What about a category for short stories?

[anisoara]

I mostly read short stories these days, but I don't see a category for short stories. :(

Would it be possible to add this?

[Bill]

Sorry, I should have answered this before.

At the moment, I think it's probably best if short stories stay within the General Fiction categories - they are fiction, after all. If there is enough demand in the future to have a separate forum for short stories, then it will happen, I promise.

[Grammath]

Replying to another post elsewhere, I commented that I thought there were fewer and fewer good short stories to be found out there. Am I alone in thinking this?

My personal favourite current practitioner is Will Self. Over the course of a novel, I find his writing style grating, but for short stories I reckon there's no-one better at the moment for taking a single, often simple, idea and taking it to a logical extreme, and most of the stories aren't long enough for the style to get in the way too much.

I've read three collections of his - "The Quantity Theory of Insanity", "Grey Area", and "Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys", each of which are superb.

Some other good recent collections I've dipped into:

Pastoralia - George Saunders
Blackly grotesque, sure, but the protagonists often overcome their situations. A collection that champions the underdog.

Never Trust a Rabbit - Jeremy Dyson
The non-acting member of The League of Gentlemen. Although not set in Royston Vasey, some of the events described would not be out of place there.

Barcelona Plates - Alexei Sayle
Completely different from the angry marxist scouse baldy in a tight suit that is his stand up persona, but still a fine, amusing assortment.

Go a little way back and there's far more spring to mind, especially in genre writing e.g. Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard in sci-fi and Conan Doyle, an example to all aspiring crime short story writers.

I confess to not having read some of the acknowledged greats in the field - Raymond Carver and Anton Chekhov to name two, but I plan to tackle "Dubliners" in the near future.

Can anyone else recommend any good stuff?

[Claire]

I've read a few different people.....I'm not sure how much our tastes overlap though!

I love Katherine Mansfield - written in the early 1900s - not much happens physically, but she captures her characters emotions and dreams and longings and turning points with real accuracy.

A.S Byatt - Really wierd - but good, if you can work out what to make of them - Fairy stories with Genies in lamps and things, but set in the modern world - a very odd mix :confused: "The Djinn in the Nightingales Eye" was the collection I read.

Ian McEwan. Very, very dark. Can't remember the name of the collection I read, but I had a very mixed reaction to it. Some of them I absolutely loved, and others I totally hated.

GK Chesterton - The Father Brown Stories - a little Roman Catholic priest who solves crimes - maybe worth a try if you like Sherlock Holmes.

Just starting on Raffles who is an "Anti-Sherlock Holmes" - a aristocratic expert burglar - apparently the author was Conan-Doyles brother-in-law.

"Dressing up for the Carnival" by Carol Shields. I heard a snatch of the title story on Radio 4 - and it tantalised me so much I ended up getting the book. A little like Katherine Mansfield - not big on actual events, but absorbing to read for the subtle changes her characters go through.

I've bought a book each of Raymond Carver and Chekov - and dabbled a tiny bit in each - but I've not read much of them yet. They both look worth checking out though - (in my humble opinion. ;) )

I love short stories - the way you can take in the whole experience in one sitting and the way every detail and phrase takes on so much extra significance than it does in a novel.

[BrumB]

Claire - I've been thinking of reading Raymond Carver - shall be interested to hear what you make of him.

One of my favourite short story writers is Eudora Welty - writing from the 1940s to the 60s - mainly about the southern states. Writes about every kind of person and setting - musicians, children, salesmen, a bigamist - you name it!

[Grammath]

Think you might be right, Claire, it looks like our tastes in literature are quite different.

I agree about Ian McEwan. I read one of his collections when I was in my teens, which might have been a formative influence on the slightly twisted stuff that often appeals to me :D . Overall, novels or short stories, he's a favourite of mine, I've read everything except "Atonement".

My father, who reads a lot of vintage crime, is a fan of Father Brown, so I might have to nab a volume from his bookshelves. Thanks for the tip. I've also just borrowed a volume of "Raffles" stories from the library, so I'll let you know.

I know Carver wrote "Short Cuts", and I liked the film a lot, so that was where I was thinking of starting.

I might check out Eudora Welty too - I've read a couple of southern gothic novels in the past (William Faulkner, Nick Cave's "And The Ass Saw The Angel") and this sounds quite similar.

For me, the appeal of short stories is their simplicity - they're an opportunity for a writer to examine one idea in isolation that would be stretched too thin in a novel.

Writers often seem to use the form as an opportunity to experiment too, so I often find short stories can be quite unusual in content and a change from that author's normal style. I like the feeling of reading a writer who is letting their hair down.

[Claire]

Ian McEwan - I thought Enduring Love was fantastic - which was what got me started on his short stories in the first place. For some reason I haven't got round to any of his other full length novels though. I will do, sooner or later though. (The problem with this place is, my list of "Books I'm Going To Read Soon" is growing far faster than I can keep pace with it :rolleyes: )

I'm going to keep an eye out for Will Self and Alexai Sayle as well, now....

Does anyone want to recommend any Sci-Fi short story authors or collections? As a teenager I read truck loads by Isaac Asimov - and I'd be keen to go back and find a few other styles and approaches - but I wouldn't really know where to start.

Will report back on Raymond Carver when I've read a few more :)

[Grammath]

I used to read loads of sci-fi in my teens too, and am still known to on occasion. Sci-fi's great for short stories, especially from the period immediately post-WWII.

