Review: Hark - A Christmas Collection

Hark: A Christmas Collection
by Justin Bog

Synopsis

A beautifully written collection of short stories from critically acclaimed Pacific Northwest writer Justin Bog, Hark explores the range of emotions surrounding the holidays. From melancholy to madness, loss and despair to hope and forgiveness, these six tales shimmer with feelings, some we'd rather stuff away, that Christmas can evoke.

Set in colorful locations around the United States, from Anacortes, Washington, to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Sun Valley, Idaho, each tale focuses on people who struggle to make good choices, learn lessons, and maybe even find peace during the holiday season.

A bonus story, Poseidon Eyes, from Booktrope's upcoming reissue of Sandcastle and Other Stories---The Complete Edition, is included.

Review

I cannot be the only person that loves reading Christmas-related stories around Christmas time, right? That is part of the reason why I enjoyed reading Hark - the Christmas focus. However, that was only a tip of the iceberg. In these 6 short stories (another bonus!), we are witness to the spectrum that is human emotion. We could experience this any time of the year, but there is something about Christmas that can bring out how grateful, angry, happy, sad and lonely we all are. I believe most of us feel a plethora of feelings like this throughout the holidays (here's hoping it's more grateful and happy than the others, yeah?). 

The stories that Bog has included in this collection all center around your average person who is going about their average days that are tinted with the holidays and therefore, are presented with these choices they must make. It's a beautiful collection that anyone who enjoys short stories and particularly those focused on character emotions will enjoy. I know I did.

Verdict

Pick it up and let it engulf you. 

About the Author

Justin Bog lives in the Pacific Northwest on Fidalgo Island. Justin Bog was Pop Culture Correspondent and Editor for In Classic Style. He enjoys cooking, lawn mowing not so much, and spends time walking and handing out treats to two long coat German shepherds, Zippy and Kipling, and two barn cats, Ajax The Gray and Eartha Kitt’n.

Follow Justin Online: 

Justin Bog A Writer's Life Blog: www.justinbog.com

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/JustinBog1

Twitter: @JustinBog

Short Story Friday: The Hot Girl's Friend

The Hot Girl's Friend
by Lisa Scott

from Flirts Vol 1: 5 Romantic Short Stories

Review

It really hadn't occurred to me to find contemporary romance short stories. I've always thought of short stories as being about mystery or horror. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found this collection. 

I like cliches sometimes. There are certain ones I like and I can't help myself. They are like the perfect brownie or a bowl of perfectly buttered popcorn. One of my favorite cliches is that of the "plain" girl, who is most likely brown-haired and described as somewhat chubby, and the awesome sweet guy, who chooses said brown-haired girl over her bombshell blonde friend. After some chasing and misunderstandings, there is a happily ever after. 

Is the story deep? No. Am I going to remember the story years from now? Probably not. Do I still enjoy them? Yes. Definitely. 

Verdict

If you like contemporary romance and want an even quicker fix - look no further! Don't like romance? Definitely skip.  

Short Story Fridays: Pest Control

Pest Control
by Augusten Burroughs

From Possible Side Effects: True Stories

Synopsis

From the million-copy bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burroughs's most provocative collection yet.

This book is approved for consumption by those seeking pleasure, escape, amusement, enlightenment, or general distraction. This book is not approved to treat disorders such as eBay addiction or incessant blind dating.

In studies, some people reported inappropriate, convulsive laughter, a tingling sensation in the limbs, and sudden gasping. Fewer than 1 percent reported narcolepsy.

 

Doll collectors may experience special sensitivity, as may discourteous drivers, candy-company brand managers, and nicotine-gum users.

 

This book has been shown to be especially helpful to those with parents, grandparents, life partners, and incontinent dogs. People with dry, cracked skin have responded well to this book, as have people with certain heart conditions.

 

Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this book, until you know what effects it may have on you.

 

This text is contraindicated in those suffering from certain psychiatric disorders, including---but not limited to---readers afflicted with anhedonia, which is the inability to experience pleasure.

 

Ask your doctor about Possible Side Effects.

Review

I'd forgotten how hilarious Burrough's writing is. You wouldn't guess it by the title, but this story is actually about the tooth fairy. The story stars a very young Augusten and the trip he takes to spend time with his grandmother in Georgia. It's there where he realizes a loose tooth and hilarity ensues when he learns the story of the tooth fairy.

