woke up and started to put the book in my bag, I was overcome with a sense of sadness when I suddenly remembered that there was no more of it left to read. It's as if I had become so immersed in Wolff's world that I wasn't ready to leave it just yet.

I'm eager to explore more of Wolff's work and see if I can uncover the secrets behind his captivating writing style. Maybe with more reading, I'll be able to better understand what makes his stories so special.

The character in this short story is somewhat snobbish and seems not to take anything seriously. However, by the end of the story, you can't help but become endeared to him.

I really loved the transition from humor to seriousness. It was quite remarkable. In just a few moments of the main character's life, we are able to witness the span of his entire lifetime. The author truly knew how to perfectly compress time within time.

Although I didn't initially like the final line as it seemed too incomplete to me, upon reading the story again, I can now see how it actually suits the overall narrative. I also love the fact that as readers, we get to see both what was 'not' remembered and what he did remember. Once again, it plays with the concept of time, and we as readers get more time with this character than he gets with himself in the story.

The story had a good plot and it definitely intrigued me. But at the same time, I'm only giving it a three-star rating because it wasn't entirely to my taste. It didn't have a profound enough impact on me or move me deeply enough for me to truly love it.

**5/30/22**

“Mortals” - A man working for a newspaper is summoned to the editor's office and gets severely reprimanded for publishing an obituary of a man who is actually alive. This man, along with his wife, is in the office filing a complaint. As a result, the writer is fired. However, the supposedly deceased man takes him out to lunch out of guilt. During their conversation, the writer discovers that the man himself was responsible for the death report. He wanted to “attend his own funeral” and hear what people would say about his life. The writer is impressed, and the dead man is pleased, yet perhaps not entirely satisfied with the outcome of his experiment. I like the author's style so far. It's lighter than some but still worthy of deep thought. What would my own obituary read like if it were published today? Can an obituary truly account for the things that really mattered, the little things, and the qualities that can't be easily listed among concrete accomplishments?

“Casualty” - A man on a tour of duty in Vietnam recalls some of the common feelings about the war. There was a strong sense of just waiting to get out and trying to survive. No other significant goals were achieved. He becomes close and a bit protective of a fellow soldier he was once annoyed by. He is surprised to find that he is relieved when that soldier is injured and transported away. He makes it home from the war but has a hard time telling the story of his friend. It's not because it was painful but because he doesn't recognize that seeing him leave was a relief, an unburdening that allowed him to finish his tour without having to care for anyone else. That friend not only was injured but also died while being transported to a hospital. The story ends with the nurse who finds him dead, and all she does is also dream for an end. These are the same sentiments as most Vietnam stories, but what makes this one good is how well the waiting and the pointlessness of routines come through. There is very little action, very little achievement, and very little feeling that what you're doing there is for the greater good. Everyone is just waiting to go home but finds it difficult when they do.

“Powder” - This is a quick story about a boy taken skiing by his soon-to-be-divorced father. The father is a bit reckless and too carefree, which bothers the boy who is more straight-laced. The father promises to get the boy home for Christmas Eve, but when snow comes down, instead of leaving early as the boy wants, the father persuades him to stay and ski the fresh powder. They stay too late, the road shuts down, and the father makes a fake call to divert the police from the roadblock so he can drive through and keep his promise to the mother. It's a desperate attempt to keep the peace and delay the inevitable divorce, to spend more time with the son whom he knows he won't see as often, and it's also a chance for the son to experience the thrill of life while still under the protection of his dad. It's an experience the two will share forever, one that no one else on the road with them that day shared.

“The Life of the Body” - A teacher who seems to be an alcoholic spends a late night out and hits on a woman. Her boyfriend doesn't like it, and he is kicked out of the bar for causing trouble. But he stakes out in a nearby bar to wait for her to come out. When she leaves the bar, he makes his case to her again and is beaten by her boyfriend. The next day at school, he lectures to his students about enlightened principles, but all they care about is whether the assailant was black. Later that night, he tries calling the woman again, believing that as long as he can keep talking, there is always a chance of getting his way. This is a pretty solid portrayal of male privilege. Given a little bit of skill in using words, he believes he has the right to hit on the woman, stalk her afterwards, find her name and address in the phone book, and continue to harass her. It's mostly for the hunt, too, in that the only real purpose is to convince her “he's not normally like that”. It's not an amazing story, but I don't have many specific complaints.

“Flyboys” - A boy makes plans to build a plane with a new friend who is clearly wealthy and has a very fortunate life but has somewhat absent family. The two visit the house of another boy whose family lives in a junkyard of sorts and who may have a canopy for them to use on the plane. This boy is poor and has an unfortunate life, with money trouble, a dead brother, and some health issues of his own. He is also an old close friend of the narrator. The three have an adventure trying to get a truck unstuck from the mud, and the old friend asks to be part of the new crew, but our narrator decides not to let him in. It's cruel, selfish, and 100% realistic in the way young kids interact with one another. Friendships change and grow apart, but sometimes kids will overlook mutual interests and strong relationships and completely ditch a friend who really needs them, all for the greener pasture of a new person who seems like an upgrade. It's heartbreaking and written in a way that's reminiscent of Spielberg or Stephen King's youth relationships. It's great.

“Sanity” - A high school girl and her non-biological mother take a trip to see her father who had a nervous breakdown and are spending the warm afternoon traveling back, mostly on foot, to catch a bus. They talk, and the stepmother has stories/lectures about being older and experienced and the way of the world. The young woman listens, and later shows that she is not so naive herself and lures the stepmother into a trap. She brings her to a used car dealer and sic him on her so that she can relax in the air-conditioned showroom in peace. It's a fun story, and the extra details around the central focus really round out the scene and the characters. It leaves you with more to think about and more to revisit upon future readings.

