Sign in with Facebook
Paul Bryant's Reviews > You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe
You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe
by
by
Short stories are the three minute singles of the literary world and anyone who has been pasted to the wall by the furious power of 19th Nervous Breakdown or the limpid beauty of Waterloo Sunset and yet hasn't managed to keep awake during an entire Stones or Kinks album will know what I mean. A great short story has a pungency and a pure serendipity. Alas, though, for every Paint It Black there are a couple of Angies (ouch) and for every Lola there's a few Plasticmen (ecch).
So it is with every short story collection, even ones like this which announce that every story in it has tore down somebody's life and rebuilt it from the basement up. There are some of my favourites here like Borges' The Aleph (oh who could not love that one) and Molly Giles' Pie Dance and Lars Gustafsson's Greatness Strikes Where it Pleases (what a title) and there are a whole lot where you have to think that you don't get them, I mean, they're okay and all, but not THAT great.
Having grown up with science fiction, which is essentially a short story genre no matter what the bookshops heaving with three-volume series may imply, I remained a low-level short story addict, but it's a lonely obsession since while you can chat about novels with your pals, short stories fly under most readers' radar. So it's little use me complaining about something like Angela Carter's Reflections - what kind of shit is that? You got to be kidding me! or Mary Caponegro's The Star Cafe - what kind of shit is that? Now I KNOW you're kidding me! Us short story readers learn to shrug, spit in the dust, move our haversack of expectations to our other shoulder, and walk on.
So it is with every short story collection, even ones like this which announce that every story in it has tore down somebody's life and rebuilt it from the basement up. There are some of my favourites here like Borges' The Aleph (oh who could not love that one) and Molly Giles' Pie Dance and Lars Gustafsson's Greatness Strikes Where it Pleases (what a title) and there are a whole lot where you have to think that you don't get them, I mean, they're okay and all, but not THAT great.
Having grown up with science fiction, which is essentially a short story genre no matter what the bookshops heaving with three-volume series may imply, I remained a low-level short story addict, but it's a lonely obsession since while you can chat about novels with your pals, short stories fly under most readers' radar. So it's little use me complaining about something like Angela Carter's Reflections - what kind of shit is that? You got to be kidding me! or Mary Caponegro's The Star Cafe - what kind of shit is that? Now I KNOW you're kidding me! Us short story readers learn to shrug, spit in the dust, move our haversack of expectations to our other shoulder, and walk on.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
You've Got to Read This.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
March 2, 2008
– Shelved
Started Reading
March 3, 2008
– Shelved as:
short-stories
March 3, 2008
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-48 of 48 (48 new)
date
newest »
newest »
Okay, Thom Jones definately ruled in his first volume. The Pugilist at Rest was so good it's not unusual that the follow up would be disappointing. I've never heard of writers being pelted with female undergarments as they type. Ruth - I see you all were nonplussed by Angela Carter's acid trip which was just as interesting as all the acid trips my contemporaries used to tell me about and I them. I.e. not.
Alice Munro is the best.R
I haven't read In the Heart of; I have read half of AM's Dance of the Happy Shades collection which was typical of my response to some of the writers who are revered so much, which is to say she did not set my brain on fire. Have you read River of Names by Dorothy Allison or Snow by Ann Baettie? They did.
I have a girlfriend who sees Tom Jones every chance she gets. She loves him. Go figure. I love all my friends, though. Wouldn't trade one of them for the world.
Hey Monica, that's a different Tom Jones. As names go, it's not unusual.
hey Paul thanks for putting me on to this, sounds my cup of tea. It's also going to be my 1000th book on GR, appropriatley.
I'll look forward to your review... I confess I'm a short story addict. I have a ton of collections which I patently haven't read because I automatically pick up the next novel. I'll make a concerted effort, and Goodreads is very helpful in organising reading. I'm thinking of creating a new shelf of authors who committed suicide, since a lot of them do. But that would be a trifle tasteless.
Go on do it. (The suicide shelf). I'm an ss addict too, obviously. I too think of them like songs, I'm always trying to do a Strawberry Fields or even a She Loves You but end up with a Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, or The Birdy Song.
Hey Paul, I've got on to this page after the latest comment got me re-reading the thread on the Gaitskill book - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...which you have put me off, and realised I hadn't got round to chasing this one up yet. It isn't avaialble in our libraries (Birmingham)so I looked it up on amazon - cheapest copy 29 quid. I might look now at an interlibrary loan, otherwise I'll not be adding to this...
Hey Alan, don't you live in the UK? I'll send you my copy.
i do - Brum. That would be very kind of you Paul - I'll try and send you my address via the message bit..
have read a few stories now Paul - thanks for sending. Review will follow in a couple of weeks, but i do agree about the Star cafe one - err, no. Thanks all the same.
