Tension in literature heightens involvement, plays on uncertainty and contemplates the equilibrium that results from the harmony of opposite tendencies. This week I’m looking for tension in what I read.

“Train,” by Alice Munro, Harper’s Magazine April 2012

We are uncertain why Jackson seems so aimless his movements yet so dedicated when he is helping strangers with maintenance projects. One phrase, “She was a certain kind of woman, he a certain kind of man,” sets an expectation. Then the story veers off track when Belle crosses a line unexpectedly. The narrative gains speed and we come to understand why Jackson rides the train.

• “To Build a Fire,” by Jack London, first published in Youth’s Companion, v. 76, May 29, 1902

Recommended in the WSJ book section on Sunday as one of London’s best, London wrote this juvenile version and years later updated it for an adult audience. The tension here is between an overconfident man and nature, a contest the prospector should not have entered. I want to read this cautionary tale to my grandson. Wisdom for the ages: Never travel alone!

• “Dinner at the Bank of England,” by Guy Davenport, Object Lessons: The Paris Review presents The Art of the Short Story

In a time when conversation was art, a British officer and an American professor match wits at dinner in a bank the Brit has access to. The pair are well matched, the tension a pleasant one on topics as varied at religion, politics, classics, philosophy, history and nature. I underlined half of what they said. Here’s an example we might apply to the series of crises we face today:

All the world’s problems come from a lack of simplicity in anything you might think of, food, dress, manners.

• “A Vintage Thunderbird,” by Ann Beattie, The Vintage Book of Contemporary Short Stories, Edited by Tobias Wolff

The tension between Nick and Karen is weak, and that’s the story. She’s moved on but continues to see Nick, who hangs around hoping to recreate the past (which involves a vintage Thunderbird). I got tense though, until finally a friend voiced what I’d been yelling in my head: Get out of New York and go find some new friends!

• “Squirrel,” Delicate, by Mary Sojouner

Tensions plays in unexpected places—between an aging woman’s body and her youthful mind. Julia tries to resurrect desire. Her imagination soars even as “beneath her feet, the cinder trail shimmers.” A bittersweet story.

• “Tale of Heroes,” by Carol Bly, The Vintage Book of Contemporary Short Stories, Edited by Tobias Wolff

We sit with members of the Norwegian Society in an echo-y hall with a high window that looks like “it was meant to light genuinely serious affairs.” We aren’t in a mood for something genuinely serious. The speaker is drunk and obnoxious. Then Emily tells the old WWII veteran’s story, and we remember why we are here.

• “The Apparition,” My Father’s Tears and other stories, John Updike

A favorite Updike theme, lust’s folly, is the occasion for tension in a retired tourist when he fixates on a younger fellow traveler who raises in him the ghost of youthful longing.