THE GRAYWOLF ANNUAL SIX - Stories from the Rest of the World

Scott Walker, ed., Graywolf Annual Stories from the Rest of the World (No.6), paperback

A major role in a play spells trouble for a Japanese actress's marriage; a young Iraqi removes her veil during clandestine walks with a man who doesn't know her name; when an Egyptian matron misplaces her jewels, a defenseless housemaid is arrested and beaten by the police; the daughter of a chieftain in a drought-stricken Kenya village is marked as a human sacrifice. Frequently piquant, these 14 tales--all first published in the 1980s--are penned by Asian, Arabic, African and Estonian writers. The omnibus commendably reveals women in variegated roles that belie stereotypes, such as a Japanese housewife who picks up a lover in the supermarket to steel herself against loneliness. Overtly political, the stories often sacrifice plot and character for didactics; language can be florid and translations unpolished. However, the purposeful collection illuminates foreign cultures, instructing Western readers, for example, about the travails of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, travesties of justice in an Indian caste system and the perfidies of the Libyan military regime. Walker is publisher of Graywolf.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In his introduction, Walker writes, "the people of the United States seem peculiarly and stubbornly uninterested in anything beyond our own borders." This collection, which offers stories from Japan, China, Africa, India, Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, is an attempt to counter that appalling disinterest. Walker tells us that "these are stories that matter , that do real work in the real world. They are not to be assessed in the same way we judge literature written by authors who claim no political purpose." One could counter that the purpose of a short story is simply (and only) to engage the reader. The stories themselves are somewhat mixed. One concerns the status of women in Japan, another the trials of living through China's Cultural Revolution, another the use of the veil in the Middle East. They don't always engage, but they do offer a brief glimpse into other cultures and might thus be useful in a high school history class.
-Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.