Todays story, “Ersatz Panda” by Lucy Ives, was another good one. (Also another American one, albeit with something of a Japanese feel.) I read it during an Ikea stopover on my way home from the country, where I met sweet dogs and took in rural sights but also got stuck in a snow drift going over a rail crossing. Luckily, I wasn‘t ON the tracks, there was no train, and someone came along to help me get un-stuck.
While I‘ve at least liked most (though definitely not all) of the 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar‘s selections, it‘s let me down in one major area: until today, every story was by an American writer. That‘d bother me in general, but it‘s an especially glaring issue in a product produced by a Canadian company. I want way more geographic diversity than they‘ve offered me so far.
Yesterday‘s story wasn‘t worth commenting on (not horrible; not great; possibly of more relevance to people who love American history), but today‘s really did it for me. Martin Riker‘s “Four Minutes and 33 Pairs of Sweatpants” looks at the challenges of cultural production and the discourse surrounding it, all in a stellar narrative voice.
The second story in the 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar was miles better than the first! Lysley Tenorio‘s “Aviary” follows a chorus of Manilan boys who seek revenge against a mall that‘s banned poor people from entering. It works on a bunch of different levels.
I got up suuuuuuper early so I could decorate my tree, then dig into the first selection from the 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar I was lucky enough to thrift a few weeks back.
The calendar‘s original owner tapped out pretty early in the month, and if the first story is indicative of the rest I can see why. 1901‘s “Over the Plum-Pudding” satirizes how several late 19th century writers might‘ve done Christmas tales. It‘s TEDIOUS. Blah.
Is anyone else besides @KathyR reading the 2021 Advent Calendar? I won‘t spoil the surprise of opening the first story booklet, but here‘s what the set looks like.
Day one of my Short Story Advent Calendar. Alberto Manguel anthologized the 2021 collection, choosing stories from 25 different countries. In the introduction, he writes: “For absurd commercial reasons, publishers have decided that short stories don‘t sell. They don‘t sell, they tell us, blind to Poe, Kipling, Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield, Maupassant, Ernest Hemingway, Isak Dinesen, Alice Munro.” I am excited to get started!
Short Story Advent Calendar, 2020 | 
