Dating : Why ‘FOR SALE: Set of second… yea that’s way too long’ should win the World Cup of Literature

When you read eight stories in a short time, most are immediately forgotten; archived in the back of your mind and, like a recent dream, requiring a short bit of pondering before you can recall the details. The ones that do stick though, are the stories which make the reader feel something, because feelings are much more memorable than an interesting character or a well-written description.

If you asked me to talk about the short stories I read, the first two to come to mind would be “The Talus of Madame Liken”, written by Asja Bakić, and “FOR SALE: Set of secondhand IMPORTED Momo mags for TOYOTA COROLLA (mint condition), bargain’ Nick Mulgrew”. Both of these stories really connected with me and stood out from the rest but of course, only one can receive my vote and the story which impacted me the most is…

Yeah it’s in the title I don’t need to do a reveal. Out of the eight stories that have survived the previous two rounds, I believe “FS: SOSIMMFTC(MC)B”, by Nick Mulgrew, should be crowned champion of World Literature.

Why? Well before I explain my fondness for the story let me tell you about the Author. Nick Mulgrew was born in South Africa, the ‘country’ “FS: SOSIMMFTC(MC)B” was representing. He’s 29 years old (possibly 30) and started his writing career in 2014 when he founded uHlanga, the poetry press which he also served as a publisher for. He is part British but his short story felt very much like South Africa, although I can’t say much about the numerous others he wrote in the two short story anthologies he has published so far.

Nick’s multicultural background gives him an interesting worldview and that can be seen in his story somewhat. It tells the tale of a sad father who lost the son who filled him with pride to a reckless racing event. What makes the story quite interesting though is that it tells the story through a gumtree ad for a gift he was planning to give to the son. Mr Mulgrew uses this premise very well, giving subtle hints to the father’s emotional state through the product details and creating a sense of foreboding before we get to the actual story. The work being delivered like a gumtree ad also adds a level of informality to the piece, allowing the reader to empathise with the father through his grammar mistakes and seemingly unnecessary bits of information included in brackets and dashes.

(I was going to write that you should rotate the pic the right way around to see what they really look like but then I realised wheels are made to rotate so I guess it doesn’t matter LOL.)

These details make the story feel more personal and makes the father seem more real. They immerse the reader into something that doesn’t feel like fiction which creates more sympathy for the father and a greater impact once the reader reaches the end.

Speaking of which, the way Nick makes the author feel the father’s pain in the end is completely brilliant. In the ‘reason for sale’ section where most of the narrative is told, the reader is exposed to a proud father’s joy and love of his son and his new hobby. We witness the dedication of the dad when he searches for a school that won’t disadvantage him because of his learning disabilities. We see the father give his a car to support his interests in mechanics and buy him a subscription to a car magazine. We hear what we later discover to be the son’s lies and suspicious behaviour, and we even listen to the father wholeheartedly accept these behaviours, never questioning them. Mulgrew masterfully portrays the father as completely devoted to and proud of his son, complimenting him often throughout the story. He pays a girl so his son isn’t lonely at the dance and appeases his wife’s concerns about how late the son is staying out.

There is an air of uncertainty in the seemingly nonchalant attitude of the father in the ad, but it disappears in the father’s praise and pride in his son. There are warning signs but because we see the story through the supportive father’s perspective, we miss them just like the father did. We feel glad that the son is doing so well and Nick makes it seem like the son really deserves the gift the father plans to give him to we get invested in seeing him receive it.

Of course that never happens, and smart readers might realise since the Momo Mags are for sale, the son never receives them so something terrible must have happened. After a very long story of the son’s success and the father’s pride in it, the father and thus the audience is succinctly informed that and that the son and his car had disintegrated during a dangerous drag race, and that the father could have had to pay legal if anyone else got hurt, and that the father should have discouraged this dangerous behaviour. We realise the son not been going to the Blue Lagoon like he claimed, but was instead participating in dangerous drag races, which was the source of the dents and scratches.