A few months ago, walking the aisles in Barnes and Noble, this book’s cover caught my eye.  I just love that shredded-paper nest in the shape of a heart.  This is the trade paperback cover of “My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekov to Munro”, an anthology of short stories edited by Jeffrey Eugenides (author of “The Virgin Suicides and “Middlesex”).

I’ve since learned that the hardback cover looks like this (sorry for the small size, but it’s probably just as well):

In my opinion, the trade paperback cover wins hands down, aesthetically.  What do you think?

After I brought this book home, it took me a long time to read it.  There are 27 short stories in this anthology, and my copy totals 587 pages (including the introduction and the section that includes a brief biography of each contributor).

The book’s title is inspired from a passage by the Latin poet Catullus, who (according to the introduction) “was the first poet in the ancient world to write about a personal love affair in an extended way”.  Catullus was in love with a woman that he called “Lesbia”, but who was really named Clodia (although exactly who Clodia was is still debated).  Clodia was already married, and had a pet sparrow.  Catullus wrote poetry about this sparrow:

“My girl’s sparrow is dead,

Sparrow, my girl’s darling,

Whom she loved more than her eyes” 

This book has a wide range of authors, some I had already heard of and/or read (i.e. Vladimir Nabokov, Milan Kundera, Anton Chekov).  All are relatively contemporary short stories, having been written within the past 100 years or so.

These stories are not “boy-meets-girl, lives happily-ever-after” type.  Rather, they represent less than perfect people, who are often in less than perfect relationships.  As Eugenides states in the introduction:

“Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart.  Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.

We value love not because it’s stronger than death but because it’s weaker.  Say what you want about love: death will finish it……the perishable nature of love is what gives love its profound importance in our lives.  If it were endless, if it were on tap, love wouldn’t hit us the way it does”.

This is not to say cynically that true love does not exist; and it is not to say that there is no such thing as happy, content, fulfilling relationships.   But, what makes stories memorable are those that have love that doesn’t end happily ever after, or that has flawed love.  Think Romeo and Juliet.  Think Scarlett and Rhett (“Gone With the Wind”).

So, how do the stories measure up, by literary merit?  As with any anthology, there were a few I didn’t care about (or did not find memorable), several that I thought were good, and a few that left quite an impression with me.  Anyone who reads “My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead” will have their own favorites from this collection.  I’ll mention some of my favorites, with a quote from each one:

“First Love and Other Sorrows”, by Harold Brodkey.  This is one of a few teenage first-love stories in this anthology.  The narrator is in love with a girl, Eleanor; and he is jealous of a popular boy at their school, Joel Bush.   The narrator finds out that Eleanor went out on a date with Joel, and she describes this date to the narrator.  I think the below passage describes so well the process of thought that many angst-y teenagers might have:

” “We went out Sunday night…”  she began after a few seconds.  They had gone to Medart’s in Clayton, for a hamburger.  Joel had talked her into drinking a bottle of beer, and it had made her so drowsy that she had put her head on the back of the seat and closed her eyes.  “What kind of car does Joel have?” I asked.

“A Buick,” Eleanor said, surprised at my question.

“I see,” I said.  I pictured the dashboard of a Buick, and Joel’s handsome face, and then, daringly, I added Eleanor’s hand, with its bitten fingernails, holding Joel’s hand”.

Another teenage love story is “Natasha” by David Bezmozgis.  This teenager is of Russian heritage, living in Toronto; and is a self-described stoner.  An uncle of his has married again; this new wife, Zina, comes from Moscow bringing a daughter, Natasha, with her.   Although Natasha is only 14 years old, before moving away from Moscow, she had gotten herself involved in child pornography because she needed the money.  This teenage boy finds himself emotionally (and physically) involved with Natasha.  They were basically thrown together by their families:

“Since I was home by myself I would be conscripted into performing an essential service.  I was alone and Natasha was alone.  She didn’t know anyone in the city and was making a nuisance of herself.  From what I could understand, she wasn’t actually doing anything to be a nuisance, but her mere presence in the apartment was inconvenient.  My family felt that my uncle needed time alone with his new wife and having Natasha around made him uncomfortable.” 

Not all the love stories in this anthology are heterosexual.  I liked “Some Other, Better Otto” by Deborah Eisenberg.  Otto is in a long-term relationship with his partner, William, who is a good-natured guy.   Otto finds himself constantly stressed by his family, that include several dysfunctional members.   Otto becomes increasingly fretful, even to the point where Otto starts nit-picking at William’s grammar.  Otto realizes, however, that he is fortunate to have William.  The quote below is the last paragraph of the story, but it doesn’t give anything away of the plot:

“A hand was resting on Otto’s shoulder.  “William,” Otto said.  It was William.  They were in the clean, dim kitchen.  The full moon had risen high over the neighbors’ buildings, where the lights were almost all out.  Had he been asleep?  He blinked up at William, whose face, shadowed against the light of the night sky, was as inflected, as ample in mystery as the face in the moon.  “It’s late, my darling,” Otto said.  “I’m tired.  What are we doing down here?”

As for short story beginnings, I think  “Red Rose, White Rose”, by Eileen Chang is an example of wonderful writing and a memorable introduction:

“There were two women in Zhenbao’s life: one he called his white rose, the other his red rose.  One was a spotless wife, the other a passionate mistress.  Isn’t that just how the average man describes a chaste widow’s devotion to her husband’s memory — as spotless, and passionate too?

Maybe every man has had two such women — at least two.  Marry a red rose and eventually she’ll be a mosquito-blood streak smeared on the wall, while the white one is “moonlight in front of my bed.”  Marry a white rose, and before long she’ll be a grain of sticky rice that’s gotten stuck to your clothes; the red one, by then, is a scarlet beauty mark just over your heart.”

This story by Eileen Chang (1920-1995)  spurred me to find out more about her.  Now I want to read  “Love in a Fallen City”; which is a collection of her novellas (there are other publications of her works also).  “Red Rose, White Rose” is also in this collection.  This is another example of a beautiful book cover:

I like reading anthologies, because I discover writers (or poets, or whatever) that I’d like to pursue further.   In addtion to Eileen Chang, I now want to read more of Alice Munro, whose “The Bear Comes Over the Mountain” concludes this anthology.  This story is about a man whose wife now suffers from a dementia-like illness; and she falls in love with a man at the nursing home where she now resides.  This story has some surprises throughout, and is also poignant, but not in a way that the reader might expect.

If you are intrigued by this short story anthology, you can go to Harper Collins’ Browse Inside feature to see inside the book.

I would recommend “My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead”,  especially if you are not fazed by topics such as the ones covered above.   All these short stories have been previously published.  All proceeds from “My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead” benefits 826 Chicago, a non-profit that supports creative writing by school-age children in the Chicago area.

Are there any great love stories in literature that comes to mind to you?  Any that actually have happy endings (the only one that comes to mind right now is “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen)?

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