It shows how great stories are always born of small details and grow thanks to a power of invocation that is reinforced word by word, as a vital spell, which can only be built by walking hand in hand with the reader. The fact that it is a sci-fi autobiographical book shows how we have to tell any story any which way we want. The ability to expose that one-of-a-kind feeling of a human experience calls for a vivid cocktail of sincerity and imagination and Vonnegut has both big time. Behind the Short Story: It is a thoughtfully put together book, designed as a craft book with writing prompts after each story.
But the best parts are the essays accompanying each story, written by the author, commenting on the inspiration and the challenges to writing that story, and in the process demystifying the process of writing. The essays are so informal, speaking directly and honestly to the aspiring writer.
George Saunders, Mary Gaitskill, etc. And do take note of her characterization and story structure, too! Explaining the East-West Culture Gap. This makes me tremendously happy.
A man wakes up without his nose and chases it around town trying to talk it back onto his face. The anthology is an overwhelming display of substance and skill, with dazzling variations in style and voice.
The 10 best short story collections | Culture | The Guardian
I read it when I first started writing and reading as a writer and it has been one of my best investments. I also credit it with introducing me to the work of Anita Desai and Jean Rhys, who over the years became favorite, influential writers. A one-size-fits-all story collection does not exist, of course—sometimes a writer needs some Borges and sometimes she needs some Lydia Davis. She fuses childhood terrors with adult estrangement; her stories are gorgeous, delicate, spooky, human, and deeply layered.
Each is an entire entity, a small universe.
The possibilities that these stories offer, the sheer power of the imagination displayed here, is unforgettable. And for me to read it in Spanish, to read this kind of wizardry in my language, was just a joy.
The 10 best short story collections
Against this backdrop Mansfield brilliantly interweaves meditations on class, life and death, illusion and reality. He is brilliant at evoking social nuance and has an unfailing eye for the tiniest detail that will shine light on the whole. This deliciously fat collection gives the reader the chance to dip in and out of one of the best observers of human behaviour.
- Top 25 Short Story Collections.
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Moore is notable for her arch tone and her sharp humour. But what makes her special is the way she can shift so smoothly to gut-wrenching poignancy. She writes about terminal illness, family dynamics and infidelity with equal fluency.
The 350+ Additional Short Story Books
Some of the best short stories contain unexpected moments of felicity on which the plot pivots. And so it was that, just as I was compiling this list, I received a giant package containing this doorstep of a book. It might be the most comprehensive collection of short stories… ever, featuring an all-star cast including Angela Carter, Charles Dickens, Roald Dahl and more, selected by David Miller, a literary agent and author.
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