The Home Jar: Stories - Switchgrass Books | Heartwarming Short Stories for Family Reading & Book Clubs

I agree with Margarete S., Zafris does a great job at compiling these short stories. Her stories are full of richness and complexity. One of my favorite stories was “Swimming in the Dark” this story is complex and comical at the same time. It deals with an old tradition of gift giving and also with an old tradition of hiding away a woman’s sexuality. In the story a flight attendant is part a group of flight attendants that hide behind perfect caked on layers of make-up, flawless informative flight routines and facades. This specific stewardess is taken back by an American she meets while sun bathing. She isn’t happy with the man she is marries to and is tired of not knowing who she is. That same night she follows the American and his group from bar to bar as they celebrate or should I say mourn their dead friend. At the end of the night she end up with her face in a fountain that has the ashes of the dead friend floating along and sticking to her face. The last line of the story is what sticks with you the most. “I say hello to the stranger I find under the water. Tomorrow, Singapore.”This last line sticks with you because it sums up the complexity of not just the story but of the Character as well. Zafris does a magnificent job at layering her stories and characters. By doing this she accomplishes a depth and connection from audience to character. For instance you could interpret the last line of that story as the character saying hello to the ashes of the dead friend, but if you look closer you can see that she is actually saying hello to herself. That night as she walked around from bar to bar and ultimately got drunk and joined the handsome man and his group she discovered a different side of herself. The attraction that she felt for this man, and the fact that she was out alone and drinking violated who she was supposed to be, but by the end of that night she had gotten to know herself even better. The icing on this line was the abrupt cut of “Tomorrow, Singapore.” It was sad to think that she would continue to be a stranger to herself, that tomorrow she would have to please everyone around her. Home Jar Stories is full of symbolism and layered complexity from story to story.