Alexander Finch, “The Fat Man in History”
The reader first meets Finch as he is attempting to pilfer bedsheets and tins of smoke oysters from an emporium. He used to have nicknames like “Cuddles” and “Teddy Bear” because of his cherubic appearance. It isn’t just that the plumpness has expanded and softened into obesity; a revolution has occurred and now being fat is basically the original sin. Alexander Finch has had enough, however. “Cuddles” is now the Secretary of Fat Men Against the Revolution, an underground insurrectionist movement dedicated to restoring the dignity of the fat man in the future.
The Mime, “The Last Days of a Famous Mime”
The title character of this story remains ironically unidentified by name. He is only ever referred to as “The Mime.” The entirety of his amazing rise from obscurity to becoming the pre-eminent entertainer of his day to slow fall from grace in the face of critical questioning of the fundamental premise of his talent to becoming a forgotten has-been who seems better suited to being a never-was requires just less than 1100 words, making his tale one the shortest, but also one of the most memorable.
The Soldier, “A Windmill in the West”
This story also features an unnamed protagonist, but the motivation is completely different. The mime’s story is centered on the mime himself. The soldier’s story features no other character of real significance, though other people are referenced or make a brief appearance, but even more than the mime, the soldier is a mystery. He is a cipher about whom some details are learned, but prove of little importance. It is not the soldier himself who is interesting, but his reaction to being placed into a situation that is a reflection for him of what he is to the reader. His mission is a misery; it is a cipher about which some details are learned, but prove of little importance.
Mr. Gleason, “American Dreams”
This story opens with a first-person narrator introducing Mr. Gleason as a member of the community whom somebody must have deeply offended at one point, though no one is sure about the who, what or why. Only that offended he must indeed have been. Why? Upon his retirement from his job, Mr. Gleason commenced construction of a wall enclosure around the two-acres on Bald Hill that the entire town knew he had paid too much for. The wall was high and did the job expected: providing complete and comprehensive secrecy for whatever nefarious activity Gleason got up to behind the wall after completion. The wall was completed on the narrator’s twelfth birthday. Mr. Gleason passes away after the narrator turns seventeen and it is only in the wake of his passing that the mystery of what magnificence lies behind it is revealed. Don’t be alarmed, this is not one of those stories where the writer decides to leave that mystery to be solved in the minds of each individual reader. Once revealed, the magical miniature simulacrum becomes the town’s main tourist attraction and one likely to seem strangely familiar to many Americans.
