Fiction is Timeless

Years ago I was the Director of Print and received many comp subscriptions to magazines, including one of my favorites, The New Yorker.  I admit I only read the fiction--how I loved reading those short stories.  Never had enough time nor smarts to read all the other articles.  I've saved shopping bags of The New Yorker so I could read the fiction.  On  my latest trip I realized I didn't have a good book to read.  So what did I do?  Grab a handful of New Yorkers out of the shopping bag.  Surprise-they were from 2008 & 2009.  Here are the stories read on my last trip.  Each still having a lasting memory on my mind, letting me escape in to these dreamy stories, real issues of the human spirit that just don't go away.

1. A story by Joyce Carol Oates about a lonely widower who invites a man from town in
2. Yurt....didn't capture the author.  About teachers who are having affairs...& how
   
   
   one teacher encourages another to have a baby
3. Awake, by Tobias Wolff.  Richard, a Columbia college student loves Ana a Russian waitress
4. Wiggle Room, by David Foster Wallace.  A bored tax accountant.  Great prose
5. The Daughters of the Moon by Italo Calvino.  A lovely magical Diane goes naked in NYC worshiping the Moon.  Nature vs. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade & consumerism.  The moon is captured by a large crane but set free by the women of the Moon.  This was my favorite story.
6. The Boy who had Never Seen the Sea, by J. M. G. LeClezio.  Another magical story about a boy who escapes his dorm room to the sea.  His classmates secretly cheer him on as his life unfolds all around the sea.
7. Clara by Roberto Bolano.  A man loves Clara on & off until she dies of cancer/dissapears
8. Gorse is not People by Janet Frame.  Naida turns 21, a "mental defective" dwarf.  Goes to town on her 21st birthday, engaged to pig boy.
9. Brother on Sunday by A. M. Holmes.  Roger visits Tom & Sandy at the beach.  Brotherly rivalry.
10. The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris.  Husband is not liked by wife's friends--so much so they are not invited to their party.  All while they stand up the wife's dinner party after alot of effort in to the perfect meal.

As I moved from city to city I tried to read the magazines quickly so I could dump them--less weight to carry around.  I found myself reading the "Notes from around Town" and was happy to recount the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as several Obama stories (ah-the good old days).  I wondered if I should really trash these issues--weren't they collectors items from 10 years ago?  The cartoons!  The vivid cover color art!  The prose and language and current events I missed.  I left a copy in an airport lounge, wondering what (if anything) the finder would think--who would keep a magazine (hard copy no less) from 2009?

As I boarded my plane home I realized I had shed 10 issues of weight, but had nothing to read on the plane home.  I can't wait to attack the next few issues in the shopping bag at the back of my closet.  Or maybe in the basement.