THE SWIMMER John Chever

　　Neddy Merrill plans to “swim the Lucinda stream” to get back home. He actually swims in the neighborhood swimming pools one after another to reach his destination. The story first takes place in the summer, but as the story develops, yellow leaves fall and winter sets in. He sees winter sky Andromeda and Cassiopeia constellations. As Ned swims in the pools, he encounters various people and families but somehow feels forgetful. He becomes so weak and tired that he wonders whether he can safely reach his house. But when he reaches it, it was empty. His wife and his daughters are gone.
On the surface, Ned’s plan is carried out as he planned, but in the deep bottom, he transforms from a vigorous man into a feeble, forgetful, Alzheimer's patient. The story develops with two different time spans. One lasts within one day, but the other covers his life. A mysterious story.

THE CRABAPPLE TREE Robert Coover

　　At the beginning of the story, a mother bleeds to death during childbirth (The baby is Dickie-boy.) and is buried under a crabapple. Her husband marries the Vamp, who then “cut Dickie-boy’s head.” He is buried under the crabapple next to his mother. The Vamp poisons her husband, and buries him under the crabapple, and abandons her daughter, Maleen, and goes on the run. (She may be under the crabapple, too, which means that she was killed by Maleen). Mareen is a queer girl who enjoys playing with piles of Dickie-boy’s bones dug from under the crabapple. Mareen inherits the Vamp’s house. Birds gather in the crabapple branches and eat the apples, and get louder and bigger.

　　A very scary story. It does not move the reader’s heart, but just gives a dark and spooky impression. There is nothing more to it. I don’t know why New Yorker chose this story.

A Perfect Day for Bananafish J.D. Salinger

An excellent short story. Well written. The effective forecast that shows Seymour’s peculiar behavior. Then follows the part where the girl and Seymour go into the sea. Because of his madness, the reader is afraid that he will drown the girl at any moment. For example, the expression: “He edged the float and its passenger a foot closer to the horizon.” This signifies that the girl is pushed away from the shore to the more dangerous spot in the sea. This intensifies the reader’s scare. The abrupt ending is effective, betraying the reader’s expectation. The reader does not know what will happen with his gun until the last moment, or until they read the last three words: his, right, temple. Almost all the readers, I guess, would think that he would shoot Muriel.

A good writer knows how to betray the reader’s expectation.

The Conversion of the Jews Philip Roth

　This is one of the most humorous stories I have ever read. Despite the grave title, “The Conversion of the Jews,” the novel often makes the readers laugh. The most dramatic and humorous part is the scene where Ozzie orders Rabbi, his mother, and the people down below to say, “God can make a child without intercourse.” This is the moment of conversion from Judaism to Christianity. Roth keeps the readers in suspense in the early pages of the novel: whether Ozzie will come down to the ground safely or not. This is a good technique to drive the reader into a corner. The last scene is effective. It gives the reader a relief. Ozzie says, “Now I can come down… And he did into the center of the yellow net that glowed in the evening’s edge like an overgrown halo.

大力 太宰治

大力

この話は井原西鶴の『本朝２０不孝』の「無用の力自慢」を種本としています。原作（現代語訳）を読んでみてがっかりしました。「大力」のあらすじと原作とほとんど変わらないのです。

原作は次のような話です。

丸亀屋才兵衛なる怪力男が相撲好きで、父親が相撲をやめるように言っても相撲をやめない。母親も「島原へ行って千両や２千両遣ったところで減るものではない。相撲をやめて存分に色遊びをしたらどうか」と勧めても、相撲をやめない。ついに女房を持たせるのだが、才兵衛は「摩利支天に誓って女は嫌いじゃ」と言って女房を避ける。ところが夜宮相撲で、相撲取りに投げ飛ばされて肋骨を折って床に伏し、両親に足をさすらせ、親の罰当たりとして名乗りを上げることになった。以上が原作です。

原作と「大力」の違いは主に２つあります。一つ目は、「大力」では才兵衛が幼少の頃、いかに怪力であったかが描かれていること。二つ目は、相撲の師匠の鰐口が「おい、おれだ、おれだよ」と言って隙を作らせ、投げ飛ばすという点です。太宰が「無用の力自慢」を改作した箇所は、突き詰めて言えばこの点だけです。もっとも父親が楊弓、香、蹴鞠、狂言などを勧めますが、これも原作に「琴、碁、書画、茶の湯、蹴鞠、楊弓、謡曲などの慰みもの」が出てきます。鰐口の取り組み方はユーモアがあって面白いのですが、誰しも考えそうな勝ち方で、太宰独特の勝ち方ではなく、目新しいものではありません。

種本を改作して新しい作品を創作するのは面白いのですが、太宰の「大力」は余りにも原作と似ていて興ざめしました。　

新聞紙 三島由紀夫

　これはユーモア小説。敏子（おそらく敏感の敏から）が次から次へと妄想し、ついには２０年後のことまで妄想する。挙句の果ては、妄想が高じて、現実が妄想と一致してしまう面白さ。 ジェームズ・サーバーの短編小説『虹をつかむ男』 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurberの主人公うオルター・ミティーの妄想狂と似ている。三島はサーバーをヒントにしたか。

橋づくし 三島由紀夫

　よくできた話。落語のよう。願をかけた４人が、腹痛、知人、警官によって橋を７つ渡るという願がぶち壊しになるが、田舎での不細工なみな、だけうまくいく。
　近松の浄瑠璃「天の網島」の治兵衛と小春が心中道行最後の段で橋づくしのくだりをヒントに昔からある無言の願掛けを足してできた小説だと思われる。 出だしの「元はと問えば分別の、あのいたけいけな貝殻に一杯もなき蜆橋、短き物は我々が此の世の住居秋の日よ」の「分別の」の「の」は主格の「の」で、分別が蜆貝殻いっぱい分もなかったため、短い命を絶つことになる、というような意味か。
　不可解な点
　 なぜ、三島は、出だしから約１ページも使い小弓を食いしん坊加減を詳述しているが、何のためか。腹痛を起こすのはかな子であるのに、わからない。