The Voice of the Arts

Acting at its finest, and a story about an imaginary playmate who can’t play because he has to take a meeting.

Our resident Wild West historian Jim Dunham joins us once again to discuss two characters of the Old West, one an outlaw and the other a lawman.

“Never, never had anyone spoken to me in that tone before. I looked at him incredulously and saw his face convulsed with rage. It was only then that I fully realized how God had codded me, listening to my prayers for the safe return of this monster.” — 7-year-old Larry, speaking of his father, in Frank O’Connor’s “My Oedipus Complex.”

We feature another great short story by Alice Munro titled “Axis,” first published in The New Yorker in 2011. As in many of Alice Munro’s short stories, the characters aren’t like anyone I know, but they never seem contrived or invented. I would say that she loves creating characters and then observing them as they go their own way.

Kate Walbert’s 2012 New Yorker short story is set on a buzzing early spring day in Times Square, evoking the unique sense of renewal and energy palpable in New York when the city finally begins to thaw out from a long winter. While dutifully fulfilling her youngest daughter’s wish of visiting the hectic M&M World, Ginny’s day turns tense as she struggles to keep track of her kids and revisits memories of her estranged husband.