The Reencounter, Isaac Bashevis Singer

Original edition

Analysis

Written by Aurora Ledesma

BIOGRAPHY

Isaac Bashevis Singer, winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature, was one of the most admired Jewish writers of the twentieth century, as well as an important figure of literature written in Yiddish, the language in which his books were published throughout his career. His writings describe Jewish life in Poland and in the United States.

Isaac Bashevis Singer was born on the 11th of November 1903 in Leoncin, Poland. He was the fifth of six children, of whom only four survived childhood. His father was a rabbi, and his mother, the daughter of the rabbi of Bilgoraj. His sister Hinde Esther and his brother Israel Joshua, became writers as well and played prominent roles in his life and served as models for a number of fictional characters. His younger brother, Moishe and his mother both died in the Holocaust.

His family moved to Warsaw, Poland, when he was four years old. Singer was also educated in a strict spiritual practice. He received a traditional Jewish education at the Warsaw Rabbinical Seminary. Singer preferred being a writer to being a rabbi. In 1925 he made his debut with the story In Old Age which he published in Warsaw. His first novel Satan in Goray was published in Poland before he migrated to the U.S.A. in 1935.

He was married in Poland and had a son, but when he moved to New York, he left them, and then, in 1938, he met Alma Wassermann, a German Jewish refugee, and married her. He settled in New York, as his brother had done a year before. Singer worked for the Yiddish newspaper Forvets and he also translated many books into Yiddish from Hebrew and Polish; and from German, some books by Thomas Man.

Although Singer’s works were now available in their English versions, he continued to write almost exclusively in Yiddish until his death.

Singer’s has popular collections of short stories translated into English, one of the most popular around the world is Gimpel the Fool. His short stories are saturated with Jewish folklore, legends and mysticism.

Among his most important novels are The Family Moskat, The Magician of Lublin, Enemies, A Love Story, which have been adapted into films. The most famous story adapted to a film is Yentl with Barbara Streisand. He also wrote My Father’s Court, an autobiographical work about his childhood in Warsaw.

He died on the 24th of July, 1991, in Surfside Florida, after suffering a series of strokes. He was buried at Cedar Park Cemetery, New Jersey.

SUMMARY

The story appears in Singer’s 1982 anthology The Collected Stories, a selection of forty-seven works spanning his career and blending Jewish folklore, mysticism, and modern irony.

This is a story of ghosts and the afterlife, a theme that our author Isaac Bashevis Singer loved so much.

Dr. Max Greitzer is abruptly awakened by a phone call informing him of the death of Liza Nestling, a woman who was deeply significant in his life. She had been his great love. Despite the years of separation, the news shocks him, reminding him of their tumultuous thirteen-year love affair,which ended twelve years ago without any communication since. 

Greitzer gets dressed and heads to the funeral parlor in New York City for the service, arriving early. At the parlor, the receptionist escorts him to view Liza’s body in a dimly lit room. Liza lies in a simple coffin. Her face, covered with gauze, is completely unrecognizable, her hair has lost the shine of her youth, and her face, full of wrinkles, is covered by thick makeup. A hint of a smile appears on her lips. How can they do that?, he wonders.

The door of the room opens and a woman, who resembles Liza, enters. At first he thinks it’s Liza’s sister, but then he realizes that this woman is actually Liza herself. This surreal situation reveals a shocking truth: both are now dead and experiencing a strange afterlife together.

They grapple with the absurdity of the situation, wondering how they can remain conscious and aware of everything without their physical bodies. They discuss their pasts, including Liza’s marriage and challenging life, experiencing a mixture of amusement, irony and sadness as they reflect on their deaths and the lack of emotion they feel in this new state. As they float outside, observing the familiar world below, they wonder what life after death means.

They feel liberated from earthly pains, but realize a significant emptiness where their desires once resided. Finally, they begin to rise together, without a destination, gazing down at the earth. Now they embark on a hopeful journey into the unknown reflecting on immortality and the disappointments of life.

