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October in the Chair
50 pages, Unknown Binding
First published December 1, 2002
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January 30, 2022
"Ocupaba la presidencia Octubre, así que hacía fresco aquella noche, y las hojas que caían de los árboles tenían tonos rojizos y anaranjados. Los doce meses estaban sentados alrededor de una hoguera (...)el fuego chisporroteaba con las gotas de grasa que caían sobre la fogata hecha de ramas de manzano— y bebiendo sidra, que les dejaba en la boca un sabor áspero y acidulado"
'—. Me gustan tus historias. Las mías son siempre demasiado oscuras.
—A mí no me lo parece —dijo Octubre—. Simplemente, tus noches son más largas. Y no eres tan cálido.
—Visto así —respondió Noviembre—, me quedo más tranquilo. Cada uno es como es, y no se puede hacer nada para evitarlo"
Los meses con sus respectivas personificaciones se reúnen a contar historias al rededor de una fogata. De aquí surge la lúgubre historia en cuestión relatada por Octubre.
Un cuento ambientado y narrado muy fiel al estilo del autor (y a su vez a lo Bradbury). Es muy disfrutable aunque uno quisiera que se indague mas sobre la personificación de los meses y su interrelación, ademas de que tiene un final abierto y sugerente que funciona pero te deja con ganas de mas.
'—. Me gustan tus historias. Las mías son siempre demasiado oscuras.
—A mí no me lo parece —dijo Octubre—. Simplemente, tus noches son más largas. Y no eres tan cálido.
—Visto así —respondió Noviembre—, me quedo más tranquilo. Cada uno es como es, y no se puede hacer nada para evitarlo"
Los meses con sus respectivas personificaciones se reúnen a contar historias al rededor de una fogata. De aquí surge la lúgubre historia en cuestión relatada por Octubre.
Un cuento ambientado y narrado muy fiel al estilo del autor (y a su vez a lo Bradbury). Es muy disfrutable aunque uno quisiera que se indague mas sobre la personificación de los meses y su interrelación, ademas de que tiene un final abierto y sugerente que funciona pero te deja con ganas de mas.
April 19, 2024
“October was in the chair, so it was chilly that evening, and the leaves were red and orange and tumbled from the trees that circled the grove. The twelve of them sat around a campfire roasting huge sausages on sticks, which spat and crackled as the fat dripped onto the burning applewood, and drinking fresh apple cider, tangy and tart in their mouths.”
In Neil Gaiman’s short story October in the Chair, the months of the year have gathered in the forest, to tell stories around a campfire. They do this every month, and depending on the time of year, the remaining eleven months sit around the campfire on tree stumps and listen. October, chairing the meeting, is a pale man in blue and grey, with a beard which resembles all the colours of autumn.
There’s quite a bit of banter as they josh each other. As the months eat sausages and drink cider, October insists that September should begin the storytelling tradition. September begins in a portentous way, but they have already heard his story. Then young June pipes up. But she is so keen to tell hers that it all comes out at once.
“Fair enough, young June. Tell that one.”
“I just did.”
“So you did.”
October quickly decides, since he has the chair, that is is his turn.
“He stretched in his chair. He cracked a cobnut with his teeth, pulled out the kernel, and threw the fragments of shell into the fire, where they hissed and spat and popped, and he began.”
October’s story is the longest of these stories within a story. It is about a 10 year old boy who has a miserable home life. His real name is Donald Covay, but everyone calls him “The Runt” except his grandmother. His parents think it is a cute name, perhaps because they gave it to him when he was very small, but it does not feel funny any more to the little boy.
“Now, perhaps because names have power, he was a runt: skinny and small and nervous.”
The Runt has a chronic runny nose, and is constantly told he is not as good as his older twin brothers, who are both popular, and good at football. He becomes more and more unhappy, and decides to run away. The Runt collects together comics, 37 dollars in small change, and lots of sweets, and gets ready to run away. All through September he keeps putting it off, but the more his brothers keep ridiculing him, the closer he gets to it, and when one of them actually sat on his face and broke wind deliberately, that was the last straw. Nothing could be worse than this. The Runt thought it was probably just as safe to face the unknown monsters in the world as it was to remain at home.
