A reading recommendation from the master of the twist ending

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(Thomas Mitchell) – Now for something completely different.

After finishing Larry McMurtry’s “Dad Man’s Walk” — a depressing and grueling tale of survival, by damned few, and happenstance on the plains of West Texas and New Mexico, focusing on the beginnings of the protagonists of “Lonesome Dove” — I reached to the top shelf and fetched down a book club version of the “Tales of O. Henry” for a little light reading.

O HenryO. Henry was known for his short stories with twist endings. Such as “The Gift of the Magi,” in which the wife sells her long hair to buy a chain for her husband’s gold watch and he sells the watch to buy combs for her hair, and “The Ransom of Red Chief,” in which kidnappers pay the parents of a wild child to take him back.

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Mr. Mitchell publishes the 4TH ST8 Blog at www.4thst8.wordpress.com.