It does make one wonder....
I was disappointed with this book.can't say I read all of it though.
I'm almost motivated to take this down again and resample, though my recollection is that my initial reaction was essentially similar to Jessica's - a kind of "is that all there is?" response to a disappointingly high percentage of the stories. But this is typical of anthologies, most of which end up getting three stars that indicate "mixed bag". It's why I generally don't bother with the annual "best short stories" collections.I could add some generalized grumbling about these gimmicky new-fangled authors failing to match the genius of Chekhov or Turgenev or Frank O' Connor. but I'm trying to stave off the "grumpy old curmudgeon" persona for another few years at least.
I am enjoying most of the stories though, so far, and have read about a third of them before. Paul Bowles's one was as frightening and strange as 'The Sheltering Sky', I'd advise readers pressed for time to just read the story. I couldn't get on with his wife's one though. The Carter one didn't annoy me as much as it did Paul, in fact parts of it were quite intriguing, but yes overall I felt wtf? I'm not a great Borges fan any more (did like him when I first read him) so 'Aleph' isn't one of my favourites. MOre later...
So Paul did none of the stories 'make the corpuscles rush merrily around my arteries' as you say about something else not doing (DeLillo)? I agree with your assessment of Caponegro and Carter, and many didn't strike me as that great too: Schwartz, Silko, Agee, Jane Bowles. But Welty's and O'Connor's did it for me. They are truly great imo. Plus the Chekhov, Carver, Nabokov, Updike, Munro, Babel oh and a few more were knee weakeners. But the book does set itself up for a fall with all that 'awe'.
It does - how about your fifty favourite short stories for my list of same?
well I haven't got a list prepared but could get one together I'm sure - give me some time though. Be intrigued to see your's.
Okay.... I'll do a non-science fiction one... it will also take a day or so... I'll be back, as the Governator said.
I was going to add at least one science fiction one to mine (Casablanca by Thomas Disch). But I don't generally read sci-fi (apart from things like The Road, Oryx and Crake). Are there any rules to this list - eg you can't have fifty Carver stories? One story per author? Can you include your mates (I have a few writer chums) or would that be biased?
Okay, rules - not more than 10 sf stories, not more than 5 by any one author - none at all by Brett Easton Ellis, of course - I wonder if our Carver stories will overlap. Include your mates by all means - I won't be doing that as I don't move in such circles.
Okay, make that not more than 12 sf stories!
agreed no Brett Easton Ellis
Alan wrote: "agreed no Brett Easton Ellis"This is an interesting assignment you've given yourselves. I love short stories; I'll be interested to see what you list.
Finished! - this list happens to be in approx chronological order not order of greatness.1. The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar : Edgar Allen Poe
2. Crack o’ Whips : H A Manhood
3. Miriam : Truman Capote
4. The Vertical ladder : William Sansom
5. Children on their Birthdays : Truman Capote
6. A Perfect Day for Bananafish : J D Salinger
7. Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius : Jorge Luis Borges
8. The Sound Machine : Roald Dahl
9. Lot : Ward Moore
10. It's a GOOD Life : Jerome Bixby
11. Foster, You're Dead : Philip K Dick
12. Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket : Jack Finney
13. The Other Celia : Theodore Sturgeon
14. But who can replace a man? : Brian Aldiss
15. Space-Time for Springers : Fritz Leiber
16. Old Hundredth : Brian Aldiss
17. The Voices of Time : J G Ballard
18. Making Sure of a Little One : Derek Ingrey
19. The Balloon : Donald Barthelme
20. Masks : Damon Knight
21. The Babysitter : Robert Coover
22. The Milk of Paradise : James M Tiptree Jr
23. Air Raid - John Varley
24. The Cinderella Waltz : Ann Beattie
25. A Serious Talk : Raymond Carver
26. Preservation : Raymond Carver
27. A Small Good thing : Raymond Carver
28. Choice : John Fox
29. Friends at Evening : Andrew Holleran
30. All the way in Flagstaff, Arizona : Richard Bausch
31. Truckstop : Garrison Keillor
32. Darlene Makes a Move : Garrison Keillor
33. River of Names : Dorothy Allison
34. Alana : Abraham Rodriguez
35. Boxes : Raymond Carver
36. Elephant : Raymond Carver
37. The Fireman's Wife : Richard Bausch
38. Lights in the Valley : Andrew Holleran
39. Love in the Back Rooms : John Rechy
40. The Pugilist at Rest : Thom Jones
41. Wipeout : Thom Jones
42. Silhouettes : Thom Jones
43. I Want to Live! : Thom Jones
44. A Soft Touch : Irvine Welsh
45. Where the Debris meets the Sea : Irvine Welsh
46. We were out of our Minds with Joy : David Marusek
47. Negocios : Junot Diaz
48. The Flowers of Aulit Prison : Nancy Kress
49. People Like That are the Only People Here : Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk :Lorrie Moore
50. Sea Oak : George Saunders
blimey Paul that was quick. I'm still compiling mine and finding it hard to exclude. Plus I'm heavily influenced by what I've read recently, last few years, and I'm sure my list would change each month. Also some stuff I've read from the library and loved (eg Junot Diaz's Drown and a collection of Ann Beattie's - both of whom appear on your list) but can't remember the titles and enough about them to add here.Anyway here's my list-in-progress so that we can compare, not in any order at all, just bunged down as I recall them. Sorry there's more than fifty, I will slim them down and do a proper list asap.
