Points of View; An Anthology of Short Stories: James Moffett and Kenneth R McElheny

This is a collection of stories A telephone call: Dorothy Parker In this story the protagonist talks to herself about why her boyfriend isn't calling at 5:00 like he said he would. She goes back and forth between praying to god and telling herself to be strong, then starts all over again. I Stand Here Ironing: Tillie Olsen This story is about a mother being asked by the school to come in and talk about her daughter. The woman spends the afternoon reminiscing about her daughter's childhood and feeling guilty about what sort of mother she was. Straight Pool: John O'Hara A man talks to a buddy of his about the problems he is having with his wife. In his story he and his wife are always arguing about him telling his pool buddy about her (which is ironic because that is exactly what he is doing) and it is obvious she is in love with the buddy, which the husband doesn't see. The Lady's Maid: Katherine Mansfield A maid is talking to someone, though I couldn't figure out whom, about her "Lady" who is elderly, and how she takes care of her. She reminisces on how she didn't get married so she could watch over the lady, who guilted her into staying. She mentions that she doesn't know what will happen to her one the woman passes away. ...& Answers: Joyce Carol Oates A woman talks to a psychologist about an accident she was in that killed her daughter. She says there was another car on the road, of which there is evidently no evidence. We only see the woman's dialog and must surmise what the man interviewing her is asking. He believes the accident was a suicide. When the woman woke up in the hospital she asked if the man (other driver) was ok instead of asking about her own daughter. Inter-office: Rosellen Brown A man talks about what he sees in his town walking around and how the community has declined. A Bundle of Letters: Henry James This story was amusing in that it is a collection of letters from People staying at the same house together to their family. You get to learn who likes who and how each character acts based on these letters. A Wilderness Station: Alice Munro An odd story that alternates between letters to tell the story of a woman and her knowledge that her brother-in-law killed her husband. She starts the story out seeming insane. Once we find out what happen she becomes "the victim", then she seems destined to spend the rest of her life as a recluse before she becomes a servant for a family. The Yellow Wallpaper: Charlotte Perkins Gilman This story has always confused me. A woman suffers from postnatal depression and her husband who is a doctor prescribes a month in the country in a rental house. He chooses an airy room with hideous wallpaper for her recovery. I don't understand if he chooses this room to torture her or if he actually wanted her to get well. There is mention of a gate at the top of the stairs, but she is able to come and go as needed and takes walks around the property, but I get the sense we are to believe she is locked up in the room which makes her eventually go crazy and she doesn't want to leave. In the end her husband comes up to get her because their lease is up and faints when he sees her crawling around the room in madness. When she gets to his fallen body she simply crawls over it and continues her circle around the room. The Night Watchman's Occurrence Book: V.S. Naipaul I found this humorous though the tone is serious. The story is told through entries in the watchman's log book. The first entry in the log claims the night was uneventful. The next log is from the manager and explains that the watchman was sleeping on the job and fired. The next log is by the replacement and he claims the night was calm. The next entry is from the watch manager telling the newbie that the bar is to stay open all night and people can come and go as they please. Then the log becomes interesting, every night the hotel guests get drunker and rowdier and every morning the manager asks the watch man why the notes are detailed enough to explain everything that's occurred. The watch man's logs get more and more comical as he claims he doesn't have enough time to write everything down and the job wasn't what he expected. During one of the last entries we learn a woman is kidnapped and seemingly murdered while the local cops are in the bar getting drunk. The next log is from a person taking over for the manager who was injured in the nightly brawls. His entry asks for as little documentation as possible. One humorous thing is that the watch man keeps writing "cigarette cartoons" instead of carton, which drives the manager batty. Amahl and the Night Visitors: Lorrie Moore This is a sad story about a woman who knows she is losing the man she loves and we never find out if he is in fact having an affair and if it would be with a man or a woman. She lets her cat outside on the same day the boyfriend moves out and you know neither is coming back. The Somebody: Danny Santiago This was an amusing read. A teenage boy is in a gang that has basically disbanded. He acts like he thinks it is cool he is the last member, but he is constantly watching his back for other gangs. He gets a kick out of writing his name all over town- graffiti- even though the other gang members know where he lives. My Sister's Marriage: Cynthia Marshall Rich This was a story about two sisters fighting for the attention of their widowed father. The eldest sister gets a boyfriend that the father doesn't approve of, she elopes and the family decides to have nothing to do with her. The little sister expresses excitement that she has her father all to herself. The obsession she has with filling the deceased mother's shoes is disturbing and she vows she will never leave her father. Why, You Reckon? Langston Hughes The protagonist tells his side of the story of a robbery and how the other party made off with everything while he was stuck with the victim. He is more concerned at the end of the story on why the robbed white guy thought it was exciting and complained of his life when he had food and money all the time. A&P: John Updike A young boy is a cashier at the local grocery store and one day three girls come in wearing just their bathing suits, after the men watch them walk all around the store the manager tells them once they hit the checkout line, that the need to wear clothes. The cashier, seeing the girls blush, decides to be heroic and quits. Of course the girls didn't seem to notice and once he gets to the parking lot they have disappeared. He realizes this moment has probably defined the rest of his life. Distance: Grace Paley This story doesn't really tell you anything. It is about a woman whose son states he is going to ask the town floosy to marry him, the mother has a fit and he ends up marrying a plain girl who he cheats on like his father did to his mother.