American Stories (book review)

This book is a collection of six short stories written by six master of the American contemporary literature: The Gift of The Magi, by O Henry, who is often referred to as the father of the modern short story, one of the best-known and best-loved American short-story writers; The Lost Phoebe, by Theodore Dreiser, one of the greatest naturalist writers in American lierature; The Baby Party, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, best known for his novels about life in the US "Jazz Age", as The Great Gatsby; You Were Perfectly Fine, by Dorothy Parker, who wrote best-sellers in poetry and important pieces of theatre; The Romantic, by Patricia Highsmith, a saccesful mystery writer; an Full Circle, by Edith Wharton, who became the first woman ever to win a Pulitzer prize, in, 1921, for her best-known novel The Age of Innocence.

   Although each narration is independent, they share some common points: due to their condition of short story, all take place within a short space of time (You Were Perfectly Fine is the shortest, because it shows just a conversation); most of the stories are set in New York; many of characters are ordinary people and we can see a little part of their ordinary life, therefore, most of them leaves to the reader, eventually, the disappointing feeling of simple reality.

   Regarding the setting, as I have mentioned before, New York is the most important place in the book; the big city where all situations and all events can happen: through the stories we go in its stores, its hotels, its bars...,we can know the inner atmosphere of some homes, some workplaces..., famous landmarks are mentioned, such as Central Park, and the Metropolitan Museum... Only one story is set in the countryside, The Lost Phoebe, which takes place in the Midwest of USA. The main character lives on a run-down, isolated farm, and in this story the landscape is unforgetable because most of the time the main character is wandering along a wide and rural scenery.

   The plot of most of the short stories are quite simple because they can not have a long development: a conversation, the choice of a gift, the consequences of a lost love, an argument in a birthday party...They seem pieces of true life. But they also have their narrative interest because most of them hide a final surprise or an unexpected twist in the ending.The stories, although simple, enclose many interesting themes as: the scarce importance of the material possessions, the value of a long marriage, the madness, the love, the appearances of the middle class in America, the male/female relationships in New York city, the place of alcohol in society, the money, the lonliness... Present, universal an eternal themes which are part of the people's life at anytime.

   Among the amount of main characters who we can meet in this book there are members of all social classes in US, from poorest, as Della in The Gift of te Magi, to most wealthy people, as Geoffrey Betton in Full Circle. Although they are not deeply described, their acts, their words and their feelins make them completely bealievable. Even their unpredictable reactions make them more human, as Mrs Markey's attitude in The Baby Party. I would point up two main characters who attract most my attention: the elder Henry, and the young Isabel. Henry is the main character of The Lost Phoebe: he has lived all his life with his wife, Phoebe, and he has became very dependent on her. When Phoebe dies, Henry can not cope his loss and starts to see her sometimes, and to look for her walking, and asking for her, further and further...; the strengh of his love and his conviction make him a strong character, wereas his madness and the neglection of his appearance made him weak and fragile. Hi is a bid, old and dry man broken by the loss of lis love. Isabel is the main c
haracter of The Romantic. She is 23 years old and works as secretary for a company in New York. She has not family, she has not friends... She only enjoys reading romance novels and se looks forward a more exciting social life, or an ideal lover... She is so exciting when she get her first date... but the waited man does not appear. After that Isabel will start to imagine and look for 'empty dates'...She is a modern character who represents the isolation and lack of affection of many people in our present society. Both characters, Henry and Isabel, are, in some way, similar: they are pulled by the strengh of love, they feel the sad weight of the lonelyness, they fight to make their dream reality, ¿Are they mad?

   The reading of this book is not always easy. The style is, obviously, different in each story, because it depends on the author and the time. Some of the narrations are more descriptive, some more dialogued, some more reflexive... The descriptions have the difficulty of a wide variety of unusual vocabulary; the direct speech encloses a number of informal or colloquial expressions we are not used to listening to, and some characters' internal monologues use very long, multiple-clause sentences which reflect the complicate thought process. In some cases the style becomes lyrical and poetic. The stories, therefore, can be, sometimes, difficult to read, but they are interesting, attracting, convincing, and
well-developed.

  To sum up, I would recommend you this book if you like short and realistic stories. Do not expect here many events or the development of a deep story. They are just little pieces of life where you can meet many different people and a variety of real situations. And through them you can know a small sample of best writers of American literature's work.