The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories (Spanish, 1937 - 1945; English 1976) By Horacio Quiroga

Well, it was the title that caught my eye: The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories by Horacio Quiroga. Who could resist? My eye caught the title when it was mentioned in a post on a friend’s Facebook page. I had to investigate. At first I thought it was a joke, particularly when I heard it described as a classic of Spanish literature. But yes, it is.

The book is a collection of short stories written by Horacio Quiroga, who was born in Uruguary, and spent much of his adult life “across the river” in Buenos Aries. His passion however was for the far north Misiones region of Argentina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misiones_Province ). The Misiones is a tropical environment, the edge of the vast jungle that dominates much of central South America. It’s called the Misiones because it was “founded” by Jesuit missionaries – Pope Francis incidentally, from Argentina, is a Jesuit.

There are 12 short stories in the collection, best categorized as gothic. 

All will unnerve you.  Many of Quiroga’s stories have lead characters that are animals. Imagine Charlotte’s Web or Animal Farm, but written by Edgar Allan Poe. Another three or four of the selections detail individuals at death’s door. The Raven would have many friends in Quiroga's works.

The Decapitated Chicken, the title story, is short. It involves allegedly human characters, and is utterly gruesome.This is not bed-time reading, but I can’t tell you why without giving a spoiler alert. There is also superb a short story about a boy named Juan Darien who is actually a tiger. He returns to his tiger self after being witch-hunted in his village.  

My favorite from the collection is Anaconda, though now having read it I’ll probably have nightmares for years. It details the convening of a Congress of snakes and vipers (yes, there is apparently a difference) to devise a plan of attack against four humans who are plotting against them, trying to make the jungle safe for humans.  The Congress includes an Anaconda, the “top dog” among South American snakes, and a King Cobra, transplanted from India, who plays the same role in the “vipers” contingent.  They will eventually battle for control.

Talking animals or not, Anaconda is neither a children’s book nor a zoology study.The book is an allegory on the political history of the region, in much the same way as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, or even The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  I must confess however that South American political history is not one of my strong suits.  And in all honesty, I’d much rather be tied down by a bunch of Lilliputans than surrounded by snakes and vipers.

Recommendation:  If one a student of Spanish language literature, yes; if one is an Edgar Allan Poe fan, definitely; but if one has a problem with snakes and vipers, maybe not.

The General Danced at Dawn (1970) By George MacDonald Fraser

 

George MacDonald Fraser (1925 – 2008) was a rather well known author in the United Kingdom, though I had never even heard of him until receiving The General Danced at Dawn as a gift from a friend recently, with the recommendation “I think you’ll like it.” He was absolutely right.

Fraser was a veteran of the Highland Regiments, having served throughout the British Empire, including India, North African and the Middle East. His prolific writings chronicle life in the armed services. He apparently was/is widely popular in the UK as the author of a series of books known as The Flashman Papers.

Fraser’s character development is just amazing! He’s invented some staples of modern British literary pop culture including: an extremely colorful soldier named Private McAuslan, dubbed “the Dirtiest Soldier in the World;” daft Bob; and their commanding officer Dand MacNeill, who serves as the narrator throughout. And of course, the book wouldn’t be complete without the appearance of Regimental Sergeant-Major Mackintosh, the very archetype of a British military commander, one who could conduct an armed invasion without wrinkling his kilt, then insist on breaking for tea when it was over. His soldiers however, are more likely to favor whiskeys of the Scottish variety, and scoff at that American concoction known as “borboun” – sacrilege indeed.

Much of the narrative is in “the northern dialects,” a.k.a. Scottish-Gaelic, and virtually incomprehensible to anyone who believes in vowels. These tracts often brought my reading speed down to about one syllable per minute. The multiple (varying by clan) dialects play a significant role in these stories, and are completely enjoyable once you stop resisting them, it’s not English per se, not even Old English, get over it, but do read it.

The collection contains 9 short stories. Reading them in sequence is important to the character development. All are good, particularly the title story The General Danced at Dawn. My favorites though are the two concluding stories: Guard at the Castle, when MacNeill has to contend with “the Dirtiest Soldier in the World” while presenting guard at Edinburgh Castle during a visit by “the royals;” and McAuslan’s Court-Martial, a story written around a pillow fight at the Highland Games. 
 
Great Stuff!

Gray Mountain (2014) By John Grisham

I may have my proverbial “library card” taken away from me for admitting this, but Gray Mountain published last year, and read by me last week, is the first John Grisham book I’ve ever read. Despite the predictability of its plot, add me to his fan club. Gray Mountain is a quick read, because the writing makes you want to turn the page.

The lead character is named Samantha. She’s a career climbing, workaholic attorney specializing in commercial real estate deals at a major Manhattan law firm … and she makes a more than a compensatory salary. But she’s also an aspiring attorney, not a partner, so when the meltdown of the financial markets strikes in 2008, it leaves her and many of her colleagues unemployed. I’m not shedding any tears so far.  

She ends up deciding to ride out the recession by working at a legal aid clinic in Appalachia, as an unpaid intern, but only until she can return to NYC and rejoin Big Law.  

Problem is, she’s never set foot in a courtroom … never tried a case – hasn’t a clue about litigation. In fact, while she’s well versed in multi-million dollar real estate contract deals, she’s never even thought about the legal problems faced by “ordinary” folks like those in Brady, Virginia – the heart of coal mining country. They have issues like divorce, domestic violence, contested black lung disease claims, over-zealous collection firms, housing evictions & foreclosures, and endless other problems that are about day to day survival.

Samantha, city girl, rich girl, is at a loss.

Mattie, the nuts & bolts Attorney who heads the Mountain Legal Aid Clinic, begins to educate her intern. Mattie has seen it all, and while she is cautious and realistic, she’s not particularly afraid of anyone.

