Al Bray
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Al Bray
@al-bray22.bsky.social
23 followers 11 following 15 posts
I am a writer of fiction who lives in Etna, New Hampshire with my wife.
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/welcome...
Welcome To Adulthood
This time, let’s examine the fourth story in David Szalay’s All That Man Is. It is untitled and tells a tale about an unnamed man who we can infer is about thirty years old. He is English, a graduate ...
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January 16, 2026 at 2:27 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/live-live
Live, Live!
We left off seeking answers to the question, “What Am I Doing Here?” which is posed in the first story in David Szalay’s linked story collection All That Man Is. Each story in this book covers differe...
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January 9, 2026 at 3:54 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/all-tha...
All That Man Is
Today, let’s look at David Szalay’s (pronounced SOL-loy) 2015 book, “All That Man Is.” Mr. Szalay recently won the Booker Prize for his novel, “Flesh.”The book is a series of nine linked short stories...
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January 2, 2026 at 3:18 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/head-fo...
Head For The Hills
Cesar Pavese’s novella The House on the Hill has an unconventional structure, one that lulls the reader into thinking things will be one way, and then showing them as being different, thereby undersco...
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December 26, 2025 at 2:51 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/state-o...
State of Siege
Last time, we talked about how Pavese’s The House on the Hill fits/doesn’t fit into expectations of traditional story structure. Essentially, this is the story of a 40-year-old man, a teacher, who is ...
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December 19, 2025 at 3:01 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/after-s...
After Sufficient Procrastination
I have decided not to do a post this week on Pavese's The House on the Hill. Why? you ask. I had one ready but was not satisfied. The story is so great, and I felt my post was not doing it justice. I ...
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December 12, 2025 at 7:56 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/the-ret...
The Return of the Return
I'm happy to announce that my short story "The Return" is a finalist in Narrative Magazine's Fall Story Contest. Many thanks to Tom Jenks and everyone at Narrative. I haven't done so much with short s...
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December 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/no-man-...
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December 5, 2025 at 4:43 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/the-hou...
The House on the Hill
This week, a new work, Cesare Pavese’s semi-autobiographical 1949 novella, The House on the Hill. I am reading a 1968 New York Review of Books edition that includes three other of Pavese’s short novel...
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November 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/re-read...
Re-Reading
Last time, during my discussion of Samanta Schweblin’s story Eye in the Throat, an audience member questioned the value of re-reading fiction, and today, I hope to address these concerns. (The audienc...
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November 21, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/eye-in-...
Eye in the Throat
The second story I’d like to discuss in Samanta Schweblin’s collection Good and Evil and Other Stories is called Eye in the Throat. It’s long, forty pages, a size that pushes it into novella range. Ye...
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November 14, 2025 at 3:22 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/good-an...
Good and Evil
Hello to all. Today, I want to write about Samanta Schweblin’s brand new collection of long short stories, translated as Good and Evil from the Spanish El Buen Mal. I will discuss two of the stories, ...
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November 7, 2025 at 2:52 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/__boo
Boo?
Last time, I wrote about the ambiguity of certain elements in Daphne Du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now, and I’d like to continue—especially since we’re dealing with scary scenes, and it’s a week closer to H...
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October 31, 2025 at 5:56 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/halloween
Halloween
Last time, we talked about several different ways to look at the supernatural features of Daphne Du Maurier’s short story, Don’t Look Now. In part to recover from the death of their young daughter, a ...
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October 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
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www.alanbrayfiction.com/post/don-t-l...
Don't Look Now
Daphne Du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now is a long short story (some 60 pages), originally published in 1970, thirty-two years after the publication of our previous selection, Rebecca, which speaks to Ms. D...
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October 17, 2025 at 1:39 PM