The last spin is short story written by Evan Hunter, it tells a story of Danny and Tigo who are part of two rival gangs, or ”clubs” as they call them. In the beginning Danny see’s Tigo as his enemy, but as the story goes along they share their thoughts and start to be come friends.

It is kind of ironic thing that two people who are supposed to hate each other just because of the neighbourhoods they live in decide to call it a rest but since they wanted to start a friendship from a clean table Danny had to do one more round of Russian roulette, wich was at the same time beginning and ending of a friendship.

The language of the story is quite easy to read and understand with only exeption on the gun spesifications.

When Danny gathers up his dignity and asks Tigo to join him to the lake on sunday it shows how he breaks the rules and boundaries of a ”club” member.  Like he says that hes part of the club just because of the place he lives in and he doesnt even like the other people in his club.

The last question for the story in our book is ”Why do you think the two characters joined their gangs.” I find the sentence a bit misleading since they did not join the gangs together even though they would propably have wanted to if the story would have not ended. They would propably have left their gangs in the end but since misfortunate ending of Danny they could not make the difference in ganglife.

The story was good even though it felt a bit short and maybe at parts it was repetitive. The tense moments when Danny and Tigo were about to pull the trigger were well described. In conclusion the story was good And worth reading.

The Last Spin is a short story in Open Road. It was written by Evan Hunter. It tells about two young men, Digo and Danny, who are settling a conflict between their gangs by playing russian roulette. This story is mainly formed of dialog.

The story starts when Danny and Digo face each other around a table in the basement. They don’t want show their real emotions in the beginning to each other. When the game roll forward, they begin to understand each other. The game continues as the same time when the story’s main characters debate about the gang issues. It was a signal that they had bonded in the sort time, when Danny asked Tigo to come with him to the lake, even if they had been enemies. Tigo raised the level and added a second bullet to the gun. He slapped the cylinder and it whirled and the stopped. Tigo put the gun to his head and close his eyes when he pulled the trigger. He heard the empty click and put the gun down on the table. When it is Danny’s third time to pull the trigger, they make a plan to stop the game after it. If the gangs would not accept that they would start their own. The story ends when Danny pulled the trigger the last time and died. At the same same time Tigo put his head on the table and began weeping.

Sometimes the text was diffucult to read, as it appeared in a lot of colloquial language, like example ’street bopping”, what means that when some people fight in the street. The text was still a well-written and rolled forward smoothly. The short story is good in my opinion, even in the beginning of the text it could not get me interested about the plot. The final part of the text hooked me to read it more and more specifically.

A Shocking Accident is a shorty story in Open road. It was written by Graham Greene.
It tells about Jerome and his father’s death.
Jerome was called into his housemaster’s room on a Tuesday morning. Housemaster, Mr Wordsworth told him to sit. He told Jerome that his aunt had called. He had some bad news to tell. Mr Wordsworth said that Jerome’s father had been in a serious accident in Naples. It was a street accident, and his father had died in it.

Jerome thought, first, that his father was shot, but Wordsworth finally told what had happened. ”Your father was in a poorer quarters of the city of Naples. There, the pigs are kept on the balcony. Your father was walking down the street when in a block of flats fell from the fifth floor pig on top of him. ”

Jerome appreciated and adored his father. His father was a writer. Jerome thinks that his father’s death was a comic. When he told about the school’s friends, he realized how it affects others. His father death after, him began to treat unreasonable, such as pigs.

Jerome loved her father. He has in possession of the album, which was a picture-postcards, and it eased her pain when her aunt began chatting with strangers on his father’s death.
His aunt would start, ”it was a tragic accident.” And people feels for compassion.
Jerome realized suddenly that rambling speech can be real. Him all his father’s death was terrible. He did not understand how it could permit such a civilized country. Her aunt had replied that ”I expect that Italy can be considered civilized.
Abroad happening all sorts of things, and my brother was hard to travel. He always filtered the water, because it was cheaper than buying mineral water. He was a careful man, but who could expect that when he is on his way to the Hydrographic Museum, he would die on the way? No one.”

Jerome has practised to tell his father’s death, to a short extent. In his view, there were two ways.

”Someone once told me, that in Naples always feels at home when you go to the rivers in Naples and New York in the same way. Where was I? In Naples, of course! Naples is poor. No washing or bed linens.
Livestock, pigs and chickens kept on balconies. Animals were not allowed to exercise and they fattens faster. I have no idea how heavy pig can be, but in Naples, the buildings are in need of repair. Balcony on the fifth floor gave out and pig bounced off the third-floor balcony on the street. My father was on his way Hydrographic Museum and the pig fell on top of him. The height and angle of broke his neck.”