SOME REFLECTIONS

The Reencounter is a modern ghost story that prioritizes irony over traditional horror. The author shows us his preference for afterlife stories and he does so with a magnificent sense of humor that hooks us all. The narrative critiques the futility of immortality and treats it with sarcasm and philosophical resignation, as Max says, “of all my disenchantments, immortality is the greatest”.

This story is interesting and engaging to us, because we wonder what will happen to us after we die. Death is one of life’s greatest mysteries because we do not get to understand it until we are dead.

QUESTIONS

-Do you like visiting cemeteries? What can you tell about any you have visited?

-Do you believe in afterlife? In your opinion, what is there after we’re dead?

-In your view, is it possible a communication between living people and dead people? Have you ever player Ouija, or used the services of a psychic?

-According to you, what important things have to be said in a funeral, or written in an obituary?

-Are all philosophic works sheer nonsense?

-What do you know about Yiddish?

VOCABULARY

rouged, awry, eulogy, wreath, stingy, astral

The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien

 

 Animation summary (full novel)

Interview with Tim O'Brien about his book

Written by Pere Vila

THE AUTHOR

Tim O’Brien was born on October the1st, 1946, in Austin, Minnesota. He is an American novelist noted for his writings about American soldiers in the Vietnam War. O’Brien was the son of a schoolteacher and an insurance salesman who had served in World War II. When he was ten, his family ―including a younger brother and sister― moved to Worthington, Minnesota. This place had a large influence on O’Brien’s imagination and his development as an author. The town is on Lake Okabena, in the southwestern part of the state, and serves as the setting for some of his stories, especially those in The Things They Carried.

After studying political science at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, O’Brien was drafted into the U.S. Army. In later talks and essays, O’Brien has described how conflicted he felt when he was drafted. He said he often felt restless and shaped by its conservative civic culture. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he spent the summer of 1968 working in a meatpacking plant, while he worried about his draft notice. O’Brien has recalled feeling pulled in two directions: toward his anti-war convictions on one side and, on the other, toward family expectations, hometown loyalties, and fear of being a coward if he refused to serve. In his public lectures, he uses this period to illustrate the moral pressure many draftees experienced as they decided whether to enter the Army, resist the draft, or leave the country. He had been opposed to the war and intended to go to Canada while in training in Washington. Instead, he returned to the army base out of fear, and the following year he was sent to fight in Vietnam.

During his tour of duty, he walked with his platoon to the village of My Lai, where a massacre of unarmed villagers by another platoon had occurred in March 1968, unbeknownst at the time to O’Brien and his fellow soldiers. Years later he would return to Vietnam and revisit My Lai, and write about his experience in a powerful essay for The New York Times, called “The Vietnam in me”.

When he returned to the U.S., he studied intermittently at Harvard University and worked for The Washington Post (1971-74), as an intern and reporter. He collected his newspaper and magazine articles about his war experiences in his first book If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, by turns meditative and brutally realistic; it was praised for its honest portrayal of a soldier’s emotions.

The Vietnam War is present in many of O’Brien’s novels: Going after Cacciato; the already mentioned If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home; In the Lake of the Woods; The Things They Carried; Tomcat in Love; etc.

Among other prizes, O’Brien won the 1979 National Book Award; The James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction, in 1995; The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, in August 2012; and in 2010, he received The Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Whittier College.

 

THE STORY

The Things They Carried is a collection of interconnected short stories about the experiences of a small company of young American men serving in the Vietnam War. The book blurs the line between fiction and autobiography, leaving the reader unsure as to what is fact and what is myth. It is told mainly from the first-person perspective of a middle-aged narrator named Tim O’Brien (the same name of the author), who is looking back on his time during the war. The first story, the one we read, gives its name to the entire book and is a kind of introduction to the main characters and everything they carry, both physically and emotionally.

