I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 22, 2023] “Boys”

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 Anton Chekhov.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 22. Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest Russian writers of all time, died in 1904. His story “At Christmas Time” appeared in the 2016 Short Story Advent Calendar, among other places.

This story was translated by Constance Garnett (who died in 1946).

In this story, Volodya, a schoolboy, returns home from school a day late. Everyone is so excited to see him, they don’t notice the boy he has brought with him.  That boy is Lentilov.  Volodya’s sisters’ reaction to Lentilov is pretty funny:

He was, in fact, distinctly ugly, and if he had not been wearing the school uniform, he might have been taken for the son of a cook.  He seemed morose, did not speak, and never once smiled.  The little girls, staring at him, immediately came to the conclusion that he mist be a very cleaver and learned person.

The boys are quite obsessed with California (“there are lots of furry animals there”) and spend much of their time at home studying an atlas and imagining how they can get there, where they can make a “living by hunting and plunder.”

The boys were planning to run away to California to find gold.  They had supplies and four roubles.  They would eventually become pirates and make a plantation.

But on the eve of their planned departure, Volodya fears that he will miss his momma.

Lentinov convinces him to go and they do set out on their adventure.

The ending is surprisingly flat, I think.  There’s an amusing final line, but the story doesn’t really climax so much as run a natural course.  It’s a good story though, very believable.