So The Runt boards a bus, and gets a 10 dollar ticket heading west, although he doesn’t know exactly where it is going. He eats a Mars bar, drinks nearly half of his water supply, and stops on a bridge over a river. He remembers learning in school that all rivers lead to the sea, so The Runt finishes his water and follows the muddy riverbank. He thinks all the police will now be looking for him, but is certain he will manage to get away.
The Runt walks and walks, until he comes across a farmhouse: “half tumbled-down and unpleasant-looking”. He is too afraid to go inside, so he hides in the tall grass surrounding the farmhouse. The Runt enjoys imagining how worried his family will be about his disappearance. Fully dressed, and staring up at the sky, he falls asleep, only waking some hours later, with the bright moonlight in his face.
October ends his story there, and the others sit silently, thinking about it. June asks what happens next, after The Runt enters the house, but May thinks it’s probably better not to know. The storytelling meeting is over. October reminds November that it’s his turn in the chair next, and November says he likes October’s stories as his own are always too dark. October doesn’t think so:
“It’s just that your nights are longer. And you aren’t as warm.”
We can’t help who we are, they agreed, as they take their stories with them back into the dark.
October in the Chair is a chillingly spooky Autumnal story to read in October. It contains of course a story within a story, and since it can be found in several anthologies, is then in a book of stories too: a Chinese box of stories. It was first published in 2006 as part of a compilation book of short stories and poems, and is the first story in “The Mammoth Book of Hallowe’en Stories” published in 2018. In 2003 it was named winner of the Locust Award for Best Short Story.
The style feel very characteristic of Neil Gaiman, and his story-telling aspect. It is told in such a simple, almost innocent manner, and very chattily. We can enjoy the jokey banter which starts, as all the personified months meet up. At one point one calls another their brother, and May tells September to leave April alone, when April complains about sausage juice burning her. It does feel remarkably like a family. Yet the idea of months or sometimes seasons having human form, is ancient, and found throughout both Art and Literature. One series of texts dates from the 12th Century! It describes the personified months and various agricultural actions which are appropriate to them.
Here we can tell the months by their appearances and personalities. They might be cold and grumpy, or warm and friendly. The suggestion is also that the story’s mood will match the month. The final story was the longest, October’s, and called . It is a spooky supernatural tale; bitter-sweet, but also oddly hopeful in the end. It doesn’t have a neatly tied-up ending, so just as the months were left wondering, we also are kept guessing, and on tenterhooks.
Neil Gaiman was to develop this story into his very popular “The Graveyard Book”, although that one feels English, and was actually inspired by Highgate Cemetery in North London. The humour and references here, both in the frame story and in the final one, are American. But once you know that is is a “dry run” for “The Graveyard Book”, it is obvious.
If taken literally, the ending is as dark as you can imagine, to a tragic and depressing story. But on a fantasy level it does not feel like this at all, and the ending is perfect. We realise that Neil Gaiman has stopped his story at precisely the right point, when the months of the year within the story are also wondering and feeling unsettled by this. What a neat bit of metafiction!
We also wonder what the later month’s stories would be. November says his own stories are too dark and chilly compared with October’s. But October encourages him, saying that his stories aren’t too dark; we just can’t help who we are. Perhaps there is another little message in this story too, although it is a desperately sad one: it is better to be dead and acknowledged, than to be alive and never acknowledged at all.
Neil Gaiman dedicated this story to Ray Bradbury, who loved Halloween, and also wrote of boys who strove to make their own adventure. It’s a worthy tribute. Perhaps one day he will also write the stories told by the other months. As The Runt might say, that would be cool!
In Neil Gaiman’s short story October in the Chair, the months of the year have gathered in the forest, to tell stories around a campfire. They do this every month, and depending on the time of year, the remaining eleven months sit around the campfire on tree stumps and listen. October, chairing the meeting, is a pale man in blue and grey, with a beard which resembles all the colours of autumn.