The story begins with the letters sent by a girl, Martha, which lieutenant Jimmy Cross was carrying. These letters appear throughout the story, as a reference to the past that Cross has left behind and which is very different from the reality he lives in Vietnam. Then the narrator goes on to detail what some of the soldiers carried. First, he details what they carried according to psychological needs, for example: Kiowa carried his father’s New Testament and his grandfather’s old hatchet; Henry Dobbins, in dangerous situations, carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose wrapped around his neck as a comforter; Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers and 6 or 7 ounces of premium dop… All this mixed with the detailed description of the weight of their weapons, ammunition, helmets, bulletproof vests, mine detectors, radios, flares, etc.

Little by little, learning how things weigh, we get into the activities and routines of one platoon of 17 men in the Vietnam War: like marching in a line through the meadows and rice fields to the coordinates of an ambush; or how they chose by lot who would enter the tunnels that the Vietnamese strategically built to hide; or how they dug the holes in which they had to spend the night. Until the story reaches a turning point: The death of Ted Lavender.

Everyone is affected by the death of their comrade. While waiting for the chopper to evacuate the dead man, they smoke Ted’s drug, as a kind of tribute and release from the pain of the loss. Then they entered the village of Than Khe and burned everything, shot the chickens and dogs, they called in artillery and watched the wreckage.

Lieutenant Cross feels responsible for Lavender’s death and takes his position more seriously: he burns Martha’s letters and photos. Henceforth he would shut down the daydreams, he would not tolerate laxity, he would show strength, he needed to distance himself from his men, and reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead.

 

STYLISTIC KEYS OF THE AUTHOR

Metafiction: O’Brien frequently addresses the act of storytelling itself, drawing attention to the artificiality of narrative and the author’s role. He often affirms that a story isn’t true in a literal sense but that it is true in the sense of capturing a particular emotional or psychological reality.

Fragmentation: His stories often lack a traditional narrative structure, jumping between time periods and perspectives. This fragmentation mirrors the fractured nature of memory and the disorientation experienced by soldiers in combat.

Repetition and Motif: O’Brien uses repetition and recurring motifs to emphasize key themes and create emotional resonance. The image of the weight carried by soldiers ―both physical and emotional― is a prominent motif in The Things They Carried.

Lyrical Prose: Despite dealing with difficult subject matter, O’Brien’s prose is often remarkably beautiful and evocative. He employs vivid imagery and poetic language to create a powerful emotional impact.

“Happening Truth”: O’Brien frequently speaks of a “Happening Truth”, a truth that isn’t necessarily factual but is emotionally and psychologically authentic. This concept is central to his writing. He argues that stories can be true even if they did not happen exactly as told. The goal is not to report facts but to convey a deeper understanding of the human experience.

 

IN MY OPINION

This story is highly recommended to the times we live in, when wars spread so easily. We have in our hands an anti-war book par excellence. All the events narrated in the story lead us to reject wars, such as the death of Lavender and its consequences, that we have already seen above. This is a clear example of how brutal wars are. However, there are two more examples that I would like to comment on: one is Martha’s virginity, and the other what we could call Sander’s gift.

Martha’s virginity.  Throughout this chapter of the book, Lieutenant Cross reflects at least five times on Martha’s virginity. Is Martha a virgin or not?, Cross asks himself. We don’t need to know. What matters is what O’Brien (the author) wants to convey to us with this fact. Martha’s letters talk about teachers, classmates, writers, poets… She never mentions the war. She lives in another world. She lives immaculately, without having to do horrible things. She carries no stain, nor does she imagine the hell that Jimmy Cross is going through. She does not suspect how dirty war is, how it profanes the integrity of the soldiers, who are stained for life. Martha’s virginity is for Cross like a mirror, where every time he looks at it, he sees himself dirtier.

Sander’s gift. This is the episode where Mitchell Sander finds the dead body of a Viet Cong boy. Sander says: Here it is a definite moral. And he cuts off the dead boy’s thumb and gives it to Norman Bowker, who will carry it on his person from then on. Then they argue about the morality of this event, but it is really hard to see the moral here. However, if we look just before these events, Bowker is described as a good person, literally “a very gentle person”. Under normal circumstances, a good person would never accept a gift of this kind. But they are in a cruel war, and Bowker accepts the gift. So, the moral is that no matter how good a person you are, in a war to survive you have to do horrible things. And they remember the old TV series Have gun, will travel, where if you have a gun, use it and you will be able to move forward, survive. So, we see how war brutalizes good people.

