Home: The narrator is an ex-soldier estranged from his wife and family come home to stay with his mother, but she’s just been evicted. His latest scheme to make his family look richer than it is involves order a set of Semplica Girls – immigrant girls with special holes in their skull so they can be strung on a line and hung in the yard for decoration. The Semplica Girl Diaries: The narrator is a father with a serious case of “trying to keep up with the Jones'”. The latest set invokes love and despair.Įxhortation: The story is a memo designed as a pep-talk to a group of workers to improve their quarterly performance, but as we read on, we realize they do something more sinister than sales.Īl Roosten: Al Roosten is a local nearly-celebrity constantly giving himself pep-talks in his mother’s voice to convince himself that he is just fine the way he is. She decides to get a puppy, but the dog is at a truly messed up household and she just can’t go through with the purchase.Įscape from Spiderhead: Our narrator is serving out his prison sentence as a lab rat for a series of experimental, mood- and function-altering drugs.

Puppy: The narrator is trying to be the perfect mother to her obnoxious kids. Sticks: A father likes to decorate a metal pole in the yard for holidays He has to decide whether to follow his parents’ strict rules or help the girl. Victory Lap: A teenage girl is abducted from her home and one her neighbors, a teenage boy, sees it happening. Setting: various present day settings in the U.S. Genre: fiction short stories, with occasional science fictional elements Since it is a short story collection, I’ll summarize each story and then give my overall impressions. I don’t usually read short story collections, but he seemed so passionate about the author and the stories that I was willing to try it.

A friend gave me a copy of this book to read.

Tenth of december short story