Doris Lessing - One off the Short List
- To Room Nineteen
both these stories are in 'A Man and Two Women' - they are respectively the first and last stories. The copy I've got is a Panther one which has a naked woman looking dreamy/sexy with that title above. Great. This collection dates from the 60s (around her 'Golden Notebook' period) and is Lessing at her best, I think.
Lydia Davis - Mr Knockly in Collected Stories of Agnes Owen
Jerry Bumpus - A Lament to Wolves: got to know about this through GR (Jessica Treat recommendation, thanks Jessica). I had to buy it from the University and it had a much better cover than the one displayed.The Civilized Tribes: New and Selected Stories
Wallace Stegner - The Sweetness of Twisted Apples (which made me think of Winnesburg, Ohio, but I haven't chosen one from there as they are too linked up)Collected Stories
William Goyen - Precious Door in Had I a Hundred Mouths
VS Pritchett - Cocky Olly http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...
Robert Walser - The Job Application - I read this in a book called 'The Walk' but haven't GRed it yet, will do.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...
Breece D'J Pancake - Tribolites http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52...
David Constantine - A Paris Story http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...
Ota Pavel - They Can Even Kill You (difficult to separate out these stories too) - another GR recommendation from Meg (no longer on GR alas). My favourite book I read in 2009, but also up there with the great books in my life.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Graham Greene - The Destructors http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Bernard McLaverty - Up the Coast http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Walter de la Mare - The Wharf http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30...
E M Forster - The Machine Stops
I read this in school along with three others on this list: D H lawrence's Odour of Chrysanthemums, Graham Greene's The Destructors and Katherine Mansfield's Daughters of the Late Colonel - in a fantastic 60s modern stories anthology (it also included Conrad's The Secret Sharer which also nearly made it on to this list). However here's a link to the one on GR:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47...
Diane Williams (difficult because effect is cumulative) - Pornography
Hold on to yourself, Williams has a right go, weird and subversive
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Carver - Cathedral
- They're not yourhusband
- A Small Good Thing
- Menudo
- Will You Please Be Quiet Please
others I nearly included: So MUch Water So Close to home; WWTAWWTAL; Elephant
Gerard Donovan - Harry Dietz
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Tom Franklin - Poachers
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man is Hard to Find
In this book, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
as is this one:
Eudora good-at-belching Welty - No Place for You, My Love
another Eudora makes it too:
- Why I lIve at the P.O.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
William Sansom - The Equilibriad
I read this in 'Among the Dahlias' not on GR. I hope it is in this one, but I don't know:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Rebecca Brown - the honeymoon one http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Uwem Akpan - My Parent's Bedroom
very very powerful stories in his collection, maybe not the greatest writer in the world
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Samual Beckett - The Expelled
- My First Love (my first Beckett)
I haven't GRed this yet but I read both these in an earlier version of this:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
and The Expelled is in quite-a-good-anthology 'The Existential Imagination:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Chekhov - Lady with the Lapdog http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20...
Robert Stone - Under the Pitons http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
William Trevor - Good News http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59...
Alan Sillitoe - The Ragman's Daughter http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Tobias Wolf - The Night in Question
maybe Bullet in the Brain is better, both are from: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...
James baldwin - Going to Meet the Man
I read this in the anthology 'The Penguin Book of International Short Stories 1945-85' (aka 'The Art of the Tale' in the USA). It also has Eudora Welty's story No Place for You My love: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Ben Okri - Stars of the New Curfew http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Isaac Babel - My First Goose http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Grace Paley - The Pink Pale Roast http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Alice Munro - Fits
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31659
John Cheever - The Reunion ( maybe this is a bit slight compared to the riches of say The Enormous Radio or the House Breaker of Shady Hill, or even the one in this book, Goodbye, My Brother) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...
Joel Lane - The Quiet Hours.(This story is about Charles Beaumont, who had some disease that sped up his metabolism and made hm prematurely age, but it's not necessary to know that). Joel is my mate, so I'm biased, I remember the night he brought this along to the writer's group and I was stunned, and still am.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Thomas Disch - Casablanca
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93...