 

TO FINISH

Tim O’Brien work has helped redefine the war narrative, moving away from traditional heroic portrayals and focusing instead on the psychological and emotional toll of conflict. His innovative use of metafiction and his exploration of the relation between truth and storytelling have inspired countless writers. His commitment to honesty, vulnerability and emotional depth has earned him a place among the most important American authors of his generation. He forces readers to confront the complexities of truth and the enduring power of stories to shape our understanding of the world.

O’Brien’s legacy is not simply about writing about war, it is about writing about what means to be human: to remember, to grieve, to search for meaning in a chaotic world, and to understand that the stories we tell ourselves and each other ultimately define us.

 

QUESTIONS

-What things would you carry (in an emergency, in an epidemic, to a desert island…)?

-Are they fair wars and unfair wars, or are all the wars unjustifiable?

-How can an Indian become a Christian? How is possible for a person fit two contradictory behaviours or beliefs / faiths?

-Would you justify SIW in order to avoid going to war?

-What do you think it’s better for a country, a compulsory military service for everybody, or a professional army? Expose your reasons.

 

VOCABULARY

(There are unnumbered military terms in the text: we’ll try to explain them in our session.)

foxhole, canteen, major, killer, magazine, swabs, slingshot, bad news, draw numbers, rabies, spools, fatigues, sniper, frisking, smokestacks, wiggy, talons

Happy Endings, by Margaret Atwood

 Audiobook

Analysis (video)

Themes in ths story

Written by Glòria Torner

BIOGRAPHY

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939, in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). When she was seven years old, her family moved to Toronto, but she still spent much of her childhood in the northern Ontario and Quebec wilderness, where her father, an entomologist, conducted research in forests. Her love for nature influenced her writing. She became a voracious reader of literature: pocketbook mysteries, Canadian animal stories and comic books. She did not attend school full-time until she was twelve years old.
Atwood realised she wanted to write professionally when she was sixteen. She studied and received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 1961, where she published poems and articles in the college literary journal. Later, she studied and obtained a master’s degree in English literature from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1962.
Atwood married Jim Polk, an American writer, in 1968, but they divorced in 1973. She had a long-term relationship with the Canadian novelist Graeme Gibson, living together in Toronto until his death in 2019. She wrote about her lover, Gibson, in the poetry book, Dearly.
She is a prolific writer. Since 1961 she has published eighteen novels, eighteen books of poetry, eleven books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children’s books, two graphic novels and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her autobiography, called Book of Lives: A Memoir, was published in 2025.
In addition to writing, she taught English literature at several Canadian and American universities.

The main themes in her literature are:
Dystopian and speculative and science fiction.
Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin are historical novels, and the MaddAddam trilogy engages themes of genetic modification, pharmaceutical and corporate control, and man-made disaster.
She published her dystopian masterpiece, The Handmaid’s Tale, in 1985. This novel tells the story of Offred, a woman living in a sexual slavery, in a repressive Christian theocracy in the future. She recounts her daily experiences of her life as a “Handmaid”, forced to bear children for the higher-ranking members of Gilead society. As most women cannot conceive children, Offred and some other young women, who live without freedom and under oppression, provide children for influential families.
This book, criticised as immoral in Christian societies, was adapted into a film in 1990, and an acclaimed TV series based on the novel was co-written by the author in 2017. In 2019 she wrote a sequel, The Testaments.
Afterwards, in The Heart Goes Last, the writer imagines a dystopian America in which a couple is compelled to join a community that functions like a prison.
The theory of Canadian identity and memory. This theory has garnered attention both in Canada and internationally in her principal work of literary criticism, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. She postulates that Canadian literature, and by extension Canadian identity, is characterised by the symbol of survival.
Gender, identity and feminism. Her first novel, The Edible Woman, published in1969, is an early example of feminism, a topic found in many of her works.
Animal rights. Surfacing is an exploration of the relationship between nature and culture, and in Cat’s Eye, the narrator recognises the similarity between a turkey and a baby survivor.
She writes about other themes: religion and myth, climate change, power politics. Sometimes, several themes are interconnected within a single novel.
She has won, among other prices, the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2008, the Pen Pinter Prize, in 2016, and two Booker Prizes, in 2000 and 2019.
 