I mentioned Philip K. Dick in my last post. There was a tie-in book published when the film "Minority Report", based on one of his short stories, was released, that contains several of his best, including "We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale", which was filmed as "Total Recall", IMO the finest celluloid hour of the current Governor of California. Guess that damns it with faint praise.

Dick's good if you like your sci-fi on the dark side, he's sort of the flipside of Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, who seemed to think the future could only be bright. That's not to dis Clarke, who also wrote great stories such as "The Sentinel", later adapted into "2001".

I have a weighty volume of J.G. Ballard's complete short stories which I have yet to dip into, but I like the novels of his I have read.

Ray Bradbury wrote one of my all time favourite short stories in any genre, "There Will Come Soft Rains", which you'll find in "The Martian Chronicles".

My final recommendation would be Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. My favourite story of his is "Harrison Bergeron", which can be found in a collection called "Welcome to the Monkey House".

I thought "Enduring Love" was great too, but my favourite McEwan novel is "The Cement Garden", claustrophobic, shocking and brilliant.

And I hear you on the "to read" list, I've got a flat full of unread books already and all these recommendations from BGO are just going to make it worse :D

[megustaleer]

I'm not a short story fan as a general rule, but would like to recommend 'Interpreter of Maladies' by Jhumpa Lahiri. They are the most satisfying short stories I've read in years.

I only read it because it was a book group choice, so 'hoorah for book groups' I say.

[sam wood]

For something a bit different, (I thought they were more tales of the unex-pected) try 'Mc Sweeney's Mammoth book of Thrilling Tales'. Tere are a few of them out there and they are compilations of stories by different authors, including Stephen King, Elmore Leonard and Nick Hornby.

[Opal]

I'm not a fan of short stories in general, but there are a couple of collections I like. Firstly Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg. It's a bit of a mixture of Sci-Fi and Fantasy by writers like Stephen King, Terry Pratchett and Anne McCaffrey.

The other collections I have were published in aid of War Child (a charity). I remember enjoying them when they first came out a few years ago although I haven't read them recently. The collections have names like Girls Night Out, and I believe there's three different books. Well worth a look if you're after something a bit lighter. :)

[Colinj]

I really enjoyed the Jeffrey Archer Short stories. very un put downable.
CJ

[Barblue]

Trawling trhough old threads now the site is back has been very rewarding for me. I've just found this one for the first time and wanted to add to it.

Our library reading group have recently been looking at short stories to enter The Short Story Challenge. The idea is to devise our own anthology of 5 short stories inspired by a particular theme or the top 5 'must read' short stories - so the blurb goes. We chose the theme of 'life' and wanted to find five stories that showed the beginning, growing, living and death.

Some of the stories suggested for our long list were:
Birth - Liam O'Flaherty
Bird - Liam O'Flaherty
The Gift of the Magi - O. Henry
Weekend - Fay Weldon
Old Filth - Jane Gardham (the original short story not the later novel)
The Scarf - Carol Shields
The Vertical Ladder - William Sansom
Of the Cloth - William Trevor
The Rocking Horse Winner - D.H. Lawrence
The Garden Party - Katherine Mansfield
Pig - Roald Dhal
The Little Willow - Francis Towers

We have ended up with
Birth, The Garden Party, Weekend, Of the Cloth and Old Filth. The Vertical Ladder was a very strong contender, but didn't get sufficient votes so was eliminated at the last count.

Personally, I think The Vertical Ladder should have been included as it is a very powerful short story of youth exploring and conquering emotions, yet being unsure about the future. The fact that it leaves the story seemingly unresolved is, perhaps, where its power lies. Some members of our group said it was disturbing and therefore would not vote for it. Surely the fact that it is distrubing is why it should have been included, but the majortiy rules as ever.

Of the remainder, I think my favourite is Weekend, although I love them all.

I would love to see this thread revived as I think the short story is, like poetry, one of the most powerful and under-rated elements of literature. One of the reasons our group decided to enter this challenge is because we too feel the short story should get more 'press'. Do any of you agree - or disagree - with this?

[dumpling]

Ooh, count me in! I adore short stories. I think writing them must be such an art. That's not to say writing a novel is easy, but when you're restricted to a shorter length piece every word has to count. My mother was a frustrated short story writer, so perhaps that's why our house was so full of short story collections!

Some of my favourites are:

Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood (I don't like her novels so much, but her short stories are superb)
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Tea With Mr Rochester by Frances Towers
The Garden Party (of course)
Fresh Apples by Rachel Trezise (I haven't read this collection yet, but heard her read one of her stories at a festival and it was fantabulous)

Anything by Truman Capote (early stuff, particularly). Anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I even like Hemingway's short stories, though I don't like his novels nearly as much.

[FirelightSpirit]

I'm with you, dumpling, such a good idea. We Irish have a long tradition of short story writing and some of our best writers won awards for their short stories before progressing to writing novels. (Joseph O'Connor, for one)

I've read more short stories in the last year than I think I've ever read and if I was to recommend one collection, it would be the New Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction. Some wonderful stories in that. Can't remember titles off-hand, but there's a very good one by Noelle Harrison at the end.

[Barblue]

Well, if we're talking Irish short stories, then James Joyce has to be a master. And in saying that, our group voted The Deadthe best short story of all time - quite an accolade I know, but they all love it. We studied The Dubliners in the group about a year ago and then watched the film of The Dead. We all thought the film producers made a very good job of the story too.

We decided not to put it in our collection for the challenge, because it was too obviously a great short story and we wanted to find others to champion.