Fable

by Charles Yu

In May 2016, Charles Yu published a short story in the New Yorker, Fable, in which a psychiatrist suggested to his patient to tell about his life in the form of a fantasy story. The man gives in to the exercise. And Charles Yu writes one of the most touching and fine stories you will ever read.

A short story illustrated by Tom Gauld.

This story can be read in English on the New Yorker website. On this site, you will also find an audio version of the text, read by Charles Yu himself.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy

28 pages, ebook

First published May 30, 2016

About the author

CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including his latest, Interior Chinatown, which won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, and was shortlisted for Le Prix Médicis étranger. He has received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, been nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld, and has also written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebook Watch, and Adult Swim. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in a number of publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Time and Ploughshares. You can find him on Twitter @charles_yu.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

bear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stay and which needed to be removed from the site before just as arbitrarily adding them back, without restoring any of the reviews. since so many of y’all do december short story advent calendar challenges and need stories to fill those requirements, imma try to help by plopping mine back on here, praying they don’t get deleted again, because it’s a lot of work—fixing five years’ worth of broken links and missing reviews and i don’t want this to be a lot of wasted effort, y’know? deep breath. here goes nothing: 2016, take two.

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.

i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.

and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar.

DECEMBER 1

The guy and his wife built their house to be strong, fortifying it with wood, sticks, mud, stones, whatever they could find. They lived carefully, quietly, didn’t even look at each other most days. They’d had enough of living in a half-assed fairy tale. Enough bloodshed, enough potions and elixirs, enough of that for a lifetime. They figured if they didn’t talk, didn’t try to understand it all, then the story would just go away. Would stop trying to mean something, would stop trying to break their broken hearts.

this was wonderful. just a perfect story, and a lovely tom gauld illustration.

read it for yourself here:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 3: THE WAYS OF WALLS AND WORDS - SABRINA VOURVOULIAS
DECEMBER 4: GHOSTS AND EMPTIES - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER - JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP - PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 9: COOKIE JAR - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU - PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES - ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 12: THE TOMATO THIEF - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP - JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 16: THE AMBUSH - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE - ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW - PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS - PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE - MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT - SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES - KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH - CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 28: FRIEDRICH THE SNOW MAN - LEWIS SHINER
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE - EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? - KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES - TINA CONNOLLY

come to my blog!

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some super-librarians seem to have a lot of time on their hands. I really wish they would use it to read the Librarian Manual, instead of thoughtlessly deleting stories left and right.

Goodreads considers the following to be valid book records:
…
• short stories published online (the format should be "ebook"). However, see also.

Which leads one here:

The following is a list of items that should not be added to the database:
...
• Shorts:
***A short story or short stories only published in an anthology or magazine
***Deleted scenes
***Extras only published at the back of a specific book edition
***Stories only available via subscription to a newsletter, or via a website that requires registration
***Incomplete and in progress works (this is different from "forthcoming" works, which are considered completed but as yet unpublished)
***Individual works that are only available for purchase as bundled with another, primary work

Shorts are retained in some cases. Shorts that belong are those that are:
• Published separately
• Published online as a specified short story (i.e. not a "bonus")
• Complete flash fiction

So, here’s a link to where this short story was published online, separately, not as a "bonus", and can be read without needing a subscription or registration to anything: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

Oh, and this one even got a release as a paperback in 2019, complete with isbn and everything. So, surely, you'd think this is a book, eh?! Guess we'll find out. But I think I’ll better keep this brief.

A man is in a session with his therapist and tells her how he had gotten together with his wife, how they were trying to get kids, and how the birth of their disabled son then became very difficult to deal with and ultimately a strain on their marriage. Only he tells it like a fable, to make the whole process easier for him.

It was still a sad and rather depressing read and I wish the ending would have left me with a better feeling about the family’s future.

2.5 stars

I first read this in 2017 when I compiled an advent calendar for a friend (this story didn't make it), but had to read it again now, since I wasn’t sure anymore about my rating and review. I wish there were some site on the internet that lets me keep track of the things I’ve read.

[Nadine in California · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Charles Yu and I have yet to find anything he's written that hasn't smitten me. Here he uses the gentle language of fable, spiced with wry modern touches, to tell the story of an ordinary man talking to a therapist about his ordinary life. And of course, there is nothing shallow or uninteresting about this life - his story breaks your heart and soothes it all at the same time.

[Théo · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Fable" de Charles Yu est une courte nouvelle qui m'a été envoyé par les éditions Aux Forges de Vulcain, que je remercie 🙏

Honnêtement, je ne m'attendais pas à être autant conquis par cette histoire d'une vingtaine de pages, dans laquelle un homme raconte à sa psy, sous forme de fable, tous les déboires de sa vie.

J'ai trouvé le ton de l'histoire et la plume de l'auteur parfaites, ce qui a amené mon expérience de lecture à un autre niveau.
Le ton est ici très cynique avec des touches d'humour grinçant, tandis que l'auteur par sa plume et son histoire amène un coté très métaphorique. Ça colle parfaitement à la forme du récit, et surtout j'ai trouvé la plume de l'auteur superbe ; j'ai totalement accroché au style. Le côté fantastique/onirique de la fable est très évocateur, et en 20 pages il a su me plonger dans une ambiance particulière, et extrêmement touchante (je ne vous en dis pas trop au risque de spoil).