There’s quite a bit of banter as they josh each other. As the months eat sausages and drink cider, October insists that September should begin the storytelling tradition. September begins in a portentous way, but they have already heard his story. Then young June pipes up. But she is so keen to tell hers that it all comes out at once.
“Fair enough, young June. Tell that one.”
“I just did.”
“So you did.”
October quickly decides, since he has the chair, that is is his turn.
“He stretched in his chair. He cracked a cobnut with his teeth, pulled out the kernel, and threw the fragments of shell into the fire, where they hissed and spat and popped, and he began.”
October’s story is the longest of these stories within a story. It is about a 10 year old boy who has a miserable home life. His real name is Donald Covay, but everyone calls him “The Runt” except his grandmother. His parents think it is a cute name, perhaps because they gave it to him when he was very small, but it does not feel funny any more to the little boy.
“Now, perhaps because names have power, he was a runt: skinny and small and nervous.”
The Runt has a chronic runny nose, and is constantly told he is not as good as his older twin brothers, who are both popular, and good at football. He becomes more and more unhappy, and decides to run away. The Runt collects together comics, 37 dollars in small change, and lots of sweets, and gets ready to run away. All through September he keeps putting it off, but the more his brothers keep ridiculing him, the closer he gets to it, and when one of them actually sat on his face and broke wind deliberately, that was the last straw. Nothing could be worse than this. The Runt thought it was probably just as safe to face the unknown monsters in the world as it was to remain at home.
So The Runt boards a bus, and gets a 10 dollar ticket heading west, although he doesn’t know exactly where it is going. He eats a Mars bar, drinks nearly half of his water supply, and stops on a bridge over a river. He remembers learning in school that all rivers lead to the sea, so The Runt finishes his water and follows the muddy riverbank. He thinks all the police will now be looking for him, but is certain he will manage to get away.
The Runt walks and walks, until he comes across a farmhouse: “half tumbled-down and unpleasant-looking”. He is too afraid to go inside, so he hides in the tall grass surrounding the farmhouse. The Runt enjoys imagining how worried his family will be about his disappearance. Fully dressed, and staring up at the sky, he falls asleep, only waking some hours later, with the bright moonlight in his face.
October ends his story there, and the others sit silently, thinking about it. June asks what happens next, after The Runt enters the house, but May thinks it’s probably better not to know. The storytelling meeting is over. October reminds November that it’s his turn in the chair next, and November says he likes October’s stories as his own are always too dark. October doesn’t think so:
“It’s just that your nights are longer. And you aren’t as warm.”
We can’t help who we are, they agreed, as they take their stories with them back into the dark.
October in the Chair is a chillingly spooky Autumnal story to read in October. It contains of course a story within a story, and since it can be found in several anthologies, is then in a book of stories too: a Chinese box of stories. It was first published in 2006 as part of a compilation book of short stories and poems, and is the first story in “The Mammoth Book of Hallowe’en Stories” published in 2018. In 2003 it was named winner of the Locust Award for Best Short Story.
The style feel very characteristic of Neil Gaiman, and his story-telling aspect. It is told in such a simple, almost innocent manner, and very chattily. We can enjoy the jokey banter which starts, as all the personified months meet up. At one point one calls another their brother, and May tells September to leave April alone, when April complains about sausage juice burning her. It does feel remarkably like a family. Yet the idea of months or sometimes seasons having human form, is ancient, and found throughout both Art and Literature. One series of texts dates from the 12th Century! It describes the personified months and various agricultural actions which are appropriate to them.
Here we can tell the months by their appearances and personalities. They might be cold and grumpy, or warm and friendly. The suggestion is also that the story’s mood will match the month. The final story was the longest, October’s, and called . It is a spooky supernatural tale; bitter-sweet, but also oddly hopeful in the end. It doesn’t have a neatly tied-up ending, so just as the months were left wondering, we also are kept guessing, and on tenterhooks.
