Challenge 1061
Now You Do
In Gary Inbinder’s Lil Diamond and Weasel in the Hole:
- Has Lil Diamond appeared in a previous chapter? Why does she want Max to try to defend Benny Levy?
- What does Max want to communicate to Al Lutkus? Does Max express concern for Lutkus after Weasel’s murder?
- What physical or other visual descriptions are usually attached to characters whom Max Niemand meets? Are the details memory aids or visualization cues?
In Justin Carlos Alcalá’s The Rambler:
- Does Adam, the sole character in the story, attempt to take a real vacation from his onerous occupation by going to a forest cottage where he hallucinates an intruder? Or does he remain at work and hallucinate a vacation during which he hallucinates an intruder?
- What seems to be the intruder’s intent? And what tips him off that the intruder is himself?
In Al Maler’s Memories on a Bird: Barry Zielinski and Mathieu/Cigarette Butt are opposites in revealing themselves to each other. And Mathieu makes a substantial profit on the painting that Barry purchases. But is Mathieu’s secrecy a fault? Does he actually do anything wrong?
In Martin Westlake’s Room for Recovery:
- Raffaella’s operation is described as serious and difficult. Why might its cause be left unmentioned?
- Why is the title “Room for Recovery” more accurate than “Recovery Room”?
- How does Ciccio embody unconsciously ironic humour in his attitude toward the mysterious “visitor” and the discussions about it?
In Karama Neal’s The Decline and Fall of Castle George:
- In the Third Quarter of Bewildering Stories, what poems on aging can be found that might be compared or paralleled with the first-hand account of Castle George? Do any speak of disintegration?
- If Castle George is viewed as symbolic of a person, what might the “Door of No Return” signify?
In Brenda Mox’s What Cages Her: Why might “she” and “he” seem to deserve each other?
In Shauna Checkley’s Cat Walk: Which is fairer to felines: fame or family?
What is a Bewildering Stories Challenge?
