On Short Stories

I have a funny relationship with short stories, as I must have mentioned before now. One of my problems is that I’m never quite sure how to read collections, by which I mean, should I read them slowly, one story at a time, and leave a respectful amount of time between each in which to cogitate and fully appreciate each tiny delectation, or is it acceptable to plough straight on with barely a breath?

I suspect the answer, as it so often is, is that it’s a personal thing. What is it, though, about the short story that puts me on edge so? Why do I find them so much more difficult to get into? I must have a dozen collections dotted about my house that I’ve read three or four stories from and never finished. I’m starting to infuriate myself.

That’s not to say that there aren’t collections that I haven’t loved and devoured. Here are my top five:

The Complete Ghost Stories – M.R. James (you can just never go wrong with M.R. James)
Open Secrets – Alice Munro (mesmerising)
Other Stories and Other Stories – Ali Smith (Ali Smith is an exception to all of the above, I adore her, and this is the collection I named this blog after)
The Loudest Sound and Nothing – Clare Wigfall (this is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful)
Bliss and Other Stories – Katherine Mansfield (first read this at university, quickly became a firm favourite)

I have purposely excluded anthologies with multiple authors for the simple reason that the continuity question is less of a *thing* for books that are put together by a separate editor. Not that they aren’t carefully put together by said editor, but it’s not the authors’ choices. Clare Wigfall, say, would have put her stories in a certain order for a reason.

Does anyone else have a tricky relationship with the short story as a genre, or am I thinking too hard about it?

15 Comments

March 9, 2010 by Kirsty in fiction, personal, short stories
Tagged short stories

15 Responses

Simon (Savidge Reads)
March 9, 2010 at 11:46 am

I have a funny realtionship with short stories. I have a collection on the bedside table at all times but sometimes takes me ages to read one and other times its a whizz through I think it depends where my reading head is at. At the moment am having another reading funk!
Kirsty
March 9, 2010 at 11:51 am

I sympathise with the reading funk, I’ve had a couple of those over the last few months. I think you’re right, it so depends on the collection doesn’t it?
Claire (the Captive Reader)
March 9, 2010 at 12:40 pm

I find short stories quite difficult. Even those I enjoy, like Alice Munro’s, frustrate me, I think because I’m used to novel-length narratives and feel cheated when my encounter with a character is over is 20 or so pages.
Kirsty
March 9, 2010 at 12:54 pm

I know what you mean. I’m a character person, and sometimes I feel I don’t have time to get to know them in a short story. But then, are we necessarily meant to in fiction of that length?
BuriedInPrint
March 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

For me, it’s just habit. If I dot my reading landscape with short stories regularly then it starts to feel comfortable. But if I don’t, I settle back into inflicting my novel-reading expectations on them. I’m really intrigued by the Wigfall collection you’ve mentioned.
Annabel
March 9, 2010 at 3:33 pm

I so rarely read them. I don’t know why I fear them so either. It’s a sense of anticipation of blink and you’ll miss it, or feeling cheated by their brevity, or not being able to appreciate the form… Even thinking about it I don’t understand why.
Rebecca
March 9, 2010 at 4:15 pm

I don’t often read short stories, but sometimes feel guilty about it and think I should broaden my reading horizons a bit more. I do love the M.R. James ghost stories however!
Kirsty
March 9, 2010 at 5:38 pm

BuriedinPrint, you make a really good point actually. Maybe if I try to start reading a short story per day, regardless of what else I’m reading then they might seque into my reading life a little easier. And do try the Wigfall book, it really is marvellous.

Annabel, I’m so glad I’m not the only one who sometimes worries they’re missing something with short stories!

Rebecca, isn’t M.R. James just fantastic? I have a wonderfully spooky looking 1970s edition of his complete stories and I love it.
KevinfromCanada
March 9, 2010 at 6:37 pm

I have exactly the same problem that you do, Kirsty. I resolve to be disciplined and read one, perhaps two, stories a day. Then, if the collection is good (Richard Yates and Alice Munro come to mind), I rush through them all. And if it doesn’t hit me right away (Tobias Wolff is a current example), I never seem to get back to it. I do find magazine stories (especially the New Yorker) easier — since they only come one at a time. The ultimate cop-out for me are collections of “linked” stories, because I can read them just like a novel (Maile Meloy and Daniyal Menueendin are two recent examples of that).

