It’s a little embarrassing that I’m told to write short
stories in almost all of my fiction writing classes, yet I rarely read short
stories that aren’t homework assignments.
With this in mind, I decided to pick up a few collections by authors I
admired.
What surprised me most (but
probably shouldn’t have surprised me at all) about reading these collections
was how many trends and reoccurring themes I found in each author’s work.
Even though I might have at first thought,
“Really?
You’re using that same trick
again?” as I was reading, I ended up
really appreciating how much I was able to learn about each writer’s distinct
voice.
Anyway, I decided to share what I
loved about each of these collections below.
Self-Help by Lorrie Moore – Lorrie
Moore is able to get her readers deep inside the heads of her characters,
oftentimes by writing in the second person, so that by the time I finish one of
her stories and take a step back I’m surprised to realize that I would probably
hate these characters in real life. She
writes about everyday people and events, but with enough details that their
worlds always feel colorful and tragically deep. I loved her novel Anagrams as well and will definitely try to read more of her
work. (I also really want to mention
that there’s an episode of Gossip Girl
where Blair tries to get Lorrie Moore invited to a party to impress the editor
of a magazine, and as I was watching it I freaked out thinking Lorrie Moore
might cameo. She didn’t.)
Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel – I
first heard about this book from my high school writing teacher who liked to
talk about how much fun this book was to read in public due to its
self-help-style cover, making it ironic that I read it back-to-back with Lorrie
Moore’s collection. Even though I
avoided the comments of, “there, there, don’t jump,” he claimed strangers would
make on the train, I loved reading the collection that included one of my all-time
favorite short stories, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried.” Even though I didn’t totally understand every
story in this book, many of the stories contained such beautiful, thought-provoking
passages that I often found myself going back a few pages just to re-read them. There aren’t many characters in her stories,
and hardly any dialogue, and I was immediately impressed that any author could
pull off this much self-reflection without it feeling at all amateur.
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
by Karen Russell – Karen Russell’s novel Swamplandia! was one of those books I initially had mixed feelings
toward, but haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I read it over a
year ago, so when a friend told me that the novel was actually inspired by the
short story, “Ava Wrestles the Alligator” that starts off this collection, I
knew I had to read it. She pulls off
magical realism perfectly, writing stories that remain in the realm of reality
but always feel just a little off. Most
of her stories contain adolescent main characters, but wouldn’t at all fall
under the genre of YA, allowing adult readers the chance to reflect on the
mysterious, fantastical, often twisted ways young people see the world. Considering how much success Russell has
already had at only 31 years old, I’m looking forward to the amazing work this
writer is bound to produce in the future.
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I think I’ll take a break from short story collections
for a while, but I already know Tenth of
December by George Saunders is next on my list. For now, these collections have given me
plenty of inspiration to continue working on some short stories of my own.
Read on,
Elizabeth
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