Short Story Review - The Dungeon Master

As I am a student, from time to time I am required to post assignments up on my blog. This particular piece features a review of a short story by Sam Lipsyte called The Dungeon Master. This story appeared in the November 1st, 2010 edition of the magazine.

One of the key things not to do that has been discussed in Creative Writing class, is the use of many characters in a short story. The Dungeon Master is no exception. Other than the main character, there are about ten other characters, and it can get confusing when a bunch of them are involved in a scene.
Dr. Varelli, the Dungeon Master's father, was quite interesting. He used strange language to communicate with his sons, in one example he would always call them puppies. I enjoyed the scene where the main character stumbles upon Dr. Varelli playing guitar and singing a sombre Italian ballad, very touching.
The pacing of the dialogue was quick in many cases, and this certainly provided a real conversational feeling. Due to the fact that the language the characters were using was very dungeon and dragon-like, I found it challenging to grasp where they were coming from. The fantasy world that they had been contriving did not really grab my attention as much as I thought it would when I started reading the story.
The Cherniski character, who always played a thief in their fantasy games, also played the thief in real life. I thought his character fit into the story nicely, and it was not surprising that he eventually got caught by the police for all the theft he had committed.
The Dungeon Master had a tendency to bully the other characters, and would regularly kill off the boys' fantasy characters. It was nice to see that the main character in the story finally stood up to the Dungeon Master, which caused an end to their friendship, however, their reunion in the end seemed very awkward to me.
I would have liked to read more of the story, provided that it would have addressed how the main character was to move on with his life.

If you are interested in reading the story, just click on the link below.

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/10/04/101004fi_fiction_lipsyte?currentPage=1