>LitMag Wave: One Story #97

>It’s been awhile since we’ve had a LitMag Wave and we’re overdue. I know this because I can barely see over the pile of literary journals stacked by the window. I’m going to see if I can’t whittle that down a bit over the next few weeks.

Let me start with the smallest of them, One Story, and the first one I could find in the pile (I think there are several) is #97, Bar Joke, Arizona by Sam Allingham. If nothing else, the story confirms that One Story likes quirkiness. The piece begins realistically, if humorously, when a man walks into a bar and tries to tell a joke that he can’t complete. It then devolves into something else when the inhabitants of various bar jokes come in, including the proverbial duck. (“Duck walks into a bar, says . . .”) This duck, though, has a good bit on his mind and he proceeds to tell a story, although it’s too bad that he waited until everyone was plastered, because I don’t think anyone in the bar, or the reader for that matter, gets the significance of the story.

It’s a fun read, though, and put together well.

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

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