HAPPY ENDINGS

This short story was first published in 1983 in the Canadian collection Murder in the Dark, and in1994 it was available in the United States in Good Bones and Simple Murders.
It is a short story structured into eight sections: six varying, interlocked narratives and two brief sections, one at the beginning of the story, and the other one at the end.
In the first section (I think), Margaret Atwood decides to use the interrogative pronouns “Who” and “What,” following “The 5Ws”: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and one more, “H” How?” Many journalists use this framework to communicate the most relevant information of the story in a newspaper article. And these three sentences are used as an introduction by the narrator who addresses readers directly as you, and comments on the craft of storytelling during and after the narratives.
The six variations are written using these five plot elements. I’ll use this structure in the first one, but I think it is not necessary in the other ones.
Exposition: John and Mary fall in love and get married.
Rising action: they have good jobs, buy a beautiful house, and have two children.
Climax: they have some friends and a stimulating sex life.
Falling action: they retire and enjoy their hobbies.
Resolution: they die.
In this second storyline, Mary falls in love with John, who doesn’t love her, he only uses her for sex, but she hopes that he will come to love her. One day, John is in a restaurant with another woman, Madge. When Mary’s friends tell her he is cheating with Madge, Mary collects all the sleeping pills and aspirins she can find and takes them with half a bottle of sherry. She leaves a note for John, but she thinks he’ll discover her, take her to the hospital, and later marry her. But this fails to happen. Mary dies and John marries Madge.
Now, in the third structure, John, an old man, who has a steady respectable job, is married to Madge. He is having an affair with Mary, a young girl. She has sexual relations with him, but she doesn’t love him because she prefers James, who is the same age as her, has a motorcycle and a fabulous record collection. One day, James discovers John and Mary in the bed. James shoots the two of them and commits suicide. At the end, Madge marries Fred. It is a love triangle.
In this fourth storyline, Fred and Madge are happy together. They have a nice house near the seashore. One day, a tidal wave approaches their home. Despite the loss of their home, they are grateful to have survived the calamity that killed thousands. They remain together. This ending is very similar to the first one.
In the fifth storyline, Fred has a bad heart and he dies. Afterwards, Madge devotes herself to charity work. However, the narrator address directly to the reader in 2n person, and tells them that these details can be changed. You can choose: Madge could have different endings: cancer…
In the last storyline the narrator suggests that the story can be changed again, making John a revolutionary, and Mary a secret agent who starts a relationship with him in order to spy on him. This story is very similar to the first story.
The last section has two brief remarks: the narrator observes that the endings of different plots are the same: death is the only true ending that comes to all of us, and therefore to all characters. But the beginnings are more fun. Plot is fundamentally, just one thing happening after another. Intentionally, she forgets “where”, “how” and “why”.

Conclusion
Margaret Atwood writes a story about writing stories with six different scenarios, always with a relationship between a man and a woman. Plain stories without poetry and sensibility. Too much pessimism! And with an unreal title!

QUESTIONS
-Do you think plot is only “one thing after another”? What do you know of Todorov’s Five Stages of Plot?
-According to a theory, girls usually prefer bad boys to goody-goody ones. Do you think it is a real fact or it is something conjuntural?
-What is happiness? What is for you the best/most original definition of happiness? How do you know if you're happy or you aren't? How do you know when other people are or arent happy? Is happiness an invention of the consumer society?

