Final Option # 1

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-02-18/books_set6.html


This story, Worthy Stories, although it only placed third last year, struck me. I think part of it had to do with the fact that from the beginning I understood who the characters were. Everyone had a name, and a visible personality so you could stop focusing on who was that to get to the actual meat of the story. Although you are never given a name for the narrator, you don't really feel the need to know her. I became enthralled with Zhenya just as the narrator seemed to be, wanting to know about all of the "worthy stories" you're promised in the beginning.

The conflict appears to be the narrator's want to be like Zhenya while still being content that she is who she simply is. She is a writer whose "obvious stories written [are] by an obvious girl," while Zhenya has "dozens of worthy stories" to tell. I liked how the story was about a writer, not a soon to be mother, not some guy who is willing to pay his friend for who knows what sort of thing, but a writer who wishes she was better, which is something I identifed with on the spot. Sure the plot is just about how she admires the girl who wants to marry her brother just so she could stay in America with him, and the stories she has, but it means more to me in a way I can't seem to explain. This story was an easy read while still leaving you guessing, which made it the most enjoyable for me.