I scrolled back through past threads through early 2006 and did not see a thread on this subject, so if it repeats an oldie-but-goodie thread from long ago, my apologies. I wonder what (if any) short stories have really stuck with you, and how many of you have ever pursued them outside the context of a literature class. Recommendations are welcome. I have a pair that have stuck with me for more than two decades: *Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," with an ending I will never forget for the impact one woman's admission - after she received Last Rites - portends. "Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," also with a terrific ending, but for me mostly about the centrality of family at the moment of death. Plenty more besides - yours?
Several by Andre Dubus*. My favorite is "A Father's Story." That Chekhov guy does short stories pretty well, too. "Rothschild's Fiddle" and "In the Ravine" are two of my favorites. Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find." And again, there are more. BTW, I think we had a thread on this before: I seem to remember GringoTex mentioning how, compared to the novel, short stories always suck. *(not his son, Andre Dubus III who wrote The House of Sand and Fog
I was thinking about short stories this morning on my morning walk, and trying to remember who said the short story is dead. Probably I'm speaking to the choir here, but people who haven't read much Hemingway should know that while he wrote good novels, he wrote great stories. And if you've never read him, you can read a dozen of his stories in a couple of hours and decide if you don't like him; you don't have to commit yourself to a whole book; but of course, in my humble opinion, once you've read the stories, you'll want to read more.
Ahh, the short story... I love short stories... I dislike Heminway novels... I appreciate what they are trying to do, but can't stand reading them... but his short stories are fantastic... my favorites from Hemingway: "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and "Hills Like White Elephants"... both subtly spectacular... some that immediately come to mind from other authors: Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" and "Masque of the Red Death" Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Ursela LeGuinn's "The One's that Walk Away from Omelas" Cheever's "The Swimmer" Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"
I read the LeGuinn story last week but was pretty sleepy when I did so, I will give it another whirl - certainly the image of the child kept in the room is disturbing. I also cited Jackson's story in feedback I sent a class of mine last week.
I just taught "Hills Like White Elephants" and "The Cask of Amontillado." Both terrific stories. Sometimes I love short stories more than novels. You can carry the whole thing in your head at once (which is sort of Poe's point in his "Philosophy of Composition," but the more you get into American literature, the more you realize that Poe had it all figured out). Another story I've fallen in love with more recently is "Gimpel the Fool." Could list dozens more. "Omelas" would be among them. That story drives my students nuts every time I teach it.
I thought of I.B. Singer yesterday and thought he should be mentioned on the thread. His collected stories are pretty close on my bookshelf to the collected stories of J.F. Powers, who is surprisingly good and way under-rated. He published in the New Yorker, mostly stories about midwestern priests, which are hardly thought to be the typical subject of a New Yorker story.
There's a Korean short story writer named Park Min-gyu that I really like, but unfortunately very little of his work has been translated into English. This was pretty much all I could find.
I happen to like Donald Barthelme. Maybe I should keep this unner me hat, but I used to subscribe to The New Yorker. Having read a plethora of stories in TNY, I began to have a sense of what the modren short story should be all about. Then I read a Donald Barthelme story. Yikes. There you have it! If you haven't got a copy of 60 Stories, get up off your rusty dusty, [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUe3JOj9gzQ"](Put On Your) Sailin' Shoes[/ame] and get out there and buy a copy. Now, you lazy cuss!
Don't know how I missed this thread, as the short story is my favorite type of story. God, I could go on and on with a list, so here is just a few that I love: John Updike Edgar Allan Poe Nathaniel Hawthorne Glenn Blake Raymond Carver Stephen King Fredrick Barthelme Donald Barthelme Isaac Asimov Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Gabriel Garcia Marquez Flannery O'Connor Anything written by any of these guys is worth it. Even their non-short story stuff. Poe and King are especially great. In fact, Stephen published a short story book not too long ago:
The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence Gimple the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer I liked these two so much, it would make me happy just to know whether they have crossed your path. Anyone?
I always thought Night Shift was far superior to any of King's novels (which all seem tedious to me).
The man that was used up and Eleonora by Poe. Clued me into Poe being much much more than just an odd and popular old timey horror writer that I read as a kid. The opening of Eleonora is one of my all time favorites. Various short stories by Chekhov and Maupassant gave me an appreciation for short stories. An encounter by Joyce always sticks with me. I think it's because it took me to the 2nd time through to figure out what he was getting at and I was a bit taken aback.
Bullet In The Brain by Tobias Wolff- A really good and short story about book critics. Emergency by Denis Johnson - From a really good collection of linked short stories Jesus' Son. Nobody's Business by Jhumpa Lahiri - I found this in a Best American Short Stories Annual. Blow-Up by Julio Cortazar - About a photographer who may have taken a photo of a murder. These are some of my personal favorites. I usually like picking up the Best American Short Stories Collections that come out every year.
I've always been fond of "At the Three Lilies" by Jan Neruda, and the entirety of "Tales of the Lesser Quarter" is considered must read for Czechs. English translation is a bit awkward at times, but still it's 3 pages and I think worth a quick read.
Don't know how I missed this thread, as the short story is my favorite type of story.I like short stories very much.
-Jorge Luis Borges, the only prose fiction he wrote was short stories. My personal favorites from him: "Shakespeare's Memory" "The Garden of Forking Paths" and "The Library of Babel." -Truman Capote, all three that are included with Breakfast at Tiffany's are incredible. -Faulkner's "Victory" about 50 pages, but really good. -Marquez's "Big Mama's Funeral" I read In Persuasion Nation by him, by recommendation. Didn't particularly like it or dislike it, too much random insanity. But there were some good stories there. If you want to find more Saunders like humor writing, check out Jack Pendarvis.
Ahh, this thread's back. In the past few weeks, I've been reading some things I've had on hand for awhile, but haven't gotten around to that are marginally related: E.T.A. Hoffman's Tales. And his countryman, Heinrich von Kleist, who has a couple of pieces that are pretty damn good, too. Both of these guys make me wonder if Poe had their books on his shelf. Flaubert's Three Tales were pretty good, too. And I'll be bringing on vacation a book called The Collected Tales of A.E. Coppard, an English writer I'd never come across until a couple weeks ago. We'll see if they come back with me or wind up cohabiting in a night table with a Gideon's Bible.
As a kid forty years ago, I started out dipping into my dad's science fiction magazines, and I've probably read a few thousand short stories since then, so it's kind of hard to identify stand outs. On the other hand, this afternoon I purchased a collection by my favorite active short story writer. I eagerly look for to reading Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link.