I Just Read About That…

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[READ: December 21, 2023] “The Gift of the Magi Revisited”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Binnie Kirshenbaum.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 21. Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Rabbits for Food, can’t find the receipt, so will settle for store credit.

I was concerned when I saw the title of this one because it’s a lot to reference a stone-cold classic in the title of your story and then say you are revisiting it.  I feared the worst: either Kirshenbaum would try to improve on the story or she would make a kind of anti-Gift of the Magi, which would be negative and nasty.

But I was pleased, because she didn’t do either.  I mean, yes, this story is negative, and I suppose it gets nasty, but it’s the characters who are that way, not the story itself.

A woman saves up to buy a leather jacket for her boyfriend.  She is very disappointed with the gift that he gives her.  It is thoughtful, in that he heard her say she wished she had such a thing.  But ouch, it is so practical it might as well be a box of tampons.

I enjoyed the brevity of the story and the ending was pretty delightful.