I disagree with only one thing here - you SHOULD buy Rebecca's story collection, Music for Wartime, it's fantastic. Art and beauty in the midst of a brutal and chaotic world.... readers need the A and the b.
Rebecca, I'm going to share this with my students next semester (I'll be teaching an undergraduate course on Contemporary Jewish Short Stories). In the meantime, if you haven't yet seen my thread in celebration of Short Story Month *and* Jewish American Heritage Month, it's here: https://twitter.com/erikadreifus/status/1653025385607462914
And then, sometimes, for whatever of many possible reasons, a writer is simply better in all ways shapes, and forms when writing the short tales. I've read through Cheever's collection five times. Never revisited a novel. He clearly loved the pace of the stories. And the first time I read them -- freshman year, college was the first time I fell in love with the form....and my favorite collection now is Tom Perotta's Bad Haircut...revisit if every few years "Snowman" my favorite short story of all time, it's been on every high school and college syllabus no matter what I was supposed to be teaching...but I've never reread his novels...
Another thing I love about short stories is using them to play with writing. I have a practice I do about once a year where I read a short story (generally one or two a week) and then write a story in response, riffing on my favorite part of the short story (the form or the character or the relationships or just like one really good sentence, whatever). I write picture books, so there's less room for blatant plagiarism, but the stories I end up writing are completely different from the ones I read, and most of them end up being play and practice anyway. I find I can be inspired by a short story and really dig into it, grain by grain, in a way that's hard to do with a novel. (Or maybe it's not hard to do, but it just takes a heck of a lot more time.)
Also my current favorite short story collection is Salt Slow by Julia Armfield. The first story is about a teenage girl who is slowly changing into a mantis. You know, just like grandma. All of the stories are so delightfully weird and funny and somehow relatable.
I love short stories! I also don't read them enough (and laughed when I saw the title of this post, because I relate so much). Here's a theory to add:
I have trouble starting short stories because I have trouble starting all stories. When I read a novel, I have to read at least 30 pages in the first read, otherwise I won't pick it back up because I am not invested yet. With short stories, I have to do that over and over again. Sometimes, I am immediately hooked and it's not a problem (Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans), but usually I find it so hard to restart even if I loved the previous story!
This is, of course, a me-problem and why I can never commit to a full movie.
I'm supposed to be proofing galleys for a story collection right this moment, but instead, looking to my bookshelf stuffed with favorite short story collections--just at a quick glance, Yates' Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, McKnight's The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas, Nordan's Music of the Swamp, Campbell's American Salvage, and of course, Music for Wartime--I feel compelled to cheerlead for short stories. And scratch my head because I love short story collections more completely and deeply than most novels that can often (not always but often) start to seem saggy baggy to me. My list of favorite particular short stories is very long but a special shout out for Danielle Evan's "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain." The late Lewis "Buddy" Nordan would suggest to his students that they send their characters on an unexpected detour, and, boy, did Evans do that in this story--unexpected and so perfect and satisfying.
Great piece, Rebecca! Since the pandemic I've read far more stories than novels. Currently, I'm reading The Sorrows of Others by Ada Zhang described as "a tender short story collection in which loneliness and isolation shape lives." I also love Murakami''s short stories even more than his novels. You can find a bunch of them here at the NYer. https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/haruki-murakami I'm not sure if they're behind a paywall or not. (There's one of his that a read a while ago that I especially enjoy about a man dating a woman who has the same name as her ex. But I can't remember the title!) I also recommend the Short Story Today podcast. The format is unique. The first half is an interview of the writer. The second half is the host reading one of the writer's short stories. Here's when I was interviewed and my story, if I can humbly recommend it: https://shortstorytoday.com/episodes/episode-42-stanley-stocker-the-list-760 I also highly recommend the Ursa Story Podcast. They do a great production of the story with voice actors and music. https://ursastory.com/podcast/ Viva the short story!
Or if you want to get in on the ground floor with debut short story writers like George Bailey had the chance to with plastics in It's a Wonderful Life, then pick up any of the PEN America/Dau Prize anthologies. https://pen.org/pen-dau-short-story-prize/ You'll be glad you did. It'll be like buying Netflix - heaven forfend! - at $16.75 a share.
I love short stories! I read both Bliss Montage by Ling Ma and What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi last year, and I still think about multiple stories from both of those collections.
My favorite short story collections are Somerset Maugham's. And my very favorite short story of his, which I keep hoping to see on stage or film, is "The Three Fat Women of Antibes." Masterpiece of comedy and restraint. (Although he'd have trouble getting away with that title these days.)
Also novels are easier for book groups to discuss. My book group's reading Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You, which is brilliant and should be easier to talk about since the stories are related. When we read books of unrelated stories, we select 4-5 to discuss - and often only get to 3!
Wonderful post - thank you, Rebecca - I’m always telling myself I need to read more short stories and now I know why haha! To the list I would add one collection I did manage to read and loved: Heather Newton’s McMullen Circle which came out last year and is a gorgeous collection of linked stories set in a north Georgia boarding school in the 1960’s.
I recently read "The Fourth State of Matter" and "Out There" both by Jo Ann Beard and I guess they are probably technically classified as essays but they read like short stories in my mind and they are SO GOOD.
You may appreciate knowing that my best group text got a link to your story "The Plaza" with the all caps admonition of my friend that we all MUST READ THIS and we all did and loved it.
I disagree with only one thing here - you SHOULD buy Rebecca's story collection, Music for Wartime, it's fantastic. Art and beauty in the midst of a brutal and chaotic world.... readers need the A and the b.
