HOBART

We are dragging it by hand now. The engine gave out days ago in a ravine two kilometers south of the parallel. We managed to haul the weapon out of the deep, fecal muck with two stolen mules, which were of no use to us once we ran out of the dried ice cream, which was the only thing that would get them moving. We killed the mules and ate them, and now we are dragging the Sound Gun by hand, using the last of the rope and medical gauze. No one is happy about this, not even Shaving Gel, who we call Shaving Gel because he always smells like shaving gel, although we should call him Bulk or Keg or Mountain because he is big. I speculated that he, out of any of them, would champion the cause, shouldering the weapon from behind, barking fiercely at the enlisted men. Instead, he just looked at me evenly from the other side of the campfire as I debriefed the group, chewing deliberately at his mule.

Thus… of course… what would short story month be without me heralding Matthew Derby’s “The Sound Gun”??

1. Laura’s own What the World Will Look Like When All The Water Leaves Us belongs on this list.
2. I think I’ve read everything on here except for Yellow, and they are all indeed amazing and a really great story collection reading list!
3. A little love for our very own Mary Miller!

ravimangla:

by Laura van den Berg

- Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson

- The Language of Elk by Benjamin Percy

- Once the Shore by Paul Yoon

- Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth

- Big World by Mary Miller

- In the Devil’s Territory by Kyle Minor

- Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti

- Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel

- Self-Help by Lorrie Moore

- Famous Fathers and Other Stories by Pia Z. Ehrhardt

- The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender

- The Point by Charles D’Ambrosio

- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

- Yellow by Don Lee

- Drown by Junot Díaz

(Recommended Reading 5/09)