2007 - The Year of the Short Story?

Filed by: Darren Turpin on December 12, 2006 at 8:25
Filed under: Books

I'm anticipating a significant up-turn in the amount of reading time I have available as of the start of 2007. The year-long decorating project is almost done (short version: we had a major house extension built between July '05 to Feb '06 and have been painting over bare plaster ever since...) and that should give me my Sunday afternoons back, for reading, blogging, computer gaming, etc. (cue my lovely wife, Jo, muttering something along the lines of "nice try, mister..." as she dusts off the list marked 'additional chores: urgent'...)

'Postscripts #9' ed. by Peter Crowther & Nick GeversSo anyway, I'm hoping to read a lot more short fiction next year.

I know from long experience, both as a bookseller and, latterly, a review 'zine editor, that short fiction as a general form does have its detractors. Mostly they're folks who say that they prefer to invest longer amounts of time in the fiction they read; that they like to get involved in a fulll-length novel and really connect with the characters, plots and situations; or, rather typically, that they "don't like the way short stories always seem to stop just as they're getting interesting".

Well, I agree with the first few sentiments expressed, but I agree more with the countless commentators (I'm really not going to try to claim credit for this as any sort of original thought on my part) who point out that these folks have rather missed the point of good short fiction with that last objection.

A good short story delivers a short, sharp, hit - in what could be either or both of the narcotic and pugilistic senses - of, well, something. Catharsis, revelation, speculation, imagery, intrigue, bafflement... something. And if that means that they do stop "just as they're getting interesting", well, perhaps that was the whole point of the story; perhaps the writer fully intended to leave the reader hanging, suspended in a moment of contemplation, intrigued and desiring further resolution. That's often how and why some short stories stay with you long after you've read them, a pin-prick of bright memory amidst the bulk of dull, grey matter, and so forth.

Fair enough, if that's not your cup of tea - if, say, you'd generally rather listen to a two-hour concept album than a compilation mix-CD - then that's fine, of course. But personally, I love that hit of... whatever... and as I am rather hopelessly addicted to variety in both literature and music, and short fiction surely seems the best way to satisfy the former craving.

'The Unbecoming' by Mike O'DriscollAnd I reckon there are enough good writers out there - and enough publishers with the good sense to make sure that their work sees the light of day - to keep me well-stocked with premium material pretty much all year round, if I wanted to. I know I've got any number of anthologies and collections on the shelves that I've yet to dive into.

I'm reading the latest two issues of PS Publishing's always excellent (and multiple award-winning) Postscripts magazine at the moment [declaration of possible bias: I'm a PS staffer, having run the PS website for a number of years, but hey, ask anyone how good Postscripts is and you'll hear the same thing, and anyway, why the hell haven't you subscribed yet..?] and then I've got five issues of D.F. Lewis's Nemonymous lined up as well. And I'm thinking of trying to pick up pretty much one of everything published by Andrew Hook's Elastic Press - although I can already make a start on Mike O'Driscoll's The Unbecoming, which I snapped up in the Fantasycon dealers' room - and then Chris Teague's Pendragon Press will most likely be raided as well.

Not that I'll be giving up on novels entirely of course. There's just far too much must-read meterial already on the shelf, and a whole stack of potentially great stuff lined up for next year. But I would like to broaden my horizons - horribly cramped as they've become due to the lack of commuter reading-time since May and the aforementioned self-inflicted slave labour - and what better way to satiate my fiction-flavoured cravings than with a whole series of short, sharp hits?

Feel free to recommend particulalry strong collections and / or anthologies in the comments there, folks (and yes, I have already read Joe Hill's Twentieth Century Ghosts, and yes, it was bloody marvellous...)

