Short Shorts

One feels after finishing many of these 38 very short pieces that they are ultimately mystery stories, not as in, Whodunnit?, but as in "what the hell just happened?" The editors, Irving and Ilana Howe, have a special fondness for ambiguity. All of the authors are world class, but with occasional exception the stories are not so well-known. My favorite effort was Doris Lessing's "Homage for Isaac Babel," so I was disappointed to find that the actual Isaac Babel story in the collection--The Death of Dolgushov--didn't do much for me. Overall, a few hits, a few misses, and a lot of head-scratchers.

This is an excellent collection of very short stories, few if any exceeding 9,000 words. Tolstoy, Hemingway, Marquez, and dozens of other great writers are represented. If there's a caveat, it's that most of the stories avoid twist endings and, indeed, a majority seem to end without obvious or concrete resolutions. It is perhaps no coincidence that my two favorites did, in fact, come to very firm conclusions.

A collection of shorter-than-average but not microscopic stories, generally between two and eight pages in length -- stories condensed down to their essence. They depend not on plot but on excellent craftsmanship. Because of their length, the stories often take on a parable-like or dreamlike quality; for that reason, they linger long in the mind after reading.

Especially pleasing is the number of international authors included in this anthology, and the mixture of well-known and lesser-known writers, many of whom are difficult to find in English. Alongside Kafka and Tolstoy (both masters at this type of story) are Heinrich Böll's "The Laugher", Sherwood Anderson's "Paper Pills", Giuseppe di Lampedusa's "Joy and the Law". The variety of show more styles and subject matter is also excellent. On a personal note, I was also thrilled to see the last story included was Luise Valenzuela's "The Censors" which I read years ago in an English class and has stayed with me since. show less

A good collection of short stories that can be carried in the pocket for easy reading.