If you liked Mrs Dalloway — and of course you did! — then you should also read this collection of further episodes from the famous party.
Continue readingArticles about short stories
Eunoia – Christian Bök
This is an amazing book. Amazing.
The first chapter (Chapter A) is an interesting story written in a quirky style:
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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain — George Saunders
George Saunders has lectured on Russian literature for years. Reading this book is like attending one of his lectures. (I imagine.) The book addresses six stories: each story appears in full, along with extended discussions of its background and meanings. It’s all great stuff, especially if you like the stories to begin with.
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Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls — David Sedaris
The more I read him, the more I like him. I read his Me Talk Pretty One Day before this book, and they’re quite similar. His autobiographical episodes are wry and amusing and contain a lot of truth even though there are a lot of embellishments. In short, he makes stuff up, but only in the interests of humour. Except that in the second-last story, he (reportedly) tells a terrible and callous lie – that struck a bum note and made me like him less. Still, perhaps he just made that up too.
The Pink Jumpsuit – Emma Neale
This is a collection of evocative, affecting, poetic, imaginative short stories. (Extremely short: microfiction, I think it’s called.) Some are slices of life, some are magical, some are funny, but they are all beautiful and satisfying to read.
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Elizabeth Smither — The Mathematics of Jane Austen
It was probably the title that enticed me to buy this collection of understated short stories. The title story is about a woman trying to write a thesis on the use of mathematical concepts in the writings of Jane Austen. It’s clever, amusing and likeable. I enjoyed reading the stories, which made a relaxing contrast to the harrowing writing of Lucia Berlin or Miranda July.
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A Selfie as Big as the Ritz — Lara Williams
I loved this book of short stories even though most of them don’t end especially happily. The stories are written in a variety of voices, but almost all concern young women navigating problematic relationships. (Some of the women are older; some stories focus on men; but relationships are a constant.) Reading each story feels like inhabiting the character. It’s fun to be in someone else’s skin for a few minutes.
A Manual for Cleaning Women — Lucia Berlin
Squalor and alcoholism feature prominently in these short stories based on Berlin’s life. Many of the stories concern marginalised people: they suffer so much injustice but still manage to keep going. Even so, I wouldn’t describe the stories as uplifting.
I picked up this book because I had read about it in the London Review of Books, and also because it had a foreword by Lydia Davis.
There are common threads and characters through some of the stories — one of my favourites is an older woman who goes on holiday and learns to scuba dive. She appears in a couple of the less-squalid stories, where she is initially a bit uptight but learns to loosen up quite a lot. Those stories are easy to read but still have a certain power and directness.
No one belongs here more than you — Miranda July
This is just fantastic. July’s short stories are so imaginative in the way she blends mundane realism with the bizarrely surreal. It feels like a modern, shabby, seedy version of magic realism.
Continue readingPrizes — Janet Frame
Life is hell, but at least there are prizes.
This is a wonderful compilation of short stories spanning Frame’s career. There is a lot of variety here: the common thread is that they are mostly set in New Zealand in the second half of last century. There are surreal magical realist pieces, impressionistic slice-of-life pieces, and coming-of-age stories. My favourites are the ones written from a child’s point of view: we all used to be children, but she actually remembers what it was like and expresses it in a way that makes me remember too.
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