Short Fiction

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

My recent favorites are:
Big Cats (which you've already read) [Did you know that author (Holiday - I love that name!!!) is married to "Dwight" on The Office?]

No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

Kelly Link's work (she has two collections, Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners)

How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry - by Elizabeth McCracken

The short fiction of Aimee Bender.

And very funny but not for the faint of heart, Benjamin Weissman's Headless or Dear Dead Person and Other Stories.

And if you also like personal essays, I recommend anything by George Orwell. And my favorite writing by Virginia Woolfe is a short essay entitled, "A Street Haunting."

[wendybeth]

I love short stories. Shirley Jackson, Flannery O'Connor, Fitzgerald ( 'Babylon Revisited' is one of my all-time favorites), Poe, London, Twain, Dickens....the list goes on and on. Nearly every great writer has written short fiction- magazines and anthologies were a way into the public eye and paid the bills while they worked on their longer masterpieces. I think the Norton Anthologies have done a great job compiling these works and they usually have top-notch translations for the foreign language stories.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

I love short stories. Shirley Jackson, Flannery O'Connor, Fitzgerald ( 'Babylon Revisited' is one of my all-time favorites), Poe, London, Twain, Dickens....the list goes on and on. Nearly every great writer has written short fiction- magazines and anthologies were a way into the public eye and paid the bills while they worked on their longer masterpieces. I think the Norton Anthologies have done a great job compiling these works and they usually have top-notch translations for the foreign language stories.

Shirley Jackson is also a favorite. I LOVE her novels, as well.

I didn't know about Dickens short fiction. I have a feeling I'd much prefer that to his "chock full" novels. Very cool.

[wendybeth]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

Shirley Jackson is also a favorite. I LOVE her novels, as well.

I didn't know about Dickens short fiction. I have a feeling I'd much prefer that to his "chock full" novels. Very cool.

'A Christmas Carol' is really more of a short story, and a good example of how shorter works can be better. I love Dickens, but he does run on in some of his stories...... Many of his longer works were actually serializations- published in penny papers and magazines and then compiled into novel form later.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

'A Christmas Carol' is really more of a short story, and a good example of how shorter works can be better. I love Dickens, but he does run on in some of his stories...... Many of his longer works were actually serializations- published in penny papers and magazines and then compiled into novel form later.

Yes, I had to drag myself through Great Expectations, and didn't give him another try. Perhaps I should. I found the filler chapters (where I assume he simply ran out of something to say at the moment but had to deliver a chapter for that week's publication) really, really grating.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

Yes, I had to drag myself through Great Expectations, and didn't give him another try. Perhaps I should. I found the filler chapters (where I assume he simply ran out of something to say at the moment but had to deliver a chapter for that week's publication) really, really grating.

Then never EVER try reading any unabridged versions of Victor Hugo's works.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

Then never EVER try reading any unabridged versions of Victor Hugo's works.

I've only read Hunchback, which is one of my favorite books. I love Hugo's writing style. Dickens far less.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

[Did you know that author (Holiday - I love that name!!!) is married to "Dwight" on The Office?

All this time I've been thinking she was married to Buster on Arrested Development.