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The main character, Eloise, struggles to come to terms with the life she has created for herself with her husband Lew. Her true love is Walt, a member of the Glass family, for whom she pines in the wake of his death during his service in the army. The story's title refers to an event recalled by Eloise in which she and Walt were running to catch a bus, and she sprained her ankle. Walt then said, referring to her ankle in good humor, "Poor Uncle Wiggily..
A tale of adolescent alienation and redemption in a post-World War II setting. It focuses primarily on fifteen-year-old Ginnie Mannox's meeting with her classmate Selena Graff's older brother, Franklin.
An unnamed narrator recounts his experiences as a nine-year-old member of the Comanche Club in New York City in 1928. The leader of the club, “The Chiefâ€, is a young law student at New York University who is described as lacking in physical attractiveness but appears beautiful to the narrator. He is widely respected by his troop for his athletic strength and storytelling ability.
Told in two distinct segments, the first involves a discussion between two house servants about their employer’s little boy, who has a history of running away. The second segment explores the mother's efforts to reassure her son and help him cope with his fears. The story opens with the two house servants, Mrs. Snell and Sandra, discussing the homeowner's young son, Lionel. Sandra is very worried that Lionel will tell Boo Boo (Mrs. Tannenbaum), her employer, that Sandra has made some anti-Semitic remarks about Lionel’s Jewish father (“gonna have a nose just like his father†[8]). Boo Boo finds Lionel in a dinghy preparing to cast off, and refuses to allow his mother to join him. Boo Boo pretends to be admiral of the imaginary ship in order to win Lionel over and discover why he is trying to run away. He resists, even going so far as to throw his uncle Seymour's old goggles into the lake. Lionel tells Boo Boo that Sandra called his father a "big sloppy kike".[9] While he doesn't know what this ethnic slur means, conflating the epithet “kike†with “kiteâ€, he nevertheless grasps its derogatory connotation. Boo Boo, in an effort to reassure the boy and help him cope with the episode, succeeds in providing him insights into her own needs and the love she feels for him. At the end of the story, they race across the beach toward home, and Lionel wins.
Lee and a woman are in his apartment together. The phone rings and he reaches across her to answer it. It is Arthur, worried about his wife, Joanie, who disappeared from a party. Lee tells him to relax and assures him that she will turn up soon. Arthur is worried about his job too. He is a lawyer and has just lost a case. After he rings off Lee turns to the woman and she tells him he was wonderful and that she feels like a dog (she is apparently the missing wife). The phone rings again. It is Arthur to say that his wife has returned. Lee is speechless with amazement and ends this conversation very quickly.
Seventeen year old Volodya and his mother visit the home of their wealthy acquaintances, the Shumihins. Everyone teases the awkward and shy young man. Volodya is infatuated with Nyuta, the Shumihins' cousin, a married woman of 30 "with rosy cheeks, plump shoulders, a plump round chin, and a continual smile on her thin lips." Volodya encounters her as she returns through the garden from bathing. She teases him to speak. Finally, he blurts out, "I love you" and grasps her around the waist. She laughs and frees herself. Later, Volodya hears Nyuta and his mother laughing about the incident. He remains at the house overnight and has another encounter with Nyuta, this time in her room. When Volodya and his mother return home, he goes to his room, puts the muzzle of a revolver in his mouth, and kills himself.
In ancient times a happy man grew at last frightened of his happiness -- it was so great -- and to propitiate the gods he brought as a sacrifice his favourite ring. Do you know, I, too, like Polykrates, begin to be uneasy of my happiness. It seems strange to me that from morning to night I feel nothing but joy; it fills my whole being and smothers all other feelings. I don't know what sadness, grief, or boredom is. Here I am not asleep; I suffer from sleeplessness, but I am not dull. I say it in earnest; I begin to feel perplexed.
Doctor Dmitry Ionovich Startsev comes to the provincial town S., to work for the local zemstvo. He starts visiting the Turkin family, considered to be the pride of the town, where the husband runs a small amateur theatre, the wife writes novels and their beautiful daughter Ekaterina (known informally as Kotik, which means Kittie) plays the piano, preparing herself for the conservatory. Unlike the majority of the townsfolk, Startsev does not take this acme of the local cultural life seriously, yet Kotik, full of charm, naivety and youthful spirits, easily conquers his heart. Before making the proposal, he even takes a midnight trip to the town's old graveyard[note 1] where she'd jovially made a mock appointment with him, and even finds this silly adventure delightful. She is full of ambitions, though, and refuses him. For three days Startsev suffers greatly, then learns that she indeed had departed from the town to enroll into the conservatory, settles down into normalcy and soon all but forgets her, remembering his momentary madness with mild amusement.
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