Neil Gaiman was to develop this story into his very popular “The Graveyard Book”, although that one feels English, and was actually inspired by Highgate Cemetery in North London. The humour and references here, both in the frame story and in the final one, are American. But once you know that is is a “dry run” for “The Graveyard Book”, it is obvious.
If taken literally, the ending is as dark as you can imagine, to a tragic and depressing story. But on a fantasy level it does not feel like this at all, and the ending is perfect. We realise that Neil Gaiman has stopped his story at precisely the right point, when the months of the year within the story are also wondering and feeling unsettled by this. What a neat bit of metafiction!
We also wonder what the later month’s stories would be. November says his own stories are too dark and chilly compared with October’s. But October encourages him, saying that his stories aren’t too dark; we just can’t help who we are. Perhaps there is another little message in this story too, although it is a desperately sad one: it is better to be dead and acknowledged, than to be alive and never acknowledged at all.
Neil Gaiman dedicated this story to Ray Bradbury, who loved Halloween, and also wrote of boys who strove to make their own adventure. It’s a worthy tribute. Perhaps one day he will also write the stories told by the other months. As The Runt might say, that would be cool!
September 4, 2021
A short story within a short story. The months of the year gather together for a meeting and October tells a yarn, fun and engaging, I really enjoyed this little tale.
July 12, 2017
One of my favorite short stories of Neil's. The Months of the year are personified and October tells a story. I love this!!!
February 18, 2021
This is a wonderfully different short story by master story teller Neil Gaiman. In this story the 12 months of the year sit around a campfire to tell stories.
The characters are well written and the story original, or at least I have never read anything like it. The stories the months tell are good and the banter among themselves is fun and engaging.
The final story told by October is called "Dearly Departed" and is an excellent story with elements of paranormal activity (not the way you expect it to be).
I really enjoyed this story and have no reservations in saying you should all read.
The characters are well written and the story original, or at least I have never read anything like it. The stories the months tell are good and the banter among themselves is fun and engaging.
The final story told by October is called "Dearly Departed" and is an excellent story with elements of paranormal activity (not the way you expect it to be).
I really enjoyed this story and have no reservations in saying you should all read.
November 12, 2024
“The Runt was a thin ten-year-old, small, with a runny nose and a blank expression. If you were to try and pick him out of a group of boys, you’d be wrong. He’d be the other one. Over at the side. The one your eye slipped over.”
May 20, 2017
Just wondering what happened to the boy in October's story.
August 29, 2019
5/5.
i really like neil gaiman, even though i haven’t consumed much of his work. i plan to. this story is so beautiful and clever. it’s creepy and dark and the personification of the months is wonderful. it feels brilliant. i’ll probably read it again shortly. almost a ghost story.
5 quotes i loved:
“They looked at each other across the fire, the months of the year.”
“They had called him the Runt since he was a baby, and at first their mother and father had chided them for it…Now, perhaps because names have power, he was a runt.”
“The Runt could not have told you when he first decided to run away, nor when his daydreams crossed the border and became plans.”
“It was a fine dream. In reality, he knew, he would keep walking, and be found tomorrow, or the day after that, and go home and be yelled at and everything would be the same as it ever was, and day after day, hour after hour until the end of time he’d still be the runt, only they’d be mad at him for leaving.
It ain’t empty. I said nobody lives there. Different things.”
i really like neil gaiman, even though i haven’t consumed much of his work. i plan to. this story is so beautiful and clever. it’s creepy and dark and the personification of the months is wonderful. it feels brilliant. i’ll probably read it again shortly. almost a ghost story.
5 quotes i loved:
“They looked at each other across the fire, the months of the year.”
“They had called him the Runt since he was a baby, and at first their mother and father had chided them for it…Now, perhaps because names have power, he was a runt.”
“The Runt could not have told you when he first decided to run away, nor when his daydreams crossed the border and became plans.”