The story is short (true?) and had me laughing out loud. I can't wait to read more stories in the future. If you liked Running with Scissors, you'll like this short story. 

Verdict

Read because it's funny. Do it. 

Short Story Friday: PCA

"PCA"
Midnight Paths
by Joe Hart

Book Synopsis

Enter a world where nothing is what it seems. Where darkness never abates, and your deepest fears are just a few steps away. 

Travel to an old house in the country where something hungry waits just beyond the treeline. 

Watch as a young woman, whose life hangs in the balance, receives a visitor from the afterlife. 

Or, journey across an ocean on a romantic voyage that ends in the deepest kind of horror. 

This dark collection of the macabre is sure to chill the bones of even the most stalwart horror aficionado.

Review

"Love does funny things to you, son."

And boy does it! In this story, the reader accompanies Eric, a caregiver, to a patient's home. He's there covering for a co-worker of his. What he finds, however, is something unique.

This is a short story that is able to provide enough suspense and dread within its short number of pages. There is plenty of great description and it's creepy as heck. I look forward to reading more creepy stories from this collection!

Verdict

Dear reader, this collection is not for the faint of heart. This story was so creepy that this collection is now a Short Story Friday favorite! you'll be seeing more from me about this author. 

Short Story Fridays: The Poison Eaters

Collection: The Poison Eaters
Author: Holly Black

Story: The Coldest Girl in Cold Town

Synopsis

Pick your poison: Vampires, devils, werewolves, faeries, or . . . ? Find them all here in Holly Black’s amazing first collection.

In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to the world of Tithe in two darkly exquisite new tales. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market and introduces a girl poisonous to the touch and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match. Some of these stories have been published in anthologies such as 21 Proms, The Faery Reel, and The Restless Dead, and many have been reprinted in many “Best of ” anthologies.

The Poison Eaters is Holly Black’s much-anticipated first collection, and her ability to stare into the void—and to find humanity and humor there—will speak to young adult and adult readers alike.

Review

When I read this story, I didn't know much about the collection or Holly Black's other book, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I still don't know too much about it, but the short story by the same name gave me a glimpse of what to expect - and I LIKED it. 

From what I could understand, the short story is a side story from the main one described in The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. The world portrayed in the story is very different than ours. In this world, vampires are no longer a myth, but pure reality. People either run away or towards the now-dead that want to either murder or turn them. 

Matilda is the protagonist of the story. She's looking for her boyfriend whom she lost track of since leaving home. Why did Matilda leave home? Well - this blog is no spoilers folks. 

This story was well-written and got me excited for (1) the rest of the stories and (2) The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I've enjoyed Black's writing since Tithe and Ironside and I feel that her writing just gets better and better each time I read it. 

Short Story Fridays: Infernal Attractors

Infernal Attractors
by Cody Goodfellow

Collection: Cthulhurotica

Review 

This story was much shorter than I thought and I promise you, reader, I did not choose it because it was so short. I don't know if it should really be classified as a story since it feels that you're walking into the middle of a story already. But perhaps that's the point? 

The story is about a man who built a machine/contraption called a Tillinghast resonator for a beautiful woman he is apparently in a relationship with. The protagonist explains that the woman distracts him from his questions [about what he is building] by constantly having sex with him. The little bits and pieces he does seem to gather are from when she is half asleep.

*spoiler*

So, I had to look up what a "Tillinghast resonator" was in order to understand what the point of this story was. Wiki explains the creator of the resonator, Tillinghast, is a character in one of H.P. Lovecraft's stories and says it is the following: 

Tillinghast creates an electronic device that emits a resonance wave, which stimulates an affected person’s pineal gland, thereby allowing them to perceive planes of existence outside the scope of accepted reality.

So, do with that what you will...

Verdict

I don't really have an opinion. It was barely a story...

Review: Sympathetic People

Sympathetic People
by Donna Baier Stein

Synopsis

Both the beauty and frailty of human connections are seen in the thirteen stories collected in Sympathetic People. Here are women and men struggling to find love, meaning, happiness in marriage, adulterous affairs, art, meditation, and even the passage from life to death. Longing generated by loss is everywhere--in the death of a son, the end of a marriage, the slide from hope ignited by Neil Armstrong’s moon walk to hopelessness after President Kennedy’s death.

Review

It does not surprise me at all that Stein's book has such amazing reviews on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads. It is a wonderful woven book of short stories about life and all its intricacies. I don't usually read short story collections in one gulp, so to speak, but this book was so easy to get lost in. The author took the time to cultivate each character and storyline, making the reader CARE about the stories themselves. The stories in Sympathetic People center around everything and emotion that goes along with having a family. The events and feelings that are experienced and absorbed by the characters are simultaneously felt by the reader. This is exactly what should happen in a book. 

About the Author

Donna Baier Stein’s writing has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Kansas Quarterly, New York Stories, Prairie Schooner, Washingtonian, many other journals and anthologies from Simon & Schuster and The Spirit That Moves us Press. Her short story collection was a Finalist in the Iowa Fiction Awards and will be published, as Sympathetic People, in 2013 by Serving House Books. She has received the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction, a Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars Fellowship, Bread Loaf Scholarship, a grant from the New Jersey Council of the Arts, prizes from the Poetry Council of Virginia, two Pushcart nominations, and an Honorable Mention in the 2013 Allen E. Ginsberg Poetry Awards. Her poetry chapbook Sometimes You Sense the Difference was published in 2012 by Finishing Line Press. One of her stories was performed by Tony-award winning actress Maryann Plunkett at Playwrights Theatre in Madison, NJ. Donna was a Founding Editor of Bellevue Literary Review and founded and currently publishes Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature (www.tiferetjournal.com.) She is also an award-winning copywriter. Her website is www.donnabaierstein.com. 

Links to social media: 
www.donnabaierstein.com
https://www.facebook.com/WordsSpiritandYou?ref=ts
https://twitter.com/donnabaierstein

https://twitter.com/tiferetjournal

Top Shelf Short Stories: The Miniature Wife

The Miniature Wife
by Manuel Gonzales

How had I not heard about this short story collection before? Seriously, this author writes awesomely and I am so glad that I heard about the collection from my favorite podcase, Books on the Nightstand. 

This story, which also serves as the title of the collection, is truly one of a kind. It's about a man, the narrator, who "accidentally" shrinks his wife to miniature size. At first, he tries to protect her by taking away their pets, a bird and a cat, since they could kill her. Then he begins to build her a dollhouse that is a replica of their home. Just when he starts to contemplate making himself miniature in order to live with her some days a week, he finds her with an employee (soon, ex-employee, eesh) of his who shrunk himself in order to have an affair with her. And that's not even the worse of it yet!

It may seem that I'm giving away too much - but so much of the story lies in what is said between the lines! I believe that this story shows the manipulation and repression that some males bestow among women. First of all, how does the narrator "accidentally" shrink his wife when his experiments and all that take place at work and in a safe area? Second, instead of focusing all his attention on un-shrinking her, he spends it building her a replica-home dollhouse. Then he talks about being proud of making her so small while still maintaining her beautiful physical features. He also talks about how useless she was before having to force her to defend herself against the "elements" such as house flies which really bother her. 

Also - the narrator talks about shrinking himself for a few days a week then going back to full size in order to buy groceries and whatnot - um, hello? That means he knows how to un-shrink her! It was so infuriating to read! But that's what made it so good - it made me feel something. 

Verdict

Read it. Read it now and then tell me about all the other stuff I didn't mention or didn't catch. What are your theories? This is the kind of writing that makes me want to analyze and that means it's good. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: The Black Cat

The Black Cat
by Edgar Allan Poe

*sigh* Sorry readers - I'm trying to get over my Oscars-depression. I really wanted Leo to win. 

Anyway, today's story comes from a collection of Poe's stories and poems that I've had for oh-so-many-years and only today opened it up. The story is The Black Cat and it was fantastic!

The story is about a man who, at first, has his stuff together. He has a wife and a love of animals that results in their acquiring of many pets. Among them, a black cat named Pluto who becomes a favorite of the man. Slowly, however, the man delves into a downward spiral with his alcoholism. Then, one day, in a fit of alcohol-induced rage and frustration, the man kills the black cat. Believing he has cleaned up his tracks regarding the cat, he is astounded to find a cat who bears a striking resemblance to Pluto around. The cat follows him everywhere - haunting him.

That isn't the end of the story because you, dear reader, should really go and read this for yourself. Chilling and haunting - now I understand the lure of Poe's writing. 

Verdict

Read it because you deserve to read something good. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: Big Girls Do It Better

Big Girls Do It Better

By Jasinda Wilder

Synopsis

Gorgeous, rock-star guys like Chase Delany don't go for girls like me. They go for supermodels and actresses, skinny-girls who never eat and spend all day working out. I'm not that girl. So when he locked his fiery brown eyes on me for the first time, I couldn't quite believe it was really happening to me. It was the second night I spent with him that I'll never forget. 

Review

I don't know whT I expected from this short story. Sex? Yes. A big girl? Yes. But I didn't think it would the story would come out so...hurried? Unbelievable? I know it's fiction and all that! But I would have loved a more subtle attraction between the characters. I have no problem with reading about sex, but the scenes just seemed a bit much for me. 

Verdict

Lovers of steamy romances will love this short story. It just wasn't for me. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: The C-Word

The C-Word
by Don Pizarro

I don't know why I keep expecting this collection to be less weird haha. An interesting story of a guy who rekindles an old flame with an older woman. They share a great night together (sounds like they had fuuuuunnnn) and he refuses to give her up any longer the next day. The rest is left up to your imagination. The c-word indeed.  

Verdict

This short story had more erotica than cthulhu - do with that what you will. It was interesting for me. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: Faeries on Facebook

Faeries on Facebook
by Francesca Lia Block

If you, dear reader, want a glimpse of what it is to read  Block's writing, this short story is the perfect sample. 

The story is about a lovely girl Daphne and the sudden disappearance of her magical mother, Sylvia. Daphne doesn't know what to do with Sylvia's disappearance and so she lives on missing her mother but also focused on living her life, which was so often shadowed by Sylvia. 

She meets a boy, Caden, on Facebook and is enamored by his own magical ways when they meet in person. But there is so much to Sylvia and Caden than what Daphne realizes. 

Verdict 

A fantastic taste of Block's writing: magically realistic. You'll definitely love this story and her writing if you're into magical realism. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: Pilot, Copilot, Writer

Pilot, Copilot, Writer
by Manuel Gonzales

Awesome story about a man who is on a plane that's been hijacked. The Pilot hijacker has the plane circling above Dallas with "perpetual oil". They stay encircling the area for years and years. People pass away. A woman gives birth to her son. They learn of news down below from their old lives. The narrator's wife remarries and his parents pass away. There is more to the story, but I don't want to ruin it for you! 

It is truly an intriguing story definitely worth the read. 

Verdict

I've only read this first story in the collection, and I hope the rest of the book is like this. It's so good!

Top Shelf Short Stories: Descent of the Wayward Sister

Descent of the Wayward Sister
by Gabrielle Harbowy

Yeah, you read right...erotica.

Double yeah, you read right...Cthulhurotica. 

I never EVER would have read anything in this book about a week ago. And now I'm considering buying the ebook (I read this from an Amazon sample) - all because of Bonnie Burton from Vaginal Fantasy. This online book group has made me become more open-minded in what I read.

So - that's how Cthulhurotica happens. 

First, a little background for those of you who may not now what a Cthulhu is. Cthulhu is this this creature (or type of creature) created by H.P. Lovecraft. It's basically this creature with tentacles (see cover of this book). 

Now, onto the story. It was a steamy interesting read. It surprised me because it had the idea of attraction and/or lust at the center of it instead of the story being about attaining a man. The story takes place during the time of servants and before televisions. It is about a woman who is staying at her brother's place for awhile. The woman becomes bored because her brother is never around and she is never introduced to anyone else who visits the home. 

One day, she's roaming the home and then hears a pleading coming from the basement. Thinking that a maid has locked herself in, the woman heads down to help her. What she finds goes beyond anything she could possibly imagine. 

I found this story to be interesting and unlike anything I've read. Of course, I don't read much erotica, but I found the monster link to be a great twist (even though I knew it was going to happen). Also, I don't know if the stories are meant to have some humor in them, but the last sentence of this story made me laugh out loud - in a good way. 

Verdict

Obviously skip if you're not into erotica, much less monster erotica. However, if you're feeling adventurous, try a sample from Amazon and see what you think!

