The Open Boat and Other Stories

Lamentably, Crane died of tuberculosis at 28. This small collection of stories lets us realize what we have missed. He would have become a master of the short story. What we have is already tops, more would surely have come. One of the stories in this book is a bit older than the other ones, and one can see how he developed after that. 'Maggie' is still trying to teach us something, it is moralizing, even if implicitly, not in a preaching way. We have a 'dysfunctional' family in an Irish New York slum, with all the ingredients: alcohol, domestic abuse, violence, bigotry, petty crime, heartlessness. The daughter of the family is driven out of the house by her hypocritical relatives and joins the 'painted cohorts' of the city. All in all more Zola than Joyce. The title story of the collection is Conradesque: a shipwreck story off the coast of Florida. Crane and Conrad were close friends, both being expatriates in England. The other two stories here are a celebration of Swedish colors: 'Yellow Sky' and 'Blue Hotel'. In the yellow story, a small town marshal in Texas returns home with his new wife, had not announced his arrival, so no brass band receives them at the station, but they run into the drunkard of a gunman who feels like shooting the marshal. How does he react to the new situation, ie a wife of his intended victim? Finally the blue one: an Irish hotelier has built a Palace Hotel in a small Nebraska town, and painted it blue! A sensation! On a blizzard night, he manages to pick up 3 guests from the railway station. One of them is a crazy whining Swede who is afraid that he will be killed here. What a fool. Of course we all know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is. Brillant laconic language, no lessons to be learned. Why couldn't he take better care of himself?

This is short but packed with excellent short stories by Crane. I had to buy this for an english class but I've read it twice since then just because its so good. The first story takes place in Brooklyn and it seems very authentic even today. This is one of my favorite authors and I guess there's a reason they have you read him in school - to get you into reading!

Crane has a delightfully light style of writing that can take the deepest and most sorrowful of situations, and somehow bring them light. His, "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets," is a wonderful depiction of life for a 19th century girl in New York. "The Open Boat" puts you on the ship; you can naturally feel the narration and flow with him as he crashes against the waves. A wonderful read for any interested in American or New York literature.

Stephen Crane died at the early age of 29, but in his writing he shows what he'd come through in life. I think his style is mature and hardened up, due to a life spent in difficult times. In "The Blue Hotel", he depicts a brief, brutal and enigmatic moment in the lives of several residents and migrants in Nebraska, a stupid and cruel fight in the midst of a snow blizzard.The rest of the stories have to do with Civil War episodes and other moments in the US history. My favorite tale is the one that's on the cover of the book: the Open Boat. It is masterfully told, the story is tense, sad and exciting. The reader can feel the up and down movement of the boat, the cold wetness of the clothes, the seasickness the characters suffer, the desolation at every failure to approach the coast, the relationship between the characters, etc. It is a pity that Crane died so young, since in these short stories he shows himself as a talented, gifted and mature writer.

Crane proves to be an early American master of the short story. I found "Courage" to be plodding and obvious, but Crane's short stories rescue his literary reputation for me.The stories are well paced with vivid characters and little epiphany by story's end.