The other method Jerome rehearsed had the virtue of brevity:
”My father was killed by a pig.”
”Really? In India?”
”No, in Italy.”
”How interesting. I never realized there was pig-sticking in Italy. Was your father keen on polo?”

In course of time, Jerome was become the accountant and he got engaged with Sally, who was twenty-five years old and his father was a doctor.

Jerome was concerned. He was fond of picture-postcards. He felt a longing to protect their memories. They were going to get married, and Sally, of course, wanted to know everything that was Jerome. Jerome was forced to tell Sally, his father’s death, even though he was afraid to laugh. But Sally was not laugh, but showed his regret.

Short story was very interesting and it is focused on the content of Jerome’s father in an accident. The content of the short story was very well written, and it was used for the imagination. I think the end is slightly open, but it is nice. I liked the story too, and I think it fits all.

The last spin is a short story written by Evan hunter. The plot is consisted of two young men who are in a basement settling a conflict between their gangs by playing russian roulette.The short story is mainly formed of dialog between the two characters of the story, Tigo and Danny.

The story start with the boys in the basement facing each other around a table. In the beginning they are reluctant to show any real emotions to each other but as the chances of the next trigger pull being their last they start to bond. They realise that they are not so different from each other and that their gangs are fighting over nothing. The boys tell about their lives and they can relate to each other. When it is Danny’s time to roll the gun for the third time they make a plan to stop after it and if the gangs won’t accept it they would start their own. They make plans to meet the following sunday as Danny pulled the trigger the last time and died.

Due to the storys heavy consistancy of dialog the language what the boys speak plays a big role in setting the mood for the story. It is consisted of colloquial language such as guns being called pieces and various other words that either are still used nowadays or were used a long time ago in spoken language.

Danny asking Tigo to come with him to the lake was a signal that they had bonded in the short time they had known each other. It took him some time because they were supposed to be enemies. Asking Tigo to come meant effectively abandonning his gang.

It is clear that the short story is from a very different time than ours. The boys are driven to being a gang. It probably offered them a feeling of protection and a feeling of beeing a part of something in a time that things could be very rough.

In conclusion the short story is quite good. It has compelling dialog and the mood for it is set very well.

Alecia McKenzie’s short story Full Stop is a very impressive story about a cold relationship between mother and daughter. The short story consists of different letters which have been written by Grandma Scottie and her grandchild Carmen. The plot of the story is very simple, they write each others and tell about how their life’s going. In the story grandchild Carmen sends regularly letters and also money to her Grandma who uses the money for specific purposes. Carmen considers her Grandma as her biological mother because her own mother left her and her brother with their Grandma. The real mother is described as ”a snake in the grass” in the story so it tells a lot of their relationship.

Grandma’s character is a very religious person, which you can notice on the first Grandma’s letter. She always writes ”God bless” in the end of the letter. Grandma asks money that she doesn’t really need. In my opinion a good christian should live simply life and be satisfied with it. But however she is a good mother to Carmen because she takes care of her.

In the short story is mentioned Normy who is Carmen’s husband. Normy is called for ”hubby” by Grandma. Grandma and Carmen often writes about how Normy’s doing. For example Grandma often says: ”say hello to your hubby”. They also talks about some Richard who is Carmen’s brother. He doesn’t keep in touch with Grandma at all. He seems so busy and reluctant to write to his foster mother, Grandma Scottie. In the end of the story Richard finally writes to her how he’s doing but quite briefly I think.

Carmen has seen her biological mother only at once and her relationship with her seems to be quite complicated. Her mother wants to know her own daughter better but Carmen declines to contact with her. In the story Carmen’s mother tells the reason why she has left her children with Grandma. The reason of the event is a very different version from grandma’s. I believe that Grandma’s version is the right one cause the entire story has written in Grandma’s opinion so that version seems to be more reliable.

The story was quite interesting and easy to understand even if it had no punctuation in Grandma’s letters.

The story is mainly exchange of letters between woman named Carmen and her grandmother Scottie. Carmen lives in New York with her husband Normy, and her grandmother lives on some island. Grandma often asks Carmen to come visit her back home, but Carmen doesn’t have so much holidays that she could go. Carmen sends money to her Grandma almost every time she sends a letter to her but usually Grandma doesn’t use the money for the purpose it was intended to. For example Carmen sends her money to put burglar bars up to her windows but Grandma buys a new mattress instead because God will protect her from evil. The second time Carmen sends the money for burglar bars Grandma buys a dress for her neighbor’s funeral because she didn’t have anything else to wear. In the end of the short story Grandma finally agrees to put up the burglar bars maybe because there had been a robbery on her friend’s house or because she wants to please Carmen.