Top Shelf Short Stories: Dead After Dying

Dead After Dying
by Dan DeWitt

A zombie story! No short story reading marathon would be complete without a zombie story! And this was a really good one - touching even. The story is about the narrator and his friend Donnie - who is a zombie. 

The storyline basically follows the narrator who has realized his friend is now a zombie and is trying to kill him. The narrator fights him off again and again, but finds it difficult to place the final blow. He says it's so because he keeps remembering the promises they made to each other, that they would go "beyond the end." 

This story is quite different than any other zombie story I've read. It's very sad and thus, very very good. 

Verdict

Read it because you, dear reader, deserve to read a good zombie story. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: Hope

Hope
by Dan DeWitt

Maybe I'm sleepy? Maybe I really shouldn't piggy back my posts anymore? Maybe...I don't know. 

I really enjoyed this short story. That was not the problem. There was no problem really, just this feeling that I'm not "getting it." 

Let's assume that I know what I'm talking about.

So, the narrator in this story is traveling to a town named Haber in search of that "one" person. I don't believe he says it directly, but I believe he's implying the "one" who will fall in love with him and vice versa. The reader basically follows the narrator as he's traveling and he's having these thoughts about what he wants to happen and who he wants to eventually find. Then there are certain instances where these random thoughts pop up. Well, I say random - but I'm sure they're planted purposely. 

One is where he mentions a previous friend he knew, Dave, and Dave's wife who fell ill and died soon after getting sick. The narrator's thoughts focus on his reaction to the wife's death - and the fact that he kept her wedding ring on a necklace around his neck. 

Second is where he mentions a sickness as he nears the town (or is in the town). The sickness isn't mentioned anywhere else (unless I totally missed it) and it honestly made me think that he's a vampire or something of the like and perhaps he's the reason his friend's wife died? Maybe why his friend disappeared?

Third is when the narrator mentions as a cliffhanger at the end (yup, spoiler) when he notices the other wedding ring on his finger and thinks, "Oh yeah, I once had a friend..." I took this to mean that either (1) yup, he killed another friend's wife or (2) that is his wedding ring of a time long long ago (and maybe, vampire?). 

So, I did enjoy the story, but it made me have a lot of questions - which isn't a bad thing.

Verdict

Read it. Give it a shot. If you don't like not knowing, maybe move along. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders (XI)

Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders (XI)
by David Foster Wallace

So - either I understand David Foster Wallace or he was so much smarter than me that I don't even know I'm not getting it. I had to put that out there.

This was a really really short story because I was supposed to post this yesterday. I have to get back on track! The story focused on the narrator who tells the reader about a dream he seems to have. In this dream, he seems to be blind which makes him cry. He describes how he wakes up crying which blurs his vision making him think he's still in his dream, blind. It's only until his girlfriend wakes him up where he realizes that he's just dreaming. 

The author goes on to describe how the dream appears to sink into any and every part of his day. It gets so bad that he needs to leave work in order to go home and sleep - almost as if to  recuperate what the dream took from him. 

This was simply a strange story. Was it even a story? I guess. I felt like I was just taking a glimpse into someone's life. A photo still. Nothing wrong with that, just that Wallace seems to have done quite a bit of that. Interesting.

The main idea of the story, in my opinion, is the idea of awareness. The narrator gains a sense of awareness from his dream - as in, he becomes aware of how wonderful it is to see and how life could be if he couldn't see. However, at the same time, he isn't aware in a practical or helpful sense. This meaning that he is still unable to be empathetic toward the blind people he comes across and he chooses to go home and go to sleep instead of facing his day, head on. 

Verdict

Just like the previous story of Wallace's I reviewed, Death is Not the End, it's for a particular reader. Other readers may get more from his writing than I have so far - some may not even want to give it a shot. I say, give it a shot, take it for what it is and allow yourself to analyze for a bit and then move on. Thinking too much about it won't be good for the soul - I don't know why, but that's my feeling. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: Revenant's Anonymous

Revenant's Anonymous
by Francesca Lia Block

I have had a life-long love affair with Block's writing. I remember bidding on her book Dangerous Angels (a compilation of all her books in the Weetzie Bat series at the time). I don't remember where I heard or read her name. I don't know what possessed me to bid on her book. I just can't remember, but I'm so glad that I did because her books are full of magical realism. There is family and love and pain and it just all fits together and makes sense. 