On another matter, Ali Smith was named yesterday as one of the three jury members for Canada’s 2010 Giller Prize. The other two are American novelist Claire Messud (The Emperor’s Children) and Canadian public affairs radio host Michael Enright (no books published). It will be an interesting panel — the first Giller jury ever that does not have a Canadian “icon” (Atwood, Munro, MacLeod, etc.) on it. I am a big fan of Smith’s critical writing and book introductions (she seems to write a fair number for books that I buy). And I can’t help but note that Messud is married to James Wood in addition to doing quite a bit of critical writing herself. All in all, it could produce a very interesting result.
Kirsty
March 9, 2010 at 8:26 pm

Kevin, that sounds like an interesting panel indeed. I’m afraid I know shamefully little about Canadian writing, the most famous exponents excluded, but does the Giller Prize usually go for non-Canadian panelists? Does Smith have any Canadian connections?

I agree with you about the linked stories. It’s so tempting to read them as a type of novel.
KevinfromCanada
March 9, 2010 at 8:59 pm

In the last few years, the Giller organization has always had at least one non-Canadian judge. In 2008, Colm Toibin joined Margaret Atwood and Bob Rae (a prominent Canadian politician). Last year, Alistair Macleod was the chair — Victoria Glendenning and American novelist Russell Banks were the other two. Glendenning created a bit of a stir here with a Financial Times column that suggested Canadian fiction features someone wearing a “toque” sitting in a “Muskoka chair” on the short of remote Northern Ontario lake, experiencing major angst. Not a bad characterization of all too many Canadian novels, alas.

I don’t know of any connection Smith has with Canada — and didn’t discover until today that Messud’s mother is Canadian and that she has and does visit the country periodically. Frankly, I think one of the reasons for the international flavor is that the Canadian industry is so small that it would be almost impossible to avoid problems of conflict of interest — although great names like Atwood and Munro are presumed to be above that. I have run a Shadow Giller Jury since the second year of the Prize. Last year was the first year that we took it on line and you can see some of the posts (and the Shadow Jury history) on my website.
KevinfromCanada
March 9, 2010 at 9:00 pm

That should be “shore”, not “short”. Also I forgot to say that an “eavestrough” (you call them gutters) would also feature prominently.
ana
March 9, 2010 at 11:22 pm

So often I put a title from a favourite writer back on the shelf either as a possible read or for a gift if I find it’s short stories, for many of the reasons others mention here. When I read your post, I searched my memory for great short stories and the title that leaps out is Robert Drewe’s The Bodysurfers, apparently re released as a Popular Penguin last year. Such a fine collection and one which my friends still mention, even though it was published in 1983!!. My son, a reluctant reader, devoured the Tim Winton collection The Turning on his train trips to work. It too was very very good!

Am inspired to try some of your favourites, i do endorse Katherine Mansfield, her collection, The Garden Party is just superb
Teresa
March 9, 2010 at 11:54 pm

I hardly ever read short stories, and I think that’s mostly because I haven’t figured out a good way to work them into my reading routine. Mostly if I read them, I read them in a single-author collection, which I end up reading as a novel. And even then, I get frustrated because I want more time with the characters and it that world.

My hands-down favorite short story writer is Flannery O’Connor. I’ve been wanting to reread her collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find, which I haven’t read in years.
Kirsty
March 10, 2010 at 9:37 am

Kevin, interesting, I’ll have a look at that! Thanks.

I do have lots of favourite single stories, but oddly most of them have been ones that I read in anthologies. For example, a lot of the New Woman stories from the late 19thC. I wonder if it’s easier to make the stories more distinct in one’s head when you’ve read them in multi-author anthologies, rather than reading a collection of stories by a single author straight through, when it feels more like a novel?