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Powerful Short Stories — Life in the 20th Century

Norton Girault is a master of the short fiction genre. His stories demonstrate a complexity of tone—comedy, humor, and irony—to support themes that span the decades of the 20th century: the perennial struggle of the artist; the consequences of war; misguided heroes; and the difficulty of human relationships, both in love and between the races. • In “Out Among the Rooster Men,” a young man is conflicted when he witnesses his father’s confrontation with his uncle, who has driven a black hired hand off his Texas ranch with a shotgun. • “My Name is Chu Myong Suk” is set aboard a minesweeper during the Korean War and tells of a North Korean officer being interrogated and tortured for information on a minefield.” • In “Hands,” a retired chief boatswain mate dog-naps a seeing-eye dog that he believes is being abused by its sadistic blind owner. • “Crazy on the Batture” is about a young black woman and the young white painter who persuades her to pose for him on the banks of the Mississippi River in the early 1940s. • Set in Washington DC in the 1970s, “The Souvenir” reveals the conflict between a WWII father and his Vietnam War veteran son. • In “You Must Remember This,” a Navy nurse Lieutenant, who appears in an earlier story in the collection, recalls and reevaluates the experience of kissing her enlisted Phamacist’s Mate assistant, who served with her in air evacuating the wounded from Iwo Jima. These are just a few of the stories offered in this treasury—a collection with tremendous range, depth, and a common thread of theme and character.