reading short fiction


sorabji.com: I need advice: reading short fiction
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).

By Nate on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 12:57 pm:

    I want to expand my experience with the short story. I've
    never read much.

    who and what should I be reading? authors, anthologies, lit
    mags?


By Spider on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 03:36 pm:

    Can you say a little more about what you want -- like, styles, themes, or genres that interest you?


By Danielssss on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 03:40 pm:

    Glimmertrain is a neat little mag with good short fiction.
    Kafka, Hemingway (the Nick Adams Stories), Faulkner, John Irving, Sid Lea, Tim OConnor, Poe, hawthorne, yeah

    and there's some great short stories in the erotic literature section next to self help in Borders.


By kazu on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 05:37 pm:

    Many years ago I got a Shirley Jackson book of short stories that I liked quite a bit (Just An Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories of Shirley Jackson).


By Kazu on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 05:38 pm:

    Or, maybe it was her other short stories that I liked. Anyway, Shirley Jackson.


By platypus on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 09:15 pm:

    I really like Haruki Murakami's short stories. I'm also a big fan of Flannery O'Connor (but I mean, who isn't?). I'm working on a collection of Abe short stories right now ("Beyond the Curve")...and I also like Alexander McCall Smith's "Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations." John O'Hara's got some goof stuff too.

    Also, seconding Shirley Jackson recs.


By beta on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 09:48 pm:

    Kevin Wilson is a new(ish) author that I've been following around through various literary journals for about 5 years now. He just released a collection of short stories called "Tunneling to the center of the earth". He's very slightly surreal (or magically realist, or whatever the fuck people are calling it these days) but not over the top like so many recent authors Ive read- you can have a taste \link {http://www.unc.edu/depts/cqonline/wilson.htm,here}


By beta on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 09:50 pm:

    Dammit, I coulda sworn i did that right- mt, how did I fuck up?


By mr t on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 11:28 pm:

    you can have a taste here


    e x t r a
    s p a c e


By Nate on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 12:08 am:

    styles, themes, genres? i am open to anything, spider. do you have favorite authors?

    i've read one murakami short story. i don't remember what it was called, but it was in the new yorker years ago and it involved some sort of mysterious extra-dimensionality in a stairwell.

    i've read anthony doerr's "the shell collector", which i really enjoyed. i don't recall reading any other collections of short stories from cover to cover.

    i've read the obvious flannery o'connor (a good man is hard to find) and shirley jackson (the lottery) and faulkner (a rose for emily) stories, but that is all.


By Spider on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 01:13 am:

    One of my favorite short story collections I've read recently is Dan Chaon's Among the Missing. Hey, look, it's online.

    Sherman Alexie -- Ten Little Indians would be a good introduction ("Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?" is my favorite story he's written), or The Long Ranger and Tonto Fist-fight in Heaven.

    Steven Millhauser -- The Knife-Thrower and other Stories or In the Penny Arcade. He's the only author I've met who can pull off writing extremely formal descriptions of things down to the tiniest detail and make it interesting. The last story in In the Penny Arcade, "Cathay," is a good example of this (you can read the first page here).

    Ray Bradbury -- any collection, but his older works are better. Look for The October Country (my favorite), A Medicine for Melancholy, The Illustrated Man, or even Dandelion Wine, which is basically short stories strung together into a novel by little narrative connections.




By Spider on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 01:14 am:

    Um, make that the L o n e Ranger.


By kazu on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 01:24 am:

    Is there something wrong with me? I want to like Sherman Alexie, but I really don't.


By agatha on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 02:10 am:

    Anything Raymond Carver. McSweeney's has some nice collections. The best book of short stories I've read in the past couple of years was called Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford- they were very absurd and he has a great minimal writing style. I don't read enough short fiction.


By Spider on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 10:38 am:

    No worries, Kazu -- I didn't connect with Sherman Alexie until I lived on a reservation. Take away the magical realism and everything he writes is true. Maybe even the magical realism. :)


By Dougie on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 10:58 am:

    I always liked Roald Dahl's short stories. Switch Bitch is good.


By patrick on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 02:39 pm:

    it depresses me. i just have a hard time getting into reading. when i
    do i enjoy it, most of the time. but its not a destination for me.

    when i commuted 45min on a city bus and train, reading was
    awesome. i read lots. but when im at home, and needing
    something to do, it seems like a chore. i cant pay attention.

    maybe i need to take more bus rides

    i hate it though. feel like i miss so much.


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