JC / Railbird

Eastern Gallop

Nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Guardian begins running a series of short stories by East European writers. The first involves a trip to a racetrack, neatly tying together two of my great interests …

He had no idea about horse races and betting, but an old friend of his had spent a lot of time at the racetrack in the old East German days and up to the middle of the 90s, and told him a lot about it. And he thought he remembered that this old friend, who he hadn’t seen for almost ten years, had won a stack of money. And as he walked home now, past the bars and kebab places and the snack bar where he’d drunk two beers and a shot last night, he knew this was his last chance. Piet and Rolf and the horses.

Read the whole story here.


2 Comments

That was gross. Nothing like an uplifting, warm story to ease the modern soul.

Posted by Howbout a smile on June 17, 2009 @ 1:05 am

My apologies. Note to any future readers: This is not an inspirational or warm, fuzzy story. The protagonist is a lonely, elderly man marginalized in a society that has gone through a wrenching, difficult historical transition. There is an ill dog, and depictions of drunkenness and seedy betting scenes. The ending is ambiguous, most likely unhappy.

Posted by Jessica on June 17, 2009 @ 7:55 am