VOCABULARY
live-in, tepid, run-down, higher, underwater, stoned, brawling

Physics and Chemistry, by Jackie Kay

 

Review

Another review

Analysis

A BIT OF BIOGRAPHY
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh in 1961. Her biological mother was Scottish, and her biological father, Nigerian. She was adopted soon after being born by a politically activist couple, John and Helen Kay from Glasgow. This couple had previously adopter her brother.
As a curiosity, Jackie worked for some months as a cleaning woman for John Le Carré, the spy novels writer.
She wanted to be an actress, but after reading the stories by Alasdair Gray, she decided to be a writer. She studied English at the University of Sterling.
She writes poetry, novels, short stories and plays. Her topics are adoption, gender, sexuality, activism and family relationships.
Her most famous book is Trumpet, about a jazz musician who, once dead, they discovered he was a woman.
Our short story appeared in a book called Why don’t you stop talking?
Now she works as a professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.
About her private life, we can say she had a son with another writer, then she had a long relationship with a poetess who had a daughter with a poet. So, a life full of books and writers.

 

SUMMARY

This is a story about two middle-aged female teachers. In the story, they don’t have names, they are referred only by the subject they teach, Physics and Chemistry. A part of being workmates, they’ve been living together for a long time, and they know each other very well. Physics is serious and introvert, and Chemistry is more open and doesn’t have problems expressing her emotions.

They are good teachers and in general are respected by their colleagues. Perhaps somebody can think they are a typical pair of spinsters, but if somebody does, they keep their opinion by themselves.

One day, after being in a concert they liked very much, they make love for the first time. For both of them it was a very satisfying experience, and it even changed a bit of Physics character: from this day on, she was less shy and maybe a bit daring. However, they go on being cautious about this new twist in their relationship. Moreover, they are modest and avoid talking to each other openly about their physical encounters.

But some time after this new path in their lives, a pupil’s parent comes to the school accusing the two teachers of being lesbians. Of course, the headmaster has to talk to them and explain the resolution he has decided to take.

 

QUESTIONS

-According to you, what is the best way to share the domestics tasks?

-How do you feel talking about sex? Why do you think people are usually shy about this topic?

-When you introduce yourself, do you think you have to define your sexual orientation? What aspects of your life do you think you must communicate to your boss or to your workmates?

-Can someone be fired because of their sexual orientation?

-What do you know about these new terms/concepts: gender versus sex, binary/nonbinary, gender-fluid…?

-In the story, something causal has chanced the life of our protagonists. In your opinion, what is more decisive in our lives, chance or will? Why do you think so?

 

VOCABULARY

poaching, shade of emulsion, serviced the car, seeped, glee, blissfully, put my foot in, wallop, fumed, gaffes, lemon grass, wee jug, marking, shoogle, had…round, bubbling, has been up, giving…notice, bobbles, plain/purl

Enoch's Two Letters, by Alan Sillitoe

Analysis 

Prezi presentation

Another analysis

It's a Long Way to Tipperary

Biography

Enoch's name in the Bible

SUMMARY

Enoch is an eight-year-old boy, the only son of Jack and Edna, although we don’t know for sure that Jack is his biological father.

It seems that Enoch is a good boy: he goes to school, he has friends, he behaves well, that is, he does the normal things for a lad of his age, and he’s a bit afraid of his father’s authority.

The Boden family appears to be a happy family, or at least a peaceful family that stays together. But almost at the beginning of the story, we find out that things aren’t what they seem, because Jack is going to leave his wife and home, and, on the very same day, his wife is going to do the same. However, neither of them knows anything at all about their partner’s plans. Jack is running away with his lover, a workmate, and Edna is fed up with her married life.

When Enoch comes home after school, he doesn’t find anybody there; but he isn’t very worried because he thinks they are just getting late. He imagines that his mother is paying a visit to a relative, and that his father has had an accident at the foundry where he works and that maybe he’s dead. But not even this worries Enoch too much.

The boy decides to make the most of the situation while waiting for them. He has something to eat, watches television, sits in his father’s armchair… As it gets dark and nobody appears, he decides to go to bed in the living room, on the sofa, in front of the stove and watching TV. And for blanket he uses a carpet.

