I received a new collection of short stories last week titles The Maladjusted by Derek Hayes.  Derek Hayes is a Canadian writer and the collection has received very positive reviews, so I couldn’t pass it up.

Mike lives in a small apartment by himself.  He has a mental illness and doesn’t get out a lot.  For about the first 15 days of every month he gets pizza from the vender below his apartment.  He lowers a basket with money in it, with a rope and when he pulls it back up the pizza is in it.

Sometime he plays chess with Kim, his social worker when she comes to check on him.  She really wants to get him out in the community and have a more active life. She comes up with the idea to bring him to a local chess club with the end goal of Mike playing chess with someone there.  They work it out in steps. 

As Mike gets less anxious with a step, they move on to the next.  Does he succeed? 

Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.
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I want to thank Joann at Lakeside Musings for bringing my attention to this story and author.  I had not heard of Flannery O’Conner until she reviewed The Geranium.

Old Duddly reluctantly moves to live with his daughter and her family in New York.  It is clear that he is bored and does not like it there.  He is afraid to go out by himself and his daughter rarely has time to do anything with him.  He mostly sits and passes the day looking at the geranium that is put out on the balcony across the way every morning.  However, one day it’s not there and he finds out that it fell down to the ground from the 6 floors up.

This is a story of how things change for a person when they grow old but it is also about racial attitudes and how they differ so much depending on where you live.  It is quite good and moving.  You can read it here.

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I have reviewed 3 short stories by Katherine Mansfield before, all really good shorts. They are The Doll’s House, The Fly, and Bliss. The Young Girl is my fourth.

The Young Girl’s was home visiting from boarding school and spending the day with her brother and mother. Her mother wanted to take her into the casino but they wouldn’t let a minor inside. The man escorting them said that he would take the children to tea, while she went inside. She thanked him and said she would be outside to meet them in one hour.

The girl was very upitty, like she was better than everyone else. Something we come to expect from other portrayls of righ young women from movies and books. She had quite the attitude. However, her mother appears to have a gambling problem so perhaps the girl doesn’t have it so easy.

I didn’t enjoy this story as much as I have enjoyed the other three stories I reviewed by Mansfield. The writing felt a bit stale to me and I didn’t care for any of the characters. If you would like to read it, you can find it here.

Also reviewed by:

The Eye of Loni’s Storm

Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.

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