Selected Short Stories/No One Writes To The Colonel (Reviews) in Back entries: 2013 - 2015

A couple of weeks ago, I managed to track down a copy of Guy de Maupassant’s Selected Short Stories (368 pages, introduction and translation by Roger Colet). I’d picked up a copy about eleven years ago when I was doing a short Creative Writing course, and loved it. But since then, that copy’s gone missing. Just before I left my last job, I popped into a second hand/antique book store near to work and found this for only $2.

The first story is “Boule de Suif”, the story about a prostitute and her travelling companions who are prevented from starting the second part of their journey due to a Prussian soldier. It stuck with me all these years, in particular the ending - how she’s treated. I’d forgotten a lot about the other stories, so it was interesting to read these again. I can see myself dipping in to the book for and re-reading a couple of stories - examples being “The Horla”, a horror story with a questionable narrator, “Madame Tellier’s Establishment” (about a brothel owner and her charges going to a First Communion) and “A Ruse” (a doctor reminisces about when his discretion was required).

No One Writes To The Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (69 pages) is about a Colonel and his sick wife. Every Friday for the past fifteen years, he has waited for the mail launch - for the letter carrying his pension cheque. While the couple wait (and try and figure out where the next meal will come from), he pins his hopes on a bird that he hopes will win the cockfighting season.

This was a very depressing read. I felt a mix of emotions during the reading of this book - sympathy for the forgotten Colonel and his wife, admiration for their resourcefulness while they wait…I’ve been wanting to read this for a while and was so glad I picked this up. Definitely recommended.

Last updated January 01, 2015