My Father on the Verge of Discrace by John Updike

This is a great story. The narrator is the son or daughter of a prominent man who is active in his community and who is a high school teacher. He is put in charge of the money for the football games. Each night after the game he takes the money home with him. Unfortunately, he steals this money in order to sustain his family. The era is during and after the great depression and so he feels justified in what he is doing. He has other secrets that are revealed to those in his town. (Crying out on the steps of a building at the University of Pennsylvania "Heil Hitler!"; (This before the US was involved in the war); Passing notes from a boy to a girl in one of his classes...) As I read this story last night I thought of the houses burning in California. One sentence struck out at me "Burning," went another of his chemical slogans, "destroys nothing. It just shuffles the molecules." John Updike delivers again in this story of disgrace (or what is perceived as disgrace)

The Third and Final Continent by Jhumpa Lahiri

This story compares the lunar landing to a man moving to the United States from India in order to eventually bring his wife, Mala, as well. The man's marriage is arranged. While he is working here he boards with a Mrs Croft who is extremely old and keeps exclaiming "A flag on the moon! Isn't that splendid!" and who expects everyone around her to have the same childlike exuberance about man's "final frontier" The voice of this story captures Mrs Croft as well as the man's although they are both from different continents. The author does a splendid job of also showing us the different ideologies of the time.

He's at the Office by Allan Gurganus

"Till the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, most American men wore hats to work. What happened?" This story is about a father who spends an inordinate amount of time at the office -- a workaholic you could say. He is also what I would consider an anachronism (a living relic of the past). "Since June of forty-five it's been All work and no play makes Jack." He is still working at eighty and had to write his own notes to remind himself about simple information.
"Forcibly retired, my father lived at home in his pajamas. Mom made him wear the slippers and robe to help with his morale." Mom and son set up her sewing room as his new office which he uses just like he did with his real office. "And, son? Along with the bad news, I think there's something good. He died at the office."

A House on the Plains by E.L. Doctorow

This book has a weird plot to it, but that is also irresistible.
Mama, aka "Aunt Dora", who is pretending to be her "dead" brother's widow, and Horace leave the rundown end of Chicago for a house in the country: La Villa, IL. Mama entices Fannie a cook, three children, and a help, Bent, to help her out. Men are enticed to invest in her acreage. The plot thickens when one man shows up who is a brother to an investor who goes missing. Everyone is an accessory to Mama's plot. This story involves heads being chopped off, Bent getting drunk, the mansion being filled with kerosene, and Bent waking up to find his arms wrapped around a kerosene can. This story definitely has a different ending...

Along the Frontage Road by Michael Chabon

A father and son are in search of a pumpkin. They get to a roadside pumpkin patch where they pull up in the car and see another car there with the driver door open. A little boy (the same age as the son) is in the passenger side and the father is not in sight. -- He is dealing drugs inside. This story is a juxtaposition of the "best" and "worst" father figures. Nicky - the good dad's son picks a small red pumpkin because he doesn't want it cut up. His dad tells him to pick a better one.
"Then he went back again into the world of pumpkins, looking for the one that would best suit his unknown purposes."
This story, like so many other good ones, goes beyond the plot to expound a moral through a story.

Nachman from Los Angeles by Leonard Michaels

The story revolves around three men: Norbert who is a schemer, Nachman who supposedly writes, and Ali who is a prince. Ali needs a paper written so Norbert directs him to Nachman who never writes the paper but blames the post office for never mailing it for him. The last line of this comical story gives one a glimpse into the mind of the author:
"he [Nachman] remembered the supervisor who looked at him suspiciously and asked with a skeptical tone, 'You're sure you mailed it?' Nachman wasn't sure, but then he hardly even remembered having written the paper, not one word."

Surrounded by Sleep by Akhil Sharma

Ajay is surrounded by grief after his brother, Aman, dives into a swimming pool (when it isn't full of water) and is in a coma. Ajay seems that his prayers go unanswered or are in vain: He felt like "trying to move a sheet of blank paper from one end of a table to the other end by blinking so fast that you started a breeze." This is a fabulous story of loss and grief, but also of hope and the power of prayer.

The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick

A brutally sad story of the love of a mother who must eventually watch one of her daughters die. The setting is in what I presume is a concentration camp in Germany. Rosa, the mom, has two daughters, Stella, 14, and Magda who is a baby. Both must get their nourishment from their mother. It is cold and both daughters must share the only shawl to keep them warm. Magda gives up trying to nurse on empty breasts and discovers that she can suck on the shawl for nourishment. Sadly, Stella becomes jealous of Magda. Rosa believes that "Stella was waiting for Magda to die so she could put her teeth into the little thighs." No one else knew of this baby hidden away in the barracks all day, and Rosa knew that one day Magda would be discovered. One night Stella pulled the shawl onto herself. Magda ends up toddling away outside of the barrack in search of her mother and shawl. Suddenly, Magda has a voice for the first time and cries out "Maaa---" She is carried on the shoulder of a soldier to the electric fence and thrown against it. Rosa can only watch from across the square.
"She only stood, because if she ran they would shoot, and if she tried to pick up the sticks of Magda's body they would shoot, and if she let the wolf's screech ascending now through the ladder of her skeleton break out, they would shoot; so she took Magda's shawl and filled her own mouth with it and stuffed it in until she was swallowing up the wolf's screech and tasting the cinnamon and almond depth of Magda's saliva; and Rosa drank Magda's shawl until it dried."

Defender of the Faith by Philip Roth

Philip Roth does a wonderful job at bringing one's faith to the realm of the short story. Not only is the basis of this story faith it is about a Jewish solider in the army trying to live his religion. Sheldon Grossbart is a trainee only wanting to practice his religious beliefs and tries to get some sympathy from his new Sergeant. But the Army is not the most forgiving place, and Grossbart has numerous obstacles to overcome. This short story helps not only Grossbart find how he can be Jewish in the Army, but also helps his Sergeant find out his true devotion to his religion as well. This is definitely a great story for those who want to see how one stands for courage to live their religion when everyone is against them.