>The New Yorker: "The Mahogany Elephant" by Maxim Biller

>This one doesn’t do much for me, largely because I don’t buy the characters’ behavior, especially the woman. She has just returned from three months in India, having taken a break from a relationship with the man. She says she didn’t think of him while she was gone and only bought him his present, a mahogany elephant, in the Bombay airport on the way back. He throws it away, but she asks about it and he digs through the trash and he admits that he threw it away. The way things are going, you’d think neither one of them would want to be together at this point. She should leave. But she doesn’t. I don’t buy it. The Q&A with Maxim Biller is interesting.

July 2, 2007: “The Mahogany Elephant” by Maxim Biller

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.

Comments

  1. >The story struck me as somewhat of an homage to Hemmingway’s “white elephant.” I didn’t care much for it though.

  2. >You mean “Hills Like White Elephants?” I don’t really see the connection, other than the strained relations between the couple.

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