![]() ![]() In “The Other Miller,” a bored soldier gets pulled from training when his superiors inform him his mother has died. ![]() As you might expect, Gilbert and Mary Ann become more than friends the ending is surprising yet perfect. In the timeless story “Two Boys And A Girl,” Gilbert, the narrator, is left to take care of his best friend Rafe’s girlfriend, Mary Ann, while Rafe goes on a fishing trip for a couple of weeks. An encounter with a very-much-alive man holding up his own obituary leads to a meditation on mortality and the well-lived life, with a conclusion that’s refreshingly open-ended. In the opening story, “Mortals,” a hack journalist who spends most of his time writing obituaries is fired after it’s discovered that he hasn’t been checking whether his subjects are in fact deceased. These are clear, urgent tales that often set up moral dilemmas that aren’t easily solved. ![]() This is a very strong collection of 15 stories. (Note to self: I need to finish that book some day and review it properly.)īut I’d never read a Wolff book all the way through. And I’m a big fan of The Vintage Book Of American Short Stories, which Tobias Wolff edited and which contains some of the best short fiction from the past half a century. I was familiar with some of these stories from magazines, anthologies like The Best American Short Stories series, and The New Yorker podcast. ![]()
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