“It was a fine dream. In reality, he knew, he would keep walking, and be found tomorrow, or the day after that, and go home and be yelled at and everything would be the same as it ever was, and day after day, hour after hour until the end of time he’d still be the runt, only they’d be mad at him for leaving.
It ain’t empty. I said nobody lives there. Different things.”
October 19, 2020
October in the Chair was a story within a story, and I really enjoyed it. It came close to being a four-star rating, but the lack of solid answers disappointed me somewhat. I was hooked, but, when I was finished reading, I just wanted my questions answered. As it’s a pet peeve of mine, I couldn’t quite bring myself to round my rating up. Nevertheless, I was hooked throughout.
February 20, 2018
I loved this short story. The months personified and telling tales around the campfire. October's tale was very sad but at the same time, extremely compelling... I mean I really want to know what happened to Runt at the end. But, I guess it can be assumed by the morbid overtones.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 3, 2020
October was in the chair, so it was chilly that evening, and the leaves were red and orange and tumbled from the trees that circled the grove. The twelve of them sat around a campfire roasting huge sausages on sticks, which spat and crackled as the fat dripped onto the burning applewood, and drinking fresh apple cider, tangy and tart in their mouths.
September 23, 2024
happy first day of autumn!! what a perfect way to kick off the season- i loved the coziness of the campfire and how it perfectly settled me in for the chilling story from October. i’ll probably read this again in a month as we approach halloween huhu. sending my love to the Runt <3
November 8, 2018
October is in the chair and he has the main story to tell. All the other months are represented and have a chance to speak.
Very creepy, very dark, really good
Very creepy, very dark, really good
October 20, 2019
Great story. Perfect story to read in October.
August 15, 2023
this is my astrology
January 28, 2019
Táto bola super! :D
September 24, 2023
I don't really know what to think about this. It's a very short story, so nothing really happens and the ending isn't conclusive. But the vibes were nice and ghoulish, even if it left me unsatisfied. The personification of the months was fun but it felt a little cliché and cartoony. I guess I can't ask for a lot of character depth in only a few pages, given that the months aren't even in most of the story, but that part wasn't really for me.
Thankfully most of the short story focuses on the Runt and Dearly, and their brief friendship is really cute. By having a friend for maybe the first time, the Runt realizes that he could be much happier if he dies. That's a pretty heavy conclusion for a kid, yet you can't help but feel happy for him. Also, the line "it ain’t empty... I said nobody lives there" is so good and haunting.
Thankfully most of the short story focuses on the Runt and Dearly, and their brief friendship is really cute. By having a friend for maybe the first time, the Runt realizes that he could be much happier if he dies. That's a pretty heavy conclusion for a kid, yet you can't help but feel happy for him. Also, the line "it ain’t empty... I said nobody lives there" is so good and haunting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2019
There’s an old cartoon movie I watched when I was a little girl. I don’t remember a lot about it, but I remember the personified twelve months all sitting around a campfire. I like to imagine that this story is their story. They’re coming together and telling stories year after year. I like the idea that October’s stories are just a bit brighter than November’s would be.
March 30, 2021
Each of the months of the year takes an opportunity to tell a tale, and October's story is the tale of The Runt and his friend. Later realized it is the prologue to The Graveyard Book.
May 8, 2017
Really enjoyed this short story.
August 12, 2018
A short story where the month's tell a tale. Dark and creepy.
October 15, 2018
One of my favorite Gaiman stories and a lovely proto-Graveyard Book plot.
April 8, 2021
3.5⭐ I loved how all the months had there own story I just wish it focused more on certain months
April 25, 2023
Interesting, but October's story cut out too quick for me.
March 4, 2025
sooooooooo worth it.
February 16, 2026
Read as part of Poe's Children Anthology.
October 24, 2023
the fact that we never know what happens to runt in the end should be illegal
but i secretly hope he dies and joins dearly and they go on nightly adventures to climb trees, visit different cemeteries, and make ghostly friends <3
but i secretly hope he dies and joins dearly and they go on nightly adventures to climb trees, visit different cemeteries, and make ghostly friends <3
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews