Premium Harmony by Stephen King
My rating: 3/5 cats
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the FOURTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2019 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
if you scroll to the end of the reviews linked here, you will find links to all the previous years’ stories, which means NINETY-THREE FREEBIES FOR YOU!
2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
2018: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
reviews of these will vary in length/quality depending on my available time/brain power.
so, let’s begin
DECEMBER 19
They’ve been married for ten years and for a long time everything was O.K.—swell—but now they argue. Now they argue quite a lot. It’s really all the same argument. It has circularity. It is, Ray thinks, like a dog track. When they argue, they’re like greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit. You go past the same scenery time after time, but you don’t see it. You see the rabbit.
this is going to be one of those quick n’ dirty reviews, as i read the story and am writing this all on my wee lunch break. this story’s first part is an unpleasant couple bickering and being cruel in that half-assed, exhausted way of a couple long past their romantic expiration date. the second part is a character’s opportunity for regret and self-recrimination, challenge unaccepted.
the best thing about this story is what it does to the reader, putting forth a test of emotional engagement: do you care more about humans or dogs? i’m not sure if i passed or failed, but i felt FAR more ache for Biznezz than for mary. to the extent that i just had to go back to the story to remember her damn NAME.
sorry, people. dogs win all day.
read it for yourself here:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20…
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