The next morning, since neither his mother nor his father has come back home, he resolves to go to his grandmother’s to tell her what has happened. There, he finally loses his courage and determination (or his indifference) and cries.

His grandma and he returns to Enoch’s to try to understand what has happened to his parents, and there the boy finds, lying on the rug in the hall, the two letters his parents had written.

 

QUESTIONS

-According to you, how true is love at first sight? Can you tell us any example that confirms your opinion?

-In the house, the clock is turned against the wall. The mother turns it to see the time, and the boy to wind it? For you, what can be the meaning of a clock facing the wall?

-The story happens in early spring. In your opinion, what would be the best tome of the year to change your life?

-Both parents take two suitcases to make their escape. What would you take in a similar case (hypothetically)?

-Do children, teenagers… have different feelings about death, illness, divorce than adults? Why do you think so?

 

VOCABULARY

scullery, foundry, stint, mantelshelf, tackling, for good, settee, moulds, wind, torch, swivel, pumice, fare, mangle, upper/bottom deck, nowt

The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, by Charles Bukowski

Analysis

Audiobook

Tales of Ordinary Madness, Wikipedia

Factotum, Wikipedia

Factotum, movie

Barfly, Wikipedia

Barfly, movie

Tales of Ordinary Madness, movie

Charles Bukowski chez Bernard Pivot

SUMMARY, by Begoña Devis

Despite the nice title, that story is in fact a very sad one, very Bukowski-esque. The most beautiful woman in town is also the unhappiest. She feels her beauty is a curse, believing no one can see beyond the obvious: her perfect body, her attractive and unique face. That’s why she attacks herself, constantly at war with herself and with everyone else; and even having found someone capable of seeing her inner beauty, and with whom she could perhaps be happy, she doesn’t allow it, probably because she doesn’t feel worthy of it, and finally decides she can no longer live in a world that seems too cruel and heartless to her. Her soul is too sensitive to bear it, and she’s also too angry, too young and too immature to have the ability to see things any other way and give herself a chance.
    In a few sentences, Bukowski gives us very important details about this beautiful girl so we can understand her behaviour. What happiness could she feel as a child in her family with an alcoholic father, who probably plunged them into poverty and abandonment? How could she believe she deserved happiness after being abandoned by her mother along with her four sisters following her father’s death? How could she trust others if all she received was envy from her sisters and sexual abuse from men? Even during the years she spent in a convent with her sisters, she didn’t live in peace; she was too beautiful not to be envied and rejected. It was only natural that she hated her beauty and decided to put an end to it once and for all.

 
PERSONAL OPINION
 
Childhood abandonment, alcoholism, and the sensitivity hidden behind rudeness and outbursts are recurring themes in Bukowski, who narrates his own miserable life through his stories. This one, coming from its author, is as heartbreaking as it is predictable, though always interesting to read, due to his direct, abrupt, and at times almost pornographic style, which makes it unique and compelling.
    Aside from the story itself, I personally —although I understand it couldn’t be any other way— have always found it deeply unfair that an unhappy childhood leads to a difficult life, while a happy one greatly contributes to making adulthood much more enjoyable. It’s like a win-or-nothing game, and only a few manage to turn things around, reconcile with their past, and live a full and happy life despite a difficult start. This wasn’t the case for the most beautiful woman in town.

QUESTIONS

-Cass was misusing her beauty. What do you think of working as a model? Is it a job as any other one, or it isn't a job you wouldn't like for your children? Is it a sexist job?
-Would you like to live for a time in a convent? Do you think it would be a benefit for people who lead a stressing life?
-What can be the reason of a self-inflicted wound? Has it anything to do with masochism?
-After making love, the narrator asked the girl her name. What would be the first questions you ask in a first date?
-"Once you accept a drink, you create your own trouble". How true / sexist is this sentence, in your opinion?

