SOUNDTRACK:
[READ: December 19, 2022] “Reindeer”
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my fifth time reading the Calendar. I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable. Here’s what they say this year
Like we always do at this time: the Short Story Advent Calendar is back for 2022. We had such a great time last year working with our first-ever guest editor, the one and only Alberto Manguel. This year, however, we’re bringing things back to basics. No overarching theme or format, just 25 top-class short stories, selected in-house, by some of the best writers in North America and beyond. It’s December 17. Cynan Jones, author of Cove, hears those sleigh bells jingling.
This is the second story I’ve read by Cynan Jones and I seemed to have the same reaction. I didn’t expect to like it, but then really did and wanted it to be longer.
I didn’t enjoy this story at first. I couldn’t quite place the tone. Is it because it is set in Wales (is it set in Wales? the author is Welsh). The name of the character, Ston, was puzzling too. Something bad had happened to him and he seemed to be unforgiven. It wasn’t stated, but it seemed like he had to make amends. And here was a bear involved.
And so, this is something of a hunting story. Ston goes n search of a bear. The bear should be hibernating but it isn’t. It also isn’t acting like a normal bear. It only seems to be eating injured animals (when Ston shoots an elk for himself, the bear takes the elk but nothing else).
As he gets closer to where the bear is, Ston finds himself in a very bad way. He is knocked unconscious and is trying to figuring out just what is going on. Why didn’t the bear kill him?
He presses on and soon discovers something that he never expected. Something that I can’t even begin to describe without giving anything away. And suddenly the story is kind of hilarious and really twisted.
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