Some stories go somewhere

kw: story reviews, continued review, anthologies

Continuing yesterday's review of stories in The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories for 2010.

• Birch Memorial by Preeta Samarsan: This one is interesting in its voice, a Malaysian pidgin. A poor young woman becomes the research subject of a student of folklore and colonial history, which leads to a bit of culture shock in her home society.
  
• Visitation by Brad Watson: A single dad trying to "help" raise his young son, an all-too-frequent situation these days. He almost learns something, culminating in a palm reading that leaves the end of the story ambiguous.
  
• The Woman of the House by William Trevor: An elderly crippled man contracts with shadowy handymen to have his house painted. His sister deals the the flak of his passing away during the work. In an unusual development of trust, everyone leaves well enough alone at the end.
  
• The Bridge by Daniel Alarcón: Differing interpretations of the accidental death of a blind couple, as a man struggles to cope with his insane father. Another story that almost goes somewhere, a protagonist left on the verge of learning about himself.
  
• The Spoiled Man by Daniyal Mueenuddin: In counterpoint to "Birch Memorial", an elderly pauper gets employment quite a bit above his station, which of course turns out rather differently than he might expect, but is quite predictable to anyone who knows the ways of privilege.
  

Does today's audience for literature really like being left in the lurch by all these stories? While I might imagine various endings to such stories, I do so even when an author provides a clear and conclusive ending. I don't mind "what-if" thinking, but I do want to know what the author had in mind when writing the story. I am left thinking, the author isn't going anywhere either, and perhaps that is true.