Richard Bausch - Fatality
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35...
Proulx - Brokeback Mountain
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27...
Tim Winton - Aquifer
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34...
D H Lawrence - The Odour of Chrysanthemums - although I didn't read it in the book at the other end of this link
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...
Joyce carol Oates - Wild saturday
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Gogol - Diary of a Madman
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...
same as Paul:
Salinger - Perfect Day for Bananafish (the copy of 'For Esme with Love and Squalor' shown is not the edition I have)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5116
Thom Jones - The Pugilist at Rest
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
bubbling under - Fahrenheit Twins Michel Faber
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
Richard Ford - Rock Springs
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26...
James Kelman - Not not While the Giro (I know you don't like him...)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
Philip O Ceallaigh - Retreat From Moscow
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42...
Nancy Lee - East
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82...
Paul Bowles - A Distant Episode
this book
Lorrie Moore - Peed Onk one (as Paul)
Katherine Mansfield - Daughters of the Late colonel
.. I'm fascinated by your list. Great to see a William Sansom there (don't knw that story though).Don't know, well, so many: Ward Moore, Jerome Bixby, Jack Finney, Fritz leiber, Derek Ingrey, Damon Knight, John Varley, John Fox, Andrew Holleran, John Rechy, David Marusek, Nancy Cress.
My ignorance, especially as a short story writer, is deep. I will start looking these people up when I can.. thanks Paul, always great to hear of new story writers, 'swat GR's for.
Heh heh, I ALSO don't know a whole heap of your faves, so this is great, I'll be chasing them up you can be sure. I may have to come back & ask which book this or that one is in... maybe if it's worth it we could do another trade.
Yes I'm up for that. I sent this book back to you yesterday so you should get it soon.
Paul - do I have to slim it down to fifty, I keep wanting to add more? What I will do is re-edit the list with links to the books they came from (my reviews on GR where they exist). Is that Ok with you, squire?
Of course, my friend - expand away. All this chat about short stories has inspired me to read all the ones on my favourites list which I've forgotten about and also go snorting around like a truffle pig trying to find the ones on your list. Snort !
yes me too - I re-read Bananafish, To Room Nineteen, The Reunion, and The Quiet Hours (by Joel Lane) in the last couple of days and confirmed their places. Passed on the Salinger to my daughter - she loved it too. I'm pissed off though because I can't find my Babel. Must have lent it to someone. Gonna have to buy it again. Stuff on your list soon - do you recommend an anthology with two or more in or are each in different books? I'll have a go at putting on the links today - or maybe tomorrow if we're busy here.
I'll revisit my list with at least the books they came from, don't know about actual links - you're talking technical skills there! I'm actually off work today so I have no excuse...
only links to my GR reviews, where they exist.. think I can manage that. Off to a meeting now though. Enjoy your day off.
I'm reading this two years late, but just want to give a big THANKS to both of you for listing all of those favorites and links! A short story lover's Christmas in Spring.Cheers
I'm going to have a go at tidying up my links on here now I'm super-efficient with all that!
I will have to read Gustafsson's story. Loved Pie Dance. I don't share your opinion of The Aleph although I'm a big fan of Borges. For that matter, I don't get The Dead either. But I love Joyce. A couple of my favorites were Ruth Jhabvala's The Interview, Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing and Grace Paley's Wants. Sharp, clear and poignant. There were plenty of throwaways in the lot.
thanks Rose - if you have a handy list of your favourite short stories please let me know....
Here's quick off the top of my head list (and some are mentioned by others in previous comments)The Immortals by Martin Amis
See the Moon and Chablis by Donald Barthelme
A Couple of Gigolos by Charles Bukowski
The Swimmer by Cheever
A Painful Case by Joyce (Dubliners)
The Revolt of Mother by Freeman
Brokeback Mountain by Proulx
How Far She Went by Mary Hood
The Disinterested Killer Billy Harrigan by J.L. Borges
The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
The Flowers by Alice Walker
Pritchett's Oxford book of short stories is probably a conservative selection but has some beauties. My favourites so far: Conrad's The secret Sharer, Saki's Sredni Vashtar, AE Coppard's the field of mustard, Brett Harte's the Iliad of sandy bar, Walter De la Mare's an ideal craftsman
And thank you, I'm going to check out some from your list and from Alan's
Have you seen this http://www.channel4.com/programmes/el... - a series of films made from Philip K Dick short stories, on now. I don't have a telly but will try to watch them on catch-up TV on the net. I read Voices of Time after reading these comments .... phew! He really has to be one of the strangest story-tellers ever ...
thanks for the tip, I had not heard of it....
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_g...