0438 - What Is Going on Here? Short Stories as a Tool for Understanding

Course Description

Patricia Whitehead, librarian, teacher, enthusiastic reader

Fiction is a laboratory for the refinement of the soul as stated by the South African writer J.M. Coetzee.

In that spirit, let’s tinker in our own lab to decipher a series of four contemporary short stories, journeys into the unknown souls of each of the characters.When we read a good story, we often are afforded a brief glimpse of something hidden within the inner workings of our own minds.  And when we discuss the story with a group of like-minded readers, we can expand our experience and may come away with a nugget of insight into ourselves and each other.

Here are the stories we’ll examine in the lab:

Mar 25, Dante Alighieri by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Apr 1, I Am Pizza Rat. by Han Ong.

Apr 8, The Choc-Ice Woman by Mary Costello.

Apr 15, Bravado by William Trevor.