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[lenniel]

Thank you for this thread - I have a list of new things to read!

For my late contribution, anything by Mikhail Bulgakov would be fun and readable, especially "Heart of a Dog" and "The Fatal Eggs."  Both are hilarious and chilling at the same time. 

"Heart of a Dog" is about what happens when a human pituitary gland is surgically implanted in a dog, who then turns into a dog-person.  The dog becomes a terrible excuse of a human being, and causes all kinds of social trouble.  In "Fatal Eggs," scientists irradiate a shipment of what they think are chicken eggs in order to grow super chickens for food, and find out too late they are reptiles.  The egg deliveries were mixed due to general incompetence.  The reptiles run amuck and rampage through the Russian countryside.  Bulgakov uses the narrator well in all his stories, and many times this voice is unreliable or biased in interesting ways.  (His greatest novel, I think, is "Master and Margarita," which is a masterful retelling of Faust.)

[embitteredhistorian]

I'm trying to switch up my intro to lit selections, and am looking for good short stories with unreliable narrators (think Humbert Humbert).  Any favorites?

The Bible, although it's not too short.

Seriously, whatever short stories you recommend, please have them read that bit at the end of Rhetoric of Fiction where Booth says unreliable narrators make him uncomfortable because of their lack of an ethical center. I seem to remember that chapter is only in the second edition, but I could be wrong--it's been years.

[leontrout]

You can also remind them, of course, that one thing literature is supposed to do is make you uncomfortable.

[reener06]

I second "The Swimmer" by Cheever. He unfolds the madness so well, and as the madness unfolds, the daylight and tone of the book change as well. I find myself thinking about it a lot, especially when caught in "utter suburbia" in the summertime.

Marquez also has a short story about a woman whose car breaks down and the only vehicle giving her a ride is a bus on the way to the mental asylum. She is mistaken for a patient, and never gets out; however, the narrator is Marquez. Still, rather chilling.

[thundering_m]

Ironically, a very reliable narrator but with an unreliable perspective: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttimee by Mark Hadden. Expecially good when he explains why he cannot tell a lie. Not a short story but a very quick read, very accessible to underclassmen.

[englitprof]

A much-belated thanks to everyone who responded--I have taken some great inspiration from this thread!