James Thomas (3) (1946–)

I'm biased with my background in Hispanic Literature, but I agree with the editors that the best short fiction comes out of Latin America and US Latinos. There is a huge variety of stories here, a very strong point of the book. Sometimes, a story has to be read a couple of times for it to have any resonance for me, and of course different readers will prefer different stories, but with so much material, you're sure to find something that you like! I love the short-short format and feel that show more it can create powerful, lasting images, raise questions, and inspire more writing. I'm slogging through 2666 right now, so I really appreciated the chance to see that Roberto Bolaño can write a complete story in less than five gazillion words! I may also be biased because the Julio Ortega who closes the collection was my Borges professor! The worst thing about this book is the cover. The flaming newspaper probably contains a statement about the media or the act of writing or reading, but it first of all suggests the barbaric practice of ear candling (to remove excess wax) and would be very off-putting in a bookstore. I received this book through the Early Reviewers program, and I'm so glad. It is a very worthy addition to the dialog on short fiction. show less

Flash Fiction International contains 86 stories in 192 pages, an average of about 2¼ pages per story, and for me, that average feels a little high. This remarkable collection also has a section called “Flash Theory,” from which I will quote Lia Purpura:

“Why are miniature things so compelling? …
The miniature is mysterious ….
Miniatures encourage attention ….
Miniatures are intimate ….
Time, in miniature form, like a gas compressed, gets hotter.”

These thoughts help describe the show more appeal of these extremely short, “sudden” pieces of fiction. They are invariably jolting: they condense character, emotion, confusion, wonder, and disappointment in a few short paragraphs, and as varied as the effects are, one can always say, “Oh! That took me in a strange direction.” As short as they are, it’s impossible to get a feel for where the next piece will pick you up and subsequently drop you off. It happens so fast and so frequently that one becomes more and more impressed, bemused … happy is the only word that’s accurate. I adore the moment of finishing a work of fiction, when all the thoughts provoked by it assemble and mix and reverberate with and against each other. The stories in this lively and lovely collection generate this aesthetic frisson over and over again. They’re very dependable that way; it’s an excess of joy and wonder.

Here’s a quote from Chen Yizhi from the same “Theory” section:
“ The flame of complete combustion has a blue tinge. It is a beautiful color; it is a ferocious color. A piece of writing is powerful if its words are “completely combusted.”

This concept of gas heated, compressed, and combusted captures the character of these snippets perfectly. In a few short paragraphs, as I said, characters are introduced, they interact and conclusions, either open-ended, or final and abrupt, or simply ambiguous, are reached, and the point and the pace and the tone vary from page to page, literally. There are pieces here by Sherman Alexie, Naguib Mahfouz, Czesław Miłosz, Franz Kafka, Petronius, Shirani Rajapakse, Ron Carlson, and let’s see, 81 other authors who are unknown to me.

What a tonic! As much as I love and admire full-length fiction, these little marvels have had such a salutary effect on me. I highly recommend them for you, too. Take and enjoy. The doses might be small but they are always bracing! show less

The problem with genres like Flash Fiction, Short Shorts, Prose Poetry, and whatever else is out there that someone wants to come up with an arbitray definition for is that it's incredibly difficult to accurately decide what's in a genre that no one can really define. This collection bases their criteria for Flash Fiction on the word length of the piece. In doing so, they've included a number of poets and there's some discord between the pieces.

To the credit of the editors, they've picked a show more number of great pieces that really fit the flash fiction criteria. The pieces that don't are either staples (like Carolyn Forche's prose poem about dinner with Castro) or that are interesting enough that genre definitions don't matter (Russell Edson, for example). The ordering is wacky at time but the overall collection makes up for it.

For people hesitant to approach new genres like this, the editors have included a lot of recognizable names. All in all, it's a good anthology-- accessable, cheap, and it represents a wide variety of styles. show less

This came to me just when I was in the right mood for some flash fiction. I really like short stories, but the very short, short ones sometimes annoy me because they are often not stories at all. This collection is superb, with master writers and top-notch translators. There is also a final section about flash fiction. Library book.