Grandma wants Carmen to contact with her mother but she refuses to do that because she doesn’t know what to say to her since Carmen has only seen her mother once. In Carmen’s opinion her Grandma is her mother because she raised her and her brother Richard. Their real mother lives in London but she comes to New York for a surgery and sees Carmen and acts like she is her long lost baby. Carmen’s mother tells that when she came to pick up Carmen and Richard their Grandma didn’t let them go but Grandma disclaims that. I think that when their mother came to pick them up Grandma was already so devoted for the kids that she couldn’t let them go. Maybe she as well thought that they were better whit her than with their real mother who was in her opinion “snake in the grass”. Grandma also says that “The Good Lord appointed me guardian—and look how fine you’ve turned out”.  I got the idea that Grandma was really stubborn and she is very religious and thinks that God will save him no matter what. She tells Carmen to pray for God and she often quotes the Bible. Grandma also asks Carmen to come and visit her and she appeals that she doesn’t live much longer on this earth before “He gathers her onto his bosom”.

Grandma asks often from Carmen that why hasn’t Richard sent a letter to her. And when he finally writes to Grandma he tells a lot of excuses why hasn’t he written and Grandma doesn’t believe those excuses. I think that Richard may have been busy and that’s why he hasn’t written to Grandma. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to read about church and God’s blessing etc.

Text was partly quite difficult to read because there were no commas or full stops on Grandma’s letters and that is probably the reason why the title of the short story is “Full stop”.

Why, dear? is a short story in Open road, the last one of the five stories. It tells about a mother who is scared of her own son. The story begins when the mothers son starts to act differently. The son lies all the time and never tell the truth to his mother. He starts to disappear often and has bought a shotgun and a hunting knife. The comes home late and says something creepy. When the mother ask what is he doing the son wont say anything. He even came home with a bloody shirt one night. The mother starts to bug him and ask where is he and with whom all nights, until the son has a breakdown and start to yell and leaves the house. The mother says that she haven`t seen him, not even once sins that. The boys graduated got married and joined the politics. Later he ran for governor and got elected. Now he`s a famous person that any mother would be proud but this mother is still scared and changed her name and moved away.

The whole story is a letter from the mother to a man who apparently is asking questions about her son.                                                                                                                     The story itself was good and the thing how the mother was writing a letter tells that the truth about her son is coming out to public. The man is who the mother is writing to is most likely a police officer or a detective, who is investigating a crime and the glues lead to the mother son. Why a police officer? The case is that the mother has changed her name, moved away and hid her backgrounds, so you need some kind of access to personal information register.

I, myself liked the story and recommend it to other readers.

Alecia McKenzie’s short story ”Full Stop” tells about Carmen and her grandmother’s correspondence. These main characters write letters to each other. At the beginning of the short story Carmen tells that her grandmother writes without commas or full stops, and then there’s one letter from the grandmother. And then comes Carmen’s reply where she writes ”Grandma what do you mean by God Bless And whats this about weak knees You know youre fit as a fiddle”; the same way her grandma writes. But unexpectedly her grandmother baffles her writing. This gives the reader a feeling that the grandmother might not be all sane.

Carmen is in her thirties and lives in New York. She has seen her real mother only once because the mother lives in London. Carmen and her two years younger brother, Richard, are raised by their Grandma Scottie. The grandmother is a quite peculiar character: she starts every letter with ”Dear Carmen”, and she’s total Holy Roller (she often writes about God, and believes that God will protect her from evil, like burglars and she often writes ”God bless”) and like said, writes without punctuation. What comes to the grandmother’s Christianity, she seems a bit hypocritical sometimes. Or she just really is a truly Holy Roller… Either way, Carmen doesn’t seem to like it so much: she usually just overlooks it. Carmen and the grandmother are very close and they have regularly been writing to each other, giving the fact that the grandma has been like a mother to Carmen. Carmen’s biological mother has sometimes written a letter or two to Carmen, but Carmen hasn’t been able to answer her because she feels like she’s writing to a stranger.

Alongside the correspondence Carmen sends her grandmother money every now and then. Usually the money is meant to a specific purpose. E.g. Carmen sent Scottie money so that she could hire a painter that would paint her house. Although the money usually goes to something way more different that it should go. So when Carmen sent money for the painter, Scottie put the money in the bank because she thinks that the island’s, where the grandma lives, painters are thieves. The grandma is very stubborn with some things, maybe because of her age…

It’s been transpired that Grandma Scottie is one of a kind person. Carmen doesn’t seem to care about Scottie’s weird behavior, but obviously her brother Richard is aware of grandmother’s situation. That can be the reason why he hasn’t kept touch with his grandmother. The story won’t tell the reason so we can only speculate.