Oh yeah, the other plot. Mattie’s nephew is in fact a hotshot litigation attorney – with a personal axe to grind against the coal companies who are strip mining his birthright away, and who he holds responsible for the death of his mother and so many others. He views successful legal settlements or judgments not so much as bank deposits, but as social justice.  

Of course, he ends up dead.

Will Samantha stay in coal country when her internship ends? It’s the crux of the book, never a forgone conclusion, and you aren’t going to know until the final chapter.

Recommendation: Definitely. First, it’s a great book written by a master storyteller. And second, it’s an education on black lung disease, strip mining, jobs versus health, union busting, and how the system is stacked against the little guy, with the near complete collusion of government. Work in a social service agency? If so, this is your book.

Prudence (2015) By David Treuer

If you are looking for happy endings, stop now. No one in Prudence by David Treuer has a happy life. If you are looking for writing that often climbs to brilliant, you’ve found it. 

Treuer’s novel is set in the woods of Minnesota where each summer a family from Chicago travels north to open up a vacation resort. They are Emma and Jonathan Washburn, and their son Frankie. Other main characters include Felix, a World War I veteran who serves as the caretaker & handyman at the resort, and Billy, who is Frankie’s age. Felix and Frankie are from the nearby Indian reservation. And of course, there is the title character Prudence, also a Native American, originally from Standing Rock Reservation, to the west.

 

The story begins in 1942 when Frankie, having just graduated from Princeton, is visiting his parents at the resort before leaving for basic training, and then on to the war in Europe. But perhaps more important, he is visiting Billy who he has had an ongoing intimate relationship with all the years they’ve known each other.

 

During the week-long visit, Frankie and Billy will join with others to hunt down a German prisoner of war who has escaped from the prison camp across the lake from the resort. With testosterone running high, a shot is fired into some bushes in the belief the prisoner of war is hiding there. He was not. Instead, shot and killed is the younger sister of Prudence. They had been in hiding, having run away from an orphanage that planned on separating them from each other. No charges are filed, because after all it was “just” an Indian girl. The Washburns care for the in-shock Prudence, and bury her sister. As the guilt stricken Frankie visits Prudence’s room, he promises her he will come back after the war and care for her.
 

As the story unfolds over the next ten years, the events of that week are examined in detail and from ever perspective. It has impacted each of them profoundly. It is at this point in the novel Treuer’s writing soars, his ability to capture a character’s hopes, dreams, and heartache, is flawless. His chapter on Frankie’s letter to Billy written just before his final mission in Germany is of award winning caliber. The final chapter, Prudence’s letter to her long dead sister, will make you hurt.

The book ends with Prudence’s suicide in 1952. That’s not a spoiler, it’s the prologue. 

 

I have two disappointments. First, the stereotypes in the book strike me as overplayed, though they are perhaps necessary for readers who may not be aware of the social history of the time period. If one is not aware of them, then much of the story will not make sense. My other disappointment is that Treuer drops the characters of Frankie’s parents -- we know that after the war they stop coming to Minnesota, I’d like to know more.

Recommendation:  Read it for its superb writing, but be aware it is not a pleasant story.

Bombay Stories (Urdu, early 1900's, English translation 2012) By Saadat Hasan Manto

Salmam Rushdie’s quote on the cover of Bombay Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto calls the author “the undisputed master of the modern Indian short story.” In reference to his writing skills, one could hardly disagree. His topic selections however, left me uncomfortable.

Manto did not write a history of India or Pakistan, but his writings are set in that part of history spanning their partition – two countries, before and after. It’s a gold mine of a literary period, a topic central to two of my favorite books: Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, and Rushdie’s Midnight’sChildren, both which are epic in scale.  Manto’s short stories are the opposite, individual short stories about day-to-day life, with the epic nature of the era being a not-all-that-important backdrop. It wasn’t an easy era to be having a day-to-day life. The social upheaval caused by independence and partition impacted everything, particularly the country’s economy. 

Bombay Stories is a collection of 14 short stories written by Manto about his years in Mumbai, known as Bombay in the colonial period. In a sense, his personal story isn’t that unusual: small town boy moves to the big city to hopefully find success. But again, the era makes it anything but the usual story.

Concurrent with this time period was another culturally significant series of events, the early days of what would become Bollywood. The more autobiographical of stories are about how he came to the city as a writer, yearning to be a scriptwriter.  He worked as a reporter while waiting for that dream to play out, taking whatever job paid.  He wasn’t alone in this career path, as anyone familiar with the waiter-actor connection to the film industry can attest. Manto ended up having some success both as a reporter and as a scriptwriter, receiving writing credits for some early Bollywood films. 

Perhaps my favorite of the selections is a story titled Mummy. In it the character referred to as Mummy takes under her wings an assortment of aspirants to acting careers, to literary fame, and to marrying-for-money dreamers; caring for all of them through life’s ups and downs -- while managing a prostitution ring on the side. 

Hamid’s Baby is also an interesting short story. It is about a married man who may, or may not have, fathered a daughter by a prostitute. Economics dictate the girl will probably grow up to be a prostitute, which is okay if it’s not his child, but horrifying to him if it is his child. He’ll never know for sure.

Prostitution, the world’s oldest profession, plays a major role in most of these stories. In Bombay Stories it’s an accurate reflection of the economic times, and it’s not unlike the aspiring writers and actors -- you do what you gotta do to survive, until you no longer have to do it. And, I personally don’t make any value judgements about the subject. What leads to my discomfort is the blatant sexism of the arrangements portrayed in this book – but, we are talking about 100 years ago, except I know that in parts of the world, including big city America, that 100 years ago is today.

Recommendation:  If one is a student of India, or Bollywood, yes.