It has been a long time since I've read a Block book. I lost touch with her writing simply because I got too busy in my real life to read anything that wasn't printed in some scholarly journal. 

So, how thrilled was I last night when I read that Block was making her collection of short stories, Lay Me Out Softly, in ebook free for today??? (It's also still available as I write this, click here) I made sure to remember, quite a feat for me, and here I am about to review the first one I read :)

So, I read "Revenant's Anonymous". I did not know what a revenant was before I started reading this story. I thought, hey, I learned how to use context clues, I'll just do that to figure it out. Ha! I was so confused by the second paragraph! Just so we're clear, a revenant is like a zombie.

With that said, this is a unique story about a group of revenants that meet for their Revenant's Anonymous every so often to talk about their experience and basically what they are now that they are dead. The story is specifically about Casey and Ed. Both are dead and both, through talking to each other, begin to remember what it was like to be alive. The reader basically joins Casey as she comes alive with Ed as she's falling for him. She begins to notice the "little" things, like a ghostly pulse under her skin when he touches her, the blush that doesn't stay on her cheeks and the nervousness at being around Ed. Through getting to know each other, Ed and Casey learn how it is to live with a soul, even if it is a ghostly one. 

Truly a beautiful story that made me think about what a soul is and how falling in love or just crushing on someone...feeling a touch, even, can make someone feel alive. This story made me fall in love with Block's writing all over again and I can't wait to read more from this collection. 

Verdict

Read it if you love zombies and/or love stories. It is unlike other zombie stories (even Warm Bodies) and other love stories. I hope it gets the reader interested in reading some more from Francesca Lia Block.

Also, zombie sex. 

Top Shelf Short Stories: His Delivery Chick

No, this is not the cover of the story.
This is lovely Pusheen.

His Delivery Chick
by Entice_

Okay so I had this brilliant idea earlier - if I'm reading short stories, why not also read some from independent authors (i.e. not yet published/internet peeps). I actually think I want to read an indie story a day for next month. But I digress.

I thought, why not read at least one for this short story month? So I chose a cute one because my day has not been very cute.

I chose "His Delivery Chick" located at  Entice_'s Wattpad. It's a really cute story! I think young adults would like this best, but I thought it was a good pick me up for a not so good day. It's basically about Maxine, a girl who delivers pizza, and Nick, a well-off guy who orders and seemingly eats pizzas. Maxine and Nick have a run in one day when Maxine delivers a pizza to Nick's house. Some misunderstandings later and you have the budding love story. 

I have to be honest - when I started reading the story, I thought it was finished. I don't think it is. I'm going to go with my gut and say it isn't. So, you may ask, why am I writing about it - well, one because I totally thought it was finished and two, because even if it's not, it's a cute story and the author would benefit from feedback so she can mold her story. Every story worth telling evolves, so hopefully this helps her. 

Now, we're talking about a work that probably doesn't go through as many edits as your average published work. So, there are typos and some sentences that need to be looked at. It needs to be polished and have some details added here and there. That is coming from a reader and former writing tutor. No one's writing is perfect, that is why we re-write re-write re-write. 

Verdict

I am enjoying the story and plan to stay tuned for any future added chapters. It's definitely worth taking a look!

Top Shelf Short Stories: Lawyer's League

Lawyer's League
by Sherman Alexie

Alexie's short story, "Lawyer's League," is about Richard, a half Indian half African American who believes he's on the road to the White House. He talks about how he's spent his life getting a good education and being semi-good at basketball while trying to convince Indians to vote. 

Racism is really the core of this story. Richard experiences racism throughout the story, like when he talks about how any college would want him due to being Indian and then his encounter with Big Bill. 

However, that isn't the only kind of racism the reader sees in the story. Richard shows his tendency to be racist as well. This comes off the best when he meets a woman at a dinner that he really likes. He talks about how he'd love for her to "rain" on him and even compares himself to a teenage girl drooling over a wedding magazine. In the end, Richard decides to pass on making any leeway with the woman. Why? Because she's blonde and blue-eyed and how would that look in the media? As much as Richard is aware of how people look at him, he has no self-awareness of his own prejudices. What's heartbreaking is that Richard deprives himself of what could possibly make him happy - just because of how it would look on the outside to everyone else. 

Verdict

It's Alexie so, of course, I'm going to recommend it. Racism is described in the best way in this story - subtle and heartbreaking.