Why I read short stories

 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/06/the-world-at-an-angle-reasons-to-love-short-stories

A very nice piece on the art of the short story if you have a bit of time. She makes some good points-especially how nice it is that you can carry the entirety of a short story in your head. 

I read and write short stories for the love of words, for enlightenment and insight into a character or situation, because I can finish reading it in one sitting and thus mull it over when it is fresh in my mind. I don't read them to be entertained really. I am happy when that occurs but I don't really expect it. I don't think many crime short stories work well because the plot is so important in a crime story. My favorite crime short is, of course, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. 

Although ones about a crime's affect on a victim or villain can be powerful.

Why do you read short stories?  Can you choose a favorite?

 

Short Story Wednesday: "Tiny, Smiling, Daddy" Mary Gaitskill

 

"Tiny, Smiling, Daddy" Mary Gaitskill 

(from the archives) 

 "Tiny, Smiling, Daddy" is in the collection Because They Wanted To. Gaitskill is an extremely dark writer and pleasure (for me) is derived from recognizing truths in her stories and in the quality of her writing. I like a story that makes me examine issues I have known or been made aware of in myself and others and this one does. Who doesn't know a father (or mother) who lacks what they need to connect with their child.

In this story a father has shunned his daughter since her teenage announcement that she is a lesbian.  His feelings toward her had already been affected by things like nose piercings and her failure to set the table correctly. As a small child, Kitty was close to her parents but that changes as she changes. This announcement leads to Stew (and his wife) telling Kitty she's free to leave and make her own way in the world. 

The story begins with a phone call from a friend telling Stew that Kitty has published a story about their relationship in a magazine titled "Self." Stew gets a copy of the magazine and although there is really nothing surprising in her article, it sort of sums up what their relationship has been, which is sad and shocking for Stew. He then thinks back on his relationship with his father, which was distant, harsh and short. 

The success of this story for me is that although Stew behaves badly in this story, by the end you feel some sympathy for him because he is so clueless about nearly everything in his life. You know he won't change.

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple 

TracyK 

Todd Mason

Monday, Monday

 

A really difficult week both politically and weather-wise. And this week looks like our coldest yet. 

Really liked LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON renting on Amazon for $3. I have seen several movies by this director (Hirokazu Koreeda), all featuring children and liked them all. Also watched THE PIANO TEACHER (Haneke), which was a bit too erotic for me. Huppert is always good though.

Watching the ARE MURDERS on Netflix. (Set in Sweden)It's not as good as I had hoped from the review. I guess I have seen too many of these murders in a small, snowy Scandinavian town series.

Starting my next book club book, MARTYR by Kaveh Aktar.  Still making my way through the Hollinghurst book too. I am alternately interested and not so much in it.

I am going to post an empty post for the next three weeks so I can hear what you are doing and you can communicate with each other. 

How about this week?

FFB: THE BEET QUEEN, Louise Erdrich

 

This was the second book I read in 1987. What a long career Louise Erdrich has had.

My comments were: this was the story of a group of interrelated people in North Dakota in the 1930s through the 1980s. Some of the characters were introduced in LOVE MEDICINE.

This from a review- The Beet Queen deals primarily with marginal people who live socially and culturally displaced lives. This marginality is a source of both strength and grief for Erdrich's characters.

I kept up with Erdrich for a long time but haven't read anything recently although she continues to write praised novels. 

Short Story Wednesday: "The Ice Palace" F. Scott Fitzgerald

This morning two children froze to death in a car parked in the lot at a casino in Detroit. It is not clear how this happened. It seems they were possibly living in the car because the mother could not get anyone to help them. Things are only going to get worse, I'm afraid.

 FSF wrote this story when he was 24, and it was published in the Saturday Evening Post and later in the collection FLAPPERS AND PHILOSOPHERS.

A Southern Belle is choosing amongst beaus, much like Scarlett O'Hara in GWTW. She decides on a northerner despite her deep hatred of the cold. He takes her home to meet his family. (Probably in Minnesota where FSF was from and where there are natural Ice Palaces). It doesn't go well, the stark differences between north and south are emphasized. He takes her out one night to a party in the ice palaces where she gets lost and almost freezes. Needless to say, she goes back to Georgia and begins her search again. Sounds a lot like a Zelda story, doesn't it?

Amazing story for a 24 year old.  And a strange choice for Valentine's Day as well.  Have a happy one.

 TracyK

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple 

Todd Mason

Monday, Monday

                                                                Kevin at 17.

 I'm Still Here was terrifying but very good. Brazil 1970 v  US 2024 not so different. It took Brazil 25 years to get rid of a dictatorship. Hope it's not that long for us. Phone your congress reps. Flood their phone lines.

Also enjoyed watching ANNIE HALL, probably for the tenth time. Sticking with SEVERANCE but not really keen on it. ASURA is very good on Netflix. All CREATURES might be over. Oh, no.

Still reading OUR EVENINGS by Alan Hollinghurst. So much like Brideshead Revisited to me.

My DIL just finished listening to every Agatha Christie on Audible. What a feat! The gang are on their way to Amsterdam and Bruges for Kevin's spring break. Trying to decide also where he will go to school next year. It looks like he's interested in Public and Environmental Policy. Of course, both of my kids changed their majors along the way. As did Phil and I.  The University of Michigan received a record 105,142 applications for the fall 2024 semester

Lots of cold, snowy temps here. Florida can't come soon enough.  

What about you?

FFB: WE WERE DREAMERS, James Lehrer

Ran across a journal listing the books I read from 1987-89. I read so much more then. No Internet to suck my time for one thing. I wasn't working full-time and my kids were pretty much grown. I read lots of story collections, lots of mysteries but also lots of more literary books-ones by Faulkner, Wharton, Morrison, Capote, etc. And a ton of books by writers I don't remember at all. Also a lot more non-fiction. Just a lot more everything. 

Has your reading material/interest changed over time? Book groups have changed mine too. 

Here's the first entry from January 4, 1987

We Were Dreamers, James Lehrer

The story of the attempts of the Lehrer family to run a small bus company in Kansas in 1946-47.  PW wrote: "The material is slim and repetitious, and Lehrer lacks the tragicomic touch to give it added dimension." Lehrer was a news anchor at the time. I wonder why I chose this to read? 

I had a rule for myself: One mystery, one literary writer, one collection of stories, one non-fiction. I doubt I much kept to it though from the books in here.