Un petit texte pour un petit coup de cœur (inattendu, je l'avoue). Charles Yu m'a transporté dans son récit, et j'ai été totalement conquis. Autant vous dire que mon expérience avec cet auteur ne s'arrêtera pas là !
Si vous cherchez une petite fable contemporaine, à la poésie asiatique, avec un beau message et des touches d'humour cynique, lancez-vous dedans. En plus, ce n'est pas la taille qui devrait vous effrayer.

[Doc. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is yet another flawless New Yorker freebie, in the running for my favourite short story of 2016.

Charles Yu’s story is about the heroes amongst us, like his protagonist who juggles two jobs to support a special needs son. It’s also about the burden of that mantle, reminding us that heroes are prone to resentment and anger as often as the rest of us.

However, Fable is made excellent not by its plot, but by its effective framing device and hopeful conclusion... Yu subtly conveys the powerful role of storytelling and fantastical fairy-tales in helping us gain perspective.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this story in the New Yorker (ok fine - it was linked in a buzzfeed article) and gobbled it up. The writing is masterful - I loved the fairytale aspects mixed with the present day therapist interactions. Mr. Yu writes about such a painful, complex existence with such heart. My own words cannot do it justice. Beautiful story.

[Gerardo Vales C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta historia corta te absorbe. Te incomoda pero a la vez no te permite dejar de leer.
Mis respetos para las técnicas del autor. Quiero leer mas obras de él.
Fue publicada en 2016 en el New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

[Danilo DiPietro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful story, packs a hefty emotional punch.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man tells a story to his therapist as if it was a fairy tale. He tries over and over again to tell a new story but each time, it ends up being the same story. Or is it?

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for class and is 1-star a bit harsh? Hmmmm NO. Because I didn’t like this at all. I did not think it was funny and I did not think it was good.

The professor said to read this “like a writer” not a reader and she also said that you should judge a piece of writing based on how the writer could’ve best written it, not how you would’ve written it. However, I just find the concept of this story and its whole narration so GRATING and annoying that I don’t think ANYBODY should have written it.

The whole once upon a time thing is awful. Do fully grown adults really mentally cast themselves as fairy tale archetypes in order to deal with their real life issues? While at the therapist’s office too????? Also, this didn’t even do the whole fairy tale thing WELL, it just adopted the trappings of a fairy tale but nothing that actually defines the “genre” (moral message, weird gross stuff, the hero’s journey or whatever, magic rules/contracts etc).

I also found the narrator weirdly ableist towards his son. Like, your son is a disabled adult. He’s not a neurotypical child trapped inside an adult because his disability can’t be cured. That’s just who he is/how it is. The kinda ableist thing is barely addressed either. The story just takes it for granted he would have these attitudes towards his son.

Also, aside from a few generic paragraphs, I really didn’t find this a very good or even interesting depiction of parenthood as the parent of a disabled child. There is literally about two sentences talking about daily care of his child, and like two-ish paragraphs talking about other people’s treatment of his family. What?

With a gimmick as extreme as making up an entire fairy tale-level world to deal with your life story, I was genuinely expecting a major traumatic event. Like, somebody straight up has to die. And that’s the event you’re tiptoeing around, so you create this whole life. In order to hide that event.

But his son literally seems to be like 18ish???? He’s had almost two decades of being the parent of a disabled child?!? And the therapist’s appointment appears to be for the accumulated stress of all those years of parenting. So?? That assumption just doesn’t work?? He can’t hide this specific issue behind a fairy tale because it IS HIS ENTIRE LIFE. His status as a parent!

So the fairy tale gimmick FAILS. It literally doesn’t hide anything about his life/thoughts and feelings (symbolic of his emotional repression), it just takes extra long to tell us about it! Because of needing to flesh out the fairy tale gimmick!

The final “once upon a time” iteration is meant to tell us the most about his real life, right? The final truth! Well, I didn’t learn anything new except that his wife’s name is Rachel.

Also I found the narration super annoying, which could be more of a me thing, or maybe it’s just Bad Too. And no one should write like that, either.

I used to rate all the texts I read for English class 5-stars out of academic obedience but I’m over that phase now. New year new rating and I hate this story. Charles Yu wrote for Westworld Season 1 (the only good/best season of Westworld). He can do so much better.

[Žaba Čita Novine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very original and touching.

[ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

i cried in a coffee shop

[Louis C · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright. I mean, it was short and that's why I picked it up, and I can see the appeal of it but it didn't add anything new to how I feel about these subjects so

[Courtney]

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

[Lalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discutiblemente uno de los mejores cuentos que he leído en muchísimo tiempo. Corto, emotivo, ingenioso, muy simple de leer, y gratis en la página del New Yorker. Grandioso.

Enlace al cuento

[Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has family memebers with special needs I absolutely loved this short story.The writer does an excellent job of capturing the emotional tool it takes on the caregivers while also showcasing how compassionate and selfless they are.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how many times I've read this before but reading again today and I still love it.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

[Patrick Finnerty · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun lunch break re read. one of my all time favorite short stories

[Gennady Gorin]

not quite in the right state of mind for it.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad but hopeful

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

[Vanellope · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was so entirely sad