“The Other Miller” - A soldier is rescued from a tough exercise only to be told that his mother is dead. However, he knows he has been mistaken for the OTHER soldier with the same name whose mother has been ill. He leaves anyway and has a hard time from smiling as he's driven to base by other soldiers. This experience, though, ends up being one of true growth as he realizes that one day his mother will actually be gone, and he matures a bit in that knowledge. It's a good setup for a story and ends with a sequence where he imagines returning home to his mom anyway, but even in his fantasy, she's actually gone. It's a little ambiguous, which emphasizes that we truly never know when our loved ones will just be gone forever.

“Two Boys and a Girl” - A high school love triangle starts with two people dating and a third wheel. But when the boyfriend leaves for a trip, the remaining two become very close. The boy becomes attached, and while the girl enjoys the company and knows there is a strong connection, she is still committed to her boyfriend. By the time the boyfriend returns, the third wheel sabotages what remains of the friendship by painting a fence red that is meant to be white at her house; her father will be furious. This is a classic depiction of how young relationships grow so strong so quickly and how young minds fill in many blanks without communicating directly. The boy reads many signals, and the girl probably knows she's sending some but not all of them. To her, it's obvious she's taken. To him, he thinks he can steal her away. He does not address it directly, and when she ultimately rejects him, his response is hurt and anger. This is how kids' minds work and how we learn more about how to be in a relationship, and the pain of miscommunication is universal.

“Migraine” - This is a cute story about a kind of “odd couple” roommates. One of them is battling a migraine while the other has packed her things ready to leave the apartment. They clearly have many memories and attachments to one another but also are at odds and fight often. Yet when one returns to find the other sick, she curses this “tactic” to keep her there while both know they are each looking for excuses to stay together. It's not much more than a story about how we simultaneously push one another away while making strong bonds, and the fact that we push harder the more familiar and attached we become, but it's a nice story. Kind of a “hedgehog's dilemma” thing.

“The Chain” - A man's daughter is attacked by a dog, and he saves her, but the dog nor its owner has any consequences. He plots revenge with a friend who kills the dog. When the friend needs revenge of his own after a different incident, the protagonist offers to help. He defaces a man's car, who assumes another person did it, breaks into that other person's house, and kills a young boy instead. The protagonist has to live with this knowledge forever. His action caused the death of another, all over a simple car accident. It's a little cliché to focus on the slippery slope or butterfly effect, but it's still a good story. Additionally, there are racial and wealth/privilege undertones that seem to motivate characters or at least nudge them into a higher tier of anger or justification, and I think that lends realism to the events.

“Smorgasbord” - A boy at a boarding school and a hall-mate who is not a friend are strangely invited to a dinner with the son of a dictator who also attends the school. They have a strange but memorable night and bond over it. There is additional plot about the boy's girlfriend whom he feels very strongly about but falls out of love with. There are several truths about young people here, about how friendships form so unexpectedly and quickly sometimes, about how relationships end in the same way, about how we learn about life and about our own character. I like that it seems to hit right on a pivotal transitional point in life and feels perfectly relatable.

“Lady’s Dream” - A woman and man from two different worlds are married and each recalls a time, really one single day, that served as a turning point for their relationship. They are almost sad that they each had not taken that opportunity to end it, but each was still too caught up in the other or found it too difficult to end it. It's a sad story but one that focuses on the mechanism by which people settle or give in to the momentum and the current comforts of a relationship rather than dare to split up.

“The Night in Question” - I'm not really sure I understand this one. A recovered addict tells his sister the story of a sermon he heard recently and is enthralled with. In the story, a man is faced with an impossible choice: save his son or save hundreds of other people. The story doesn't sit well with the addict's sister, who already knows there is not a single thing she wouldn't do for her brother. It's about fierce loyalty to family and to the enduring strengths and unconditional love of familial bonds, but I'm not sure what else. It fell flat for me.

“Firelight” - A young child and his mother are against the world. They're poor but make a ritual of shopping for entertainment, both in stores and for apartments. One day, they look at one terrible apartment, walk through the local university grounds, and finally show up late to another apartment they definitely can't afford. It's homey and has a fireplace that warms the young one, and even after 45 minutes of sitting by the fire, he doesn't want to leave. When they do, he is angry at his mother but not exactly sure why. This story stuck with me more than most in this collection and captures that moment in adolescence when you go from being your parent's teammate to an individual with your own goals and dreams. It also paints these characters so well that they feel immediately familiar, and the sentiment at the end that your experience in youth can, even irrationally, inform your fears and feelings as an adult is a nice touch. Excellent!

“Bullet in the Brain” - A lit critic is held up in a bank robbery and can't help himself from critiquing the robbery itself, to the point that he is shot by a robber. As the bullet passes through his brain, he recalls nothing but one memory of a pickup baseball game as a kid when he was struck with the power of language and the hold it had on him. The story is one of the shorter ones, one of the funnier ones, and one of the more thought-provoking ones in that a critic critiques himself to death, and then we are introduced to the idea that neuronal firing is faster than a bullet and therefore allows for some thoughts to be triggered before death, and the idea that we are often overwhelmed with the deluge of experiences we have in life and forget the small moments that are so perfect and formative. This whole collection is full of stories about single events that are formative or turning points, and this is a perfect end to the collection.