2018 Short Story Advent Calendar Unveiling: December 10
Today’s story is called “One Gram Short” by Etgar Keret, translated by Nathan Englander. It’s my favourite one yet!
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing four other books from the Murder She Wrote paperback series written by “Jessica Fletcher” the tv character and Donald Bain, the writer and publisher who sadly passed away in 2017. Each was delightful, mimicking the tv series perfectly but offering up another side of Jessica that…
I love the suspense that a storm brings to the fore in a fictional book; as the winds change, so do our expectations as a reader. This story begins with a storm, and ends with the same storm, pushing the reader in all different directions and time periods, raging through each character and their own…
I read the blurb of The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb in a publisher’s catalogue and was immediately intrigued; a renovation of a bed and breakfast gone awry due to a potential haunting? All taking place within a frozen lakeside tourist town? Sounds perfect! I wasn’t familiar with this author, but she appears to…
Books about books will always pique my interest, but when highly lauded author Patrick deWitt releases one, I get even more excited. I had really high hopes for The Librarianist and it did not disappoint. It’s a quiet novel about a quiet man, with glimpses of humour and humanity throughout its 300ish pages. The majority…
I won’t say my reading is influenced by awards, because it rarely is – quite often, my book choices depend on the themes I’ve come up with for my monthly radio segment, and the books that land on my doorstep for review. But every so often I break out of this pattern and pick up…
I’m tight on time these days (isn’t everyone at this time of year?) so I’m squeaking in these videos right at the tail end of my toddler’s nap. Or, in today’s case, her two hour lay around in bed, singing and reading books. Whatever, I’ll take whatever alone time I can get, especially because these…
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This author is obviously a film lover—a person after my own heart. There was a 2003 movie called “21 Grams” with Sean Penn, the taglines for which were as follows (thank you IMDB):
Difference between dead and life
How much does life weigh?
They say we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of our death… everyone. The weight of a stack of nickels. The weight of a chocolate bar. The weight of a hummingbird…
How much does love weigh?
How much does revenge weigh?
This Fall, fate weighs in.
How much does guilt weigh?
I think “How much does love weigh?” fits most closely with this wonderful story.
Oh wow! Very cool, I would have never made this connection.
Maybe Smokey’s gone out to see if she can buy you some exciting chocolates…
Nah she’s just being moody LOL
Etgar Keret is great. I read a few collections of his years ago. One was something like The Girl On Top of the Fridge? He typically has soldiers in his stories and is often funny. The stories are all super short, but he’s good in that form (lots of people aren’t).
And I like super short stories! haha