Five from Fifty-Two

I’ve been a bit naughty over the past few weeks in ignoring the FREE short story offerings over at Harper Perennial’s Fifty-Two Stories website, so time for a bit of a catch up on what’s been served up for our reading delight and delectation.

First off, offered up a month ago, was a story by new author Ben Greenman, whose new collection What He’s Poised to Do, is published by Harper Perennial next summer. The story, entitled On the Weekends Sometimes, doesn’t have a lot of information about it (other than being enigmatically tagged by Cal Morgan as a story which ‘showcases [Greenman’s] uncanny talent for persuading the wistful to dance with the wry’) so anyone reading this is going to be reading it blind so to speak.

I’ve got to admit I didn’t know who Ben Greenman was myself until I popped along to his website and saw the instantly recognisable cover for his novel, Please Step Back (Melville House Publishing). I’ve not read this novel yet either, but it seems to keep coming up on my radar all the time. So now I’m wondering how much fate has had a hand to play in Harper Perennial offering up a taste of Greenman’s writing ability.

Moving forward to three weeks ago and Fifty-Two Stories offered up something completely different – not a written story per se, but rather the recorded recollections of Blues singer Mississippi John Hurt. Presented in the form of a video, together with the transcription, Twenty Eight—Pardon Me—and Twenty-Nine, Hurt shows himself to be the master story teller apparently. I look forward to watching it.

A fortnight ago, and the Fifty-Two Stories serving was something really special – an offering from none other than the pen of Dan Fante, son of the great John Fante. The story is called 1647 Ocean Front Walk, and it’s from his collection – Short Dog: Cab Driver Stories from the L.A. Streets (Sun Dog Press). With a promise that the story has the same level of pensmanship as John Fante, but in a style wholly unique to Fante Jnr. this is one I can hardly wait to read.

We’ve already had the pleasure of a free Willa Cather classic short, The Sculptor’s Funeral, back in February (I’ve got to admit to not liking it that much though), and a fortnight ago we were served up a second helping of classic story from the Harper Perennial favourite. This time around it’s a story entitled The Enchanted Bluff, and it first impressions suggests it more my cup of tea – a coming of age tale. I’m probably 100 wrong on that but we’ll see.

Coming bang up to date and this week on Fifty-Two Stories it’s the turn of Barb Johnson, and Killer Heart, a story from her newly published collection, More of This World or Maybe Another. There’s not a lot of detail about the story on offer. But given that the collection as a whole is described as being about ‘four outsiders whose unruly lives intersect on the back streets of New Orleans’, we can be sure of something a bit gritty and powerful.

There, I’ve fully redeemed myself! Well almost. I’ve just got to go and read this quintet of stories, and then I can hold my head up high again.