Filed on: December 12, 2006
Filed under: Books
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Comments

6 Responses to '2007 - The Year of the Short Story?'

  1. Joe on December 12th, 2006 10:18 pm

    Not a short, but since you mentioned Joe Hill his debut novel Heart Shaped Box is bloody brilliant - wonderfully creepy. Like the sound of his short story collection (took the opportunity to plug Peter and PS when reviewing Heart Shaped Box for the podcast, shameless literary hussy that I am). I enjoy short stories for similar reasons to enjoying poetry (another oft-dismissed field of writing) - a good artist can create something powerful in a compact space. If they didn't then many comics and cartoons wouldn't work and neither would much in the way of traditional art since many works suggest a form of compressed narrative to the viewer.

    Horror and ghost tales seem to be especially well suited to the short form - some of those Victorian collections of macabre tales are great to read on a dark winter night (the 19th century version of Weird Tales maybe?). On which theme try the Penguin Classics Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which has the eponymous tale and a whole bunch of others by RLS. Talked the book group into it last year - all convinced they knew that story, all surprised when they actually read it (and the others in the book). Also recommend picking up one of Guy de Maupassant's collections, one of the best short story writers of the 19th century.

    Recent short fiction - I'd highly recommend Black Juice by Margo Lanagan. I hadn't heard of her before seeing it in Gollancz's catalogue and it just set off my bookseller radar. Glad to say said radar still works well as it turned out to be an amazing little collection and one I think you would really enjoy.

    Other (relatively) recent collections - did you read Jeff's City of Saints and Madmen? Four novellas with associated material rather than shorts, but close enough. And last summer's Nova Scotia collection was great fun too.

  2. Ariel on December 13th, 2006 8:53 am

    Joe mate, I couldn't agree more with you about the short form being the natural outlet for horror & ghost stories. Often you can deliver a hell of a spine-tingler - atmospherically, psychologically, artistically - in 3,000 words that just can't be sustained over the course of a full novel.

    And I read Black Juice last year - absolutely amazing stuff, and a dead cert for the BFS award for Best Collection, has to be. 'Singing My Sister Down' is right up there with my all-time favourite shorts (along with Michael Marshall Smith's 'More Tomorrow' and 'Later') and the rest of that collection is pretty damn special too.

    Read City of Saints and Madmen a couple of years back, when the first US editions were out. Again, wonderfully inventive stuff, although Jeff's short but perfectly formed novel Veniss Underground is equally fantastical, equally recommendable.

    Nova Scotia I haven't got. One for the Wishlist...

  3. Ed on December 14th, 2006 12:08 am

    Might just have to have look into that Black Juice title. I noticed her name attached to a number of books for younger readers but going from the comments I've read on this one, I'm assuming this collection would be far from that arena.
    For Victorian ghost stories I can highly recommend Joseph Sheridan le Fanu. He gets compared to MR James but I feel that does him a disservice, Fanu is much better. There's a couple of budget anthologies from Wordsworth worth checking, In a Glass Darkly and Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Stories, both currently available on Amazon for a paltry £1.99 each.

  4. Ariel on December 14th, 2006 7:04 am

    Well, Black Juice is a very mature collection of stories, certainly, but nothing that couldn't be read by a broad-minded youngster, as far as I remember. It's the strength of imagery in particular tales that sticks with you, rather than anything shocking or grotesque.

    LeFanu is definitely an author I'd like to dip into, along with James and Machen as well. Might look for an anthology of Victorian ghost stories as a starting-point, see where I end up.

    Also thoroughly enjoyed a collection of R. Chetwynd Hayes material a couple of years back. Thoroughly genteel, but again, some nicely lingering imagery...

  5. Ed on December 15th, 2006 10:44 pm

    There's quite a few Victorian ghost story anthologies out there, Wordsworth do one, as do Oxford.
    Knowing you've read John Connolly's Every Dead Thing I can recommend his short story collection Nocturnes, quite varied and diversifies from his crime output. The paperback has stories not featured in the hardback version.

  6. Ariel on December 17th, 2006 9:54 am

    Ah, yes. I've got a hardback first of Nocturnes on the shelf already. Picked it up from Cold Tonnage at a quite reasonable price. Might just give that one a go once I've finished the latest Postscripts...

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