A reading recommendation from the master of the twist ending

(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. 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.