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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2009 10:34:26 GMT
I go through major phases of reading short stories. Having subscribed to the New Yorker for many years I have been introduced to many different writers,some well known,some obscure,some good and some dreadful or just plain not my cup of tea. I am always thrilled to discover some new writer(to me anyway) and many times have sought out other writings by these authors. Here's a thread for us to explore,recommend,condemn,short stories and their writers you have read. One thing I have discovered ,not all novelists are necessarily good short story writers and vice versa.
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Post by traveler63 on Aug 15, 2009 14:39:09 GMT
I have always thought that a short story writer is actually a more talented one because of the thought process it takes to develop a complete story plot, characters and an ending within a significantly shorter version of a standard novel.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 15, 2009 16:46:46 GMT
I love short stories and greatly admire those writers who excel in them. One of the giants of the short story and novella genre is William Trevor. His book "After Rain" rocked me back on my heels, and he's continued to satisfy with everything else I've read by him. I've already written at length about Jim Harrison, so will just link & not repeat. Joy Williams is an accomplished short story writer, as is Amy Hempel. Gabriel García Márquez is a magnificent novelist whose short stories, like those of Faulkner, are part of his completely imagined world. Someone whose greatness as a short story writer can't be over-emphasized is Edward P. Jones. (<---- my review of him, which really should have gone into the "Favorite Authors" thread. )
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2009 17:03:20 GMT
Yes, I had hoped or intended to include novellas as A.S. Byatt falls into both as well. Her novella Angels and Insects remains one of my favorites. Byatt also edited a 1999 Oxford Press collection of English Short Stories which I bought on her merits alone. I have only just begun to read some of them. My first introduction to Jim Harrison was a collection of short stories, The Woman Lit by Fireflies. A fine read. Same with Flannery O'Conner,her stories from Everything That Rises Must Converge is another gem.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2009 10:14:47 GMT
Ever reread a short story that revisits the back corriders of the mind? Similar to olfactory or auditory recall. J.D. Salinger's A Perfect Day for Bananafish does this for me. From the first time I read it in high school and then recently with other rereads in between. Just knocks me off my feet every time.
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Post by lola on Sept 6, 2009 16:05:23 GMT
I read a short story in high school that now resonates a bit: An older woman is sitting on a park bench feeling good about herself and everything until she overhears teenagers making fun of her. Does that sound familiar to any of you? (the story, not the situation.)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2009 16:12:57 GMT
It is vaguely reminescent of a scene in Notes on a Scandal with Judi Dench being the old lady on the bench ,but ,I know that's not what you're referring to. Free associating here...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2009 11:21:21 GMT
I used to love short stories, but they rarely satisfy me now -- I want to know too many details, background, asides, etc. -- in other words, most of the things that a short story cuts out. Now my preference goes to long novels with short chapters. My reading time is cut more and more into little bits and pieces, so a 50-page chapter can be an ordeal.
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Post by bjd on Sept 7, 2009 11:40:22 GMT
I'm not really a short story fan either. I really liked Somerset Maugham's stories years ago and I remember reading science fiction stories by Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, but now I tend to like longer books -- I mean novels, not necessarily 1000 page books.
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Post by gyro on Sept 10, 2009 11:49:42 GMT
"I have always thought that a short story writer is actually a more talented one because of the thought process it takes to develop a complete story plot, characters and an ending within a significantly shorter version of a standard novel. "
I disagree with that. Many of the best short stories are simply snatches of life, or a simplistic passage of events. If they're done well, they can be VERY clever, but overall I would say it's FAR more difficult to write a good book. You don't, for example, have to expound much on character or their development in a short story.
Note that I'm talking about GOOD examples of both. It's just as easy to write a crap short story than it is to write a crap book. Of which there are many in both categories ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 10, 2009 16:12:53 GMT
It's pretty hard to separate a novelist from a short story writer, since so many good writers are masters of both genres. Several novelists even use the short story as a way of expanding a whole world they've created -- Jim Harrison, William Faulkner, and Gabriel Marquez, for instance. I suppose true writers have such an overflow of creativity that some ideas naturally become short stories and others expand into novels. And at times authors go back and develop a characters or situations in earlier short stories into a novel. There are certainly plenty of examples of books that started promisingly, with lots of atmosphere, interesting characters, etc. then just sort of collapsed or went around in circles later in the book. This is a book I read recently that really illustrates that, and also what Gyro says about what a good book needs. The author might have been able to turn her ideas into a decent book of linked short stories if she'd recognized her limitations as a novelist.
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Post by gyro on Sept 15, 2009 18:48:11 GMT
Who here has ever written, or tried to write, a short story ?
How did it go ?
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Post by hwinpp on Sept 16, 2009 4:43:04 GMT
I was aware of my limitations and never bothered starting.
Though I did have dreams of becoming a western writer after discovering Louis L'Amour and devouring his paperbacks in my early teens.
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Post by gyro on Sept 16, 2009 6:15:13 GMT
Never read any Louis L'Amour, although always wanted to. Maybe I'll pipck one up from the library - they were ALWAYS there in my teens. But after my Hal And Roger days, I then got into the next aisle down which was Philip K Dick and all his mates. And, in terms of that genre, and some of the best short stories overall, Ray Bradbury was and still is hard to beat .....
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Post by lola on Sept 16, 2009 14:31:26 GMT
I got hooked on Louis L'Amour when I lived in New Mexico, had friends with great stacks of them that I'd borrow and race through.
My couple of short story attempts were on the pale side. One was an attempt at a Wodehouse-like tone, involving a dopey character who had a run-in with his head nurse and his subsequent revenge fantasies. A literature prof acquaintance I showed it to was diplomatic about it, bless him. I'm not a natural fiction writer at all.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2010 22:51:41 GMT
I found a fabulous collection of short stories (very recent publication,I bought at a bookstore in Miami)titled,"My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead",great love stories by various authors,e.g.; Chekhov,De Maupassant,Harold Brodkey,William Trevor,Milan Kundera,Alice Munro, to name just a few. Edited by Jeffrey Eugenides. One of those books you can pick up read one of,savor,put down,and is waiting for you.And, they are not all mushy,romantic,feel good...
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