Why I Love Short Stories

I love short stories because because every one always talks about them like they are a dying grandmother, like they aren't in the room, and that endears them to me.

I love short stories because the last time my father was at my house he picked up one of my short story anthologies, turned to Jack London's, "To Build a Fire," and started to read.

I love short stories because I can read them before bed and they give my mind a thought project that lulls me safely to sleep, protected from my various other potential perseverations.

I love short stories like I used to love washing the dishes at the Blinker Cafe in college, because I can  hold the task of reading them in my hand and see the beginning and end of it.

I love short stories because when I started this blog I actually wondered if I would run out of stories to write about and the stories that keep accumulating in my life are laughing with me about my foolishness.

I love short stories because they make me feel closer to authors whose novels distanced them from me.

I love short stories because they're the underdog, but they don't think of themselves that way (at least not the good ones).

I love short stories because they can form in your mind in an instant and then pour out of you like a confession.

I love short stories because they are almost perfectly timed to the enjoyment of one bottle of beer.

I love short stories because I'm weird.

I love short stories because they connect me with other weird people who love short stories.

"The Thing in the Forest" by A.S. Byatt

As a world-famous chronicler of the short story form, I should probably proceed to write with great confidence and authority about A.S. Byatt's long short story (or is is short long story?) entitled, "The Thing in the Forest."  If you, like me, are of average intelligence, you will know that this is not possible; it's A.S. Byatt after all.  I believe she may be an alien sent here to make humans feel stupid which will ultimately allow her to lead her alien race in assimilating us.

"The Thing in the Forest" is the first story in Byatt's collection, "Little Black Book of Short Stories."  Many of you may know her as the author of the lovely, difficult, world-renowned novel Possession.  Every time my husband talks about his experience reading that book he shivers and gets a far away look in his eyes as if he needs to be held for a few minutes before he can go on living.  My advice on Possession: once you make it through the first 200 pages you're golden.

"The Thing in the Forest" is the story of Penny and Primrose, two little girls turned neurotic middle-aged women, who see a giant worm in the forest when they are evacuated from their homes during the height of WWII.  The image of the worm splitting itself in two to wrap around a tree, then coming together again whole on the other side is forever imprinted on my mind.  The alien Byatt uses her magic to create a full-on sensory experience.  The worm's odor leaks of the pages.  I can hear it slurping and slapping as it makes its way across the forest's floor.  I kept picturing a less jovial Jaba the Hut.  Through Byatt's masterful imagery, we are transported to the forest, both in Penny's and Primrose's childhood, and again when they return to the forest as grown women, seeking some closure from their frightful hike in the woods.

Did the girls really see the worm or did the worm represent the horrors that war inflicts on children?  Is the worm Hitler?  Did Primrose, who later becomes a storyteller by trade, create the worm for herself and Penny?  And who or what is Alys, the little girl the worm ate?  Is Alys the girls' last, tenuous grasp on innocence?  

I have no idea, but sometimes that's the best part of short stories.

Double Feature: "Why China?" and "The Stylist" by Jennifer Egan

I feel bad for Jennifer Egan.  "Black Box" is one of the best short stories of all time.  It's the Hope Diamond of short stories.  It's a powerhouse.  It's like nothing else you've ever read.  What's it like to write something like that I wonder?  I really liked the two short stories I read for this post, but they'll never be "Black Box."  Odds are nothing will.  I have a feeling she's not too broken up about it though.

"Why China?" begins with the inciting incident of running into a nefarious person from the past in a foreign country.  Egan's talent for using her setting as a character unto itself is evident here.  As the yuppie Lafferty family moves further into the Chinese countryside, to what feels to the reader must be the ends of the Earth, I couldn't help but wonder if a scene from Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" was about to be reenacted.  Writers: you want a master class in setting?  Start here.

I chose the second story from Egan's Emerald City collection because of the title: "The Stylist."  I sort of covet the entire fashion world.  Bernadette is a 36-year old woman who travels the world with a circulating cast of photographers and nubile young models.  She is, in some ways, a supporting character in her own life, not at all memorable, not at all special.  Watching her connect to a man is sad and fleeting.  In Bernadette's tryst, in her closeness to another person, her true loneliness is revealed.

While no "Black Box," Egan still pulled me completely into the lives of her characters and created a fully-realized world in the span of only a dozen pages.  Powerhouse or not, that is always an amazing thing.

Double Feature: "Deer in the Works" and "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut

Discovering the short stories of writers best known for their novels is one of my favorite parts of writing this blog.  I feel like I'm being let into a secret club.  I've read several Vonnegut novels, giddily spooning the satire down my world-weary throat.  The two stories from this week were like taking a bite of chocolate ice cream when what you really want to do is bury your face in the entire half-gallon, but both are sticking with me and have kept my wheels turning, two of my criterion for excellent short stories.

I chose "Deer in the Works" from the collection because of its workplace focus.  Office Space is one of my favorite movies and I have a loosely-formed idea for a connected short story collection set in a dysfunctional office, so I figured it would be useful research.

To my fellow writers, it's worth tracking this story down.  David Potter is a writer seeking out more stable employment in the field of industry.  Sound familiar?  The only problem is that his creative mind makes him unsuitable for the bureaucratic nightmare Vonnegut imagines at the Illium Works of the Federal Apparatus Corporation where he applies for a job in the publicity department.

"Harrison Bergeron" is a little bit of a story about a world where the government imposes handicaps on its citizens in order to make everyone average.  The beautiful wear masks, the gifted are blasted with annoying audio clips at regular intervals to disrupt their thought patterns, and the strongest are forced to carry weighted bags to ensure that everything remains peacefully even.  Harrison, as you can guess, is so exceptional that he is able to burst free from these confines to rule the world, if only for one beautiful moment (that unfortunately no one will remember thanks to the evil Diana Moon Glampers).

If you're a Vonnegut fan, if you love Office Space, if you are a writer, or if you question our "everybody gets a trophy" culture, you'll love these stories.

"A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You" by Amy Bloom

This story is the first in Bloom's award-winning collection with the same title and in some ways felt like it could stand alone.  There are a lot of comparisons made between short fiction and novels, and the most common refrain is that the story will come to life in whichever form it is best suited to present itself.  This story is a great example of a piece that not only stands beautifully in its brevity, but also demands expansion.

Jane Spencer, the mother and main character, has a transgendered child named Jess.  Jess began life as Jessie, a little girl who makes it clear, almost from the start, that she was born in the wrong body.  What I loved about this story is how Bloom manages to highlight the unique struggles of transgendered kids and their parents while at the same time making them seem incredibly ordinary.  Jane is a rich character and I fell in love with her practical approach to dealing with Jess's decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery.  Jane's love for Jess, the special love of a single mother, kindly blinds her to pains that could've easily brought her to her knees.

For writers interested in point of view shifts, Bloom writes the majority of the story in third-person over Jane's shoulder, but shifts a couple of times (I'm sure not randomly) to step behind Jess.  I noticed it, which made me see the writing, but the story is wonderful all the same.