VOCABULARY

zap, of age, forged, fair, dramatics, schitzi, elephant ear, bail, fad, hustling, haggle, wearing, pecker, pace, shack, offhand

Atrophy, by Edith Wharton

 

To read her BIOGRAPHY by Nora Carranza, click here.
Notes for Atrophy

SUMMARY, by Josep Guiteras

Nora Frenway was a young, beautiful and elegant woman. She was married to Mr. George Frenway, a semi-invalid man with a bad temper which made him a desolate and pathetic figure.
They had two sons who were Nora’s jewels. George had a possessive and domineering mother, before whom the entire family cowered, lied and flattered.
Nora had once had a lover, Christopher, who lived in Oakfield near Westover. He was currently very ill and his life was in danger, so Nora Frenway secretly decided to take the train and visit him.
Her lover lived with his spinster sister, Jana Aldis, a dishevelled, old and insignificant woman.
Jana Aldis made it as difficult as she could to prevent Nora from seeing her brother Christopher. Nora suspected that Jana knew about her relationship with her brother, and just in case there was any doubt about this, when Nora was about to board the taxi that would take her to Westover station to return home, Jane Aldis called from the threshold “I’ll be sure to write to thank your husband Mr. Frenway for your visit.”

QUESTIONS
-Has been there a moment when you had the feeling of being "flung naked to the public scrutiny"?
-Do you feel you have adopted all the inhibitions of your parents and grandparents? What inhibitions do you regret more?
-In your opinion, does a sister have more power upon her brother than a wife upon her husband?
-According to your view, is the partner the first one to feel being cheated, or the last one, when everybody already knows?
-In the story there is a beautiful love gesture: to stroke the dog on the same place her lover's hand had rested. Do you remember any other tender gesture, in real life or in fiction?
-What would you be your best option when you feel your adversary (in a match, in a debate...) is much weaker than yourself?
-Miss Aldis speaks several times about "tree moving". What is its symbolism, on your view?
-What could be the relation between the title and the story?

VOCABULARY
quailed, humbugged, fibbed, fawned, holds-up, welter, tarred, inferences, dowdy, brim, panelled, brink, prying, cared for a fig, upholsterer, moping, groping, caller, beech, twaddle, platitudes, blighting

The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry

Film (minute 1:28:43) 

SUMMARY

This is a very romantic story. It’s, of course, a love story, but also a story of self-sacrifice.

A married couple lived very poorly. The husband, Jim, was a mere worker, and his wife was a housewife. They lived in a cheap flat in the big city. Christmas was near, and each one wanted to give their partner a present, but neither of them had enough money to buy the gift they would like. So, they have to contrive something to get the money. Della, the wife, wanted a chain for Jim’s pocket watch, a trinket the Jim loved very much. Jim had only a strap to hold his watch. But the chain was too expensive, and the only idea she got to get some money was selling her own hair. Della had a mass of long, beautiful hair and was very proud of it, and Jim adored it. But she sold it, and then she could buy the chain.

For his own part, Jim also had to do something to get some cash for the present he wanted to buy for Della. He also sold something he loved very much, and, with the money, he could buy a set of combs for Della's beautiful hair (here with "combs" we mean convex combs to adorn a woman’s hair, not the tools to arrange one’s hair).

But now you can imagine the wife’s disappointment when he saw her present. And until the end of the story, we won’t know what Jim had to sell to buy the combs, and, you know: having read some of O. Henry stories, we must have the suspicion that it will be another surprise.

But, besides surprises, the story has a morality. For you, what is it, this morality?

 

QUESTIONS
-What are your habits about presents? 
-What do you know about the Three Wise Men? Are they historical figures?
-And what about Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas?

-Do you think the couple of the story are being romantic or only irresponsible? Are there any other, cheaper, ways to be romantic?

-Our couple is a bit traditional. Nowadays, how can one be chivalrous without being sexist?

-What differences could you find between the original story and the film adaptation?

VOCABULARY

bulldozing, parsimony, flop down, lookout, sterling, pier-glass, hashed, fob chain, sly, truant, dog, quail, wails, tresses, singed (/singd/), manger