Stories that slay us: Bangkok
Object Lessons: The Paris Review presents The Art of the Short Story. Twenty great stories selected and introduced by twenty contemporary authors. Includes stories by Joy Williams, Leonard Michaels, Denis Johnson, Lydia Davis…A fabulous buffet. Php739 at National Bookstores.
Salter shows us how to write a story with no visible effort (Parang wala lang) but maximum tension (Magpapatayan yata sila!).
BANGKOK
by James Salter
Hollis was in the back at a table piled with books and a space among them where he was writing when Carol came in.
Hello, she said.
Well, look who’s here, he said coolly. Hello.
She was wearing a gray jersey sweater and a narrow skirt as always, dressed well.
Didn’t you get my message? she asked.
Yes.
You didn’t call back.
No.
Weren’t you going to?
Of course not, he said.
He looked wider than the last time and his hair, halfway to the shoulder, needed to be cut.
I went by your apartment but you’d gone. I talked to Pam, that’s her name, isn’t it? Pam.
Yes.
We talked. Not that long. She didn’t seem interested in talking. Is she shy?
No, she’s not shy.
I asked her a question. Want to know what it was?
Not especially, he said.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 23rd, 2013 at 11:33
“What people look like isn’t the same as what you remember.”
Thank you for sharing.