"Not My City, Not My People," by Eric Maroney

Objectivity in this story, directed at the Arab-Israeli conflict, recalls the feeling of Brechtian theatre. The protagonist is a chair with “an emblazoned sun … either rising or setting.” The story cleverly combines elements of a narrative arc (what will happen to the chair?) and incorporates non-fictional elements of the Middle East conflict from 1948-1967. Constancy is given a new perspective with the survival of the chair across time and place. There are characters in the story, some facing the absurdity of life, but none rise to the level of meaning as the chair. And by story’s end the reader wonders where now is that chair. Try this story for expanding your insight about this ongoing religious-political war. Read it here in Segue.