Short stories by Morley Callaghan
Morley Callaghan, in full Morley Edward Callaghan, (born Sept. 22, 1903, Toronto, Ont., Can.—died Aug. 25, 1990, Toronto), Canadian novelist and short-story writer.
Callaghan attended the University of Toronto (B.A., 1925) and Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., 1928). He never practiced law, but he became a full-time writer in 1928 and won critical acclaim for his short stories collected in A Native Argosy (1929). Later collections of stories include Morley Callaghan’s Stories (1959) and No Man’s Meat and The Enchanted Pimp (1978).
Strange Fugitive (1928), the first of Callaghan’s more than 10 novels, describes the destruction of a social misfit, a type that recurs in Callaghan’s fiction. His novels examine questions of morality and social class, and his later works show an emphasis on Christian love as an answer to social injustice, as in Such Is My Beloved (1934), They Shall Inherit the Earth (1935), The Loved and the Lost (1951), and A Passion in Rome (1961). He published little in the 1940s, turning his hand to playwriting and to work with the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Notable among his later works are That Summer in Paris (1963), a memoir of Callaghan’s days in Paris in 1929 and his friendship with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and A Fine and Private Place (1975), the story of an author who wants artistic recognition in his own country. The critic Edmund Wilson referred to Callaghan as the most unjustly neglected writer in the English language.
Listing 14 stories.
A man, obsessed with a girl twenty-nine years younger than him, is taken to jail for trying to seduce a minor, and wishes he could find a way to help others understand their relationship.
A Catholic priest's typical mundane routine is interrupted by a sick woman who requests his presence in fear of her own death. However, what Father Macdowell soon understands is that the woman's wishes conflict greatly with her protective lover, who sees no importance in religious practices.
A seventeen-year-old boy who just got released from reform school tries to prove to everybody that he is a good person. However, he can't control his bad nature.
A man goes to a farmhouse to meet with his young son and considers his relationship with the boy.
A young pianist is afraid he will lose his job. When his boss becomes interested in a girl he is dating, he has the choice to maintain the relationship or use the girl to stay in the boss' good graces.
A young woman's boyfriend must continually see an older woman because she pays him and he needs the money. However, the girlfriend is suspicious of the arrangement and fears that he will leave her for the older woman.
A recently married couple quarrels about their aspirations and fears for the future while walking through the park.
A dissatisfied boxer struggles to find fulfillment away from the sport that has consumed every facet of his life. As the pressure to win competes with the pressure to marry his long-time girlfriend, the boxer must make a critical choice.
A pessimistic father's belief that the world is actively against him and his family displaces his frustration on his wife and son. His opinion may prove to be correct after his child succumbs to a sudden illness.
An unemployed man tricks a woman out of a dollar bill at a bar, but afterwards he feels guilty and tries to make amends.