Rebecca, I'm going to share this with my students next semester (I'll be teaching an undergraduate course on Contemporary Jewish Short Stories). In the meantime, if you haven't yet seen my thread in celebration of Short Story Month *and* Jewish American Heritage Month, it's here: https://twitter.com/erikadreifus/status/1653025385607462914
I just added pretty much all of these recommendations to my list. Thank you so much for sharing!
And then, sometimes, for whatever of many possible reasons, a writer is simply better in all ways shapes, and forms when writing the short tales. I've read through Cheever's collection five times. Never revisited a novel. He clearly loved the pace of the stories. And the first time I read them -- freshman year, college was the first time I fell in love with the form....and my favorite collection now is Tom Perotta's Bad Haircut...revisit if every few years "Snowman" my favorite short story of all time, it's been on every high school and college syllabus no matter what I was supposed to be teaching...but I've never reread his novels...
Another thing I love about short stories is using them to play with writing. I have a practice I do about once a year where I read a short story (generally one or two a week) and then write a story in response, riffing on my favorite part of the short story (the form or the character or the relationships or just like one really good sentence, whatever). I write picture books, so there's less room for blatant plagiarism, but the stories I end up writing are completely different from the ones I read, and most of them end up being play and practice anyway. I find I can be inspired by a short story and really dig into it, grain by grain, in a way that's hard to do with a novel. (Or maybe it's not hard to do, but it just takes a heck of a lot more time.)
Also my current favorite short story collection is Salt Slow by Julia Armfield. The first story is about a teenage girl who is slowly changing into a mantis. You know, just like grandma. All of the stories are so delightfully weird and funny and somehow relatable.
I love short stories! I also don't read them enough (and laughed when I saw the title of this post, because I relate so much). Here's a theory to add:
I have trouble starting short stories because I have trouble starting all stories. When I read a novel, I have to read at least 30 pages in the first read, otherwise I won't pick it back up because I am not invested yet. With short stories, I have to do that over and over again. Sometimes, I am immediately hooked and it's not a problem (Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans), but usually I find it so hard to restart even if I loved the previous story!
This is, of course, a me-problem and why I can never commit to a full movie.
The only short story collection I ever enjoyed was Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.
I'm supposed to be proofing galleys for a story collection right this moment, but instead, looking to my bookshelf stuffed with favorite short story collections--just at a quick glance, Yates' Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, McKnight's The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas, Nordan's Music of the Swamp, Campbell's American Salvage, and of course, Music for Wartime--I feel compelled to cheerlead for short stories. And scratch my head because I love short story collections more completely and deeply than most novels that can often (not always but often) start to seem saggy baggy to me. My list of favorite particular short stories is very long but a special shout out for Danielle Evan's "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain." The late Lewis "Buddy" Nordan would suggest to his students that they send their characters on an unexpected detour, and, boy, did Evans do that in this story--unexpected and so perfect and satisfying.
Great piece, Rebecca! Since the pandemic I've read far more stories than novels. Currently, I'm reading The Sorrows of Others by Ada Zhang described as "a tender short story collection in which loneliness and isolation shape lives." I also love Murakami''s short stories even more than his novels. You can find a bunch of them here at the NYer. https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/haruki-murakami I'm not sure if they're behind a paywall or not. (There's one of his that a read a while ago that I especially enjoy about a man dating a woman who has the same name as her ex. But I can't remember the title!) I also recommend the Short Story Today podcast. The format is unique. The first half is an interview of the writer. The second half is the host reading one of the writer's short stories. Here's when I was interviewed and my story, if I can humbly recommend it: https://shortstorytoday.com/episodes/episode-42-stanley-stocker-the-list-760 I also highly recommend the Ursa Story Podcast. They do a great production of the story with voice actors and music. https://ursastory.com/podcast/ Viva the short story!
Or if you want to get in on the ground floor with debut short story writers like George Bailey had the chance to with plastics in It's a Wonderful Life, then pick up any of the PEN America/Dau Prize anthologies. https://pen.org/pen-dau-short-story-prize/ You'll be glad you did. It'll be like buying Netflix - heaven forfend! - at $16.75 a share.
Looking forward to Short Stories Toolkit!
Another gateway is the connected short stories. I adored Alice Mattison's In Case We're Separated.
I love short stories! I read both Bliss Montage by Ling Ma and What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi last year, and I still think about multiple stories from both of those collections.
My favorite short story collections are Somerset Maugham's. And my very favorite short story of his, which I keep hoping to see on stage or film, is "The Three Fat Women of Antibes." Masterpiece of comedy and restraint. (Although he'd have trouble getting away with that title these days.)
Also novels are easier for book groups to discuss. My book group's reading Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You, which is brilliant and should be easier to talk about since the stories are related. When we read books of unrelated stories, we select 4-5 to discuss - and often only get to 3!
Wonderful post - thank you, Rebecca - I’m always telling myself I need to read more short stories and now I know why haha! To the list I would add one collection I did manage to read and loved: Heather Newton’s McMullen Circle which came out last year and is a gorgeous collection of linked stories set in a north Georgia boarding school in the 1960’s.
I recently read "The Fourth State of Matter" and "Out There" both by Jo Ann Beard and I guess they are probably technically classified as essays but they read like short stories in my mind and they are SO GOOD.
You may appreciate knowing that my best group text got a link to your story "The Plaza" with the all caps admonition of my friend that we all MUST READ THIS and we all did and loved it.