Celebrate the Short Story

love books

The short story is enjoying a resurgence, and it’s no wonder it’s been rediscovered in these days of fractured time. I’ve always loved them and admired authors who can take a moment of life and distill it into its essence. Here are a couple of collections I recommend to you. They are very different, but share that art.

 

VOLT by Alan Heathcock, Greywolf Press, 2011

The title tells it all. Heathcock’s characters face crises our imagination balks at—accidentally destroying our ownVolt child, fighting insanity after the needless death of a loved one—but he stays with the souls as they struggle through, and his prose carries us with him until the end when they find some semblance of peace. These stories hit the depth of human anguish but don’t leave us there. Truly the most powerful collection I’ve read in a very long time.

 

TROUBLED DAUGHTERS, TWISTED WIVES: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense, Troubled Daughtersby Susan Weinman, Penguin Books, 2013

If you like mysteries, this is for you. It is a collection of stories by women mystery writers from the early Twentieth Century to modern day. From Patricia Highsmith to Shirley Jackson to Miriam Deford, I found it a delightful reintroduction to authors I read long ago and had forgotten as well as an introduction to ones I’d missed. They cover the full range of the genre, and the woman characters range from murderer to sleuth. A condensation of talent like this is hard to find.

Comments are closed.
Find us on Google+