by SandRider » Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:24 pm
I guess my list would be "classic" American & Brit Lit type stuff ...
altho I've read some really good short fiction by recent authors,
I can't help but reserve judgement on the "literary" merits for atleast
20 years or so ... but I very much admire anyone who can pull
off a good short - it is the most difficult of all literary forms; to
set out characters and resolve a plot with meaning and importance,
in only a few pages ? ... tough stuff, Maynard ...
altho I don't remember being overly-impressed with the plots, I do
remember being knocked-down by Margret Atwood's introduction and
development of characters in her shorts ... I had always been a gushing
devotee to her poetry, but was kinda scared to dive into her short fiction,
because I had her on such a high pedestal, was horribly and madly in love
with her for many, many years ... I did not want to come to her shorts and
find her talents lacking ... but when I did, it was even more painful - her
short fiction had all the emotion and beauty of her poetry, and I started to
pack up and move to Toronto ....
I guess I have a hard time with the word "favorite" .... some piece of writing
might move me or impress me in a way that is only a direct result of some
personal bend ... and I find it hard to be objective to the actual literary merits
of such a work ... I don't recall the name, will now have to dig thru the shelves
to find it, but one of Atwood's shorts brought tears to my eyes, and I later shared
it (as one of my "favorites") with a young English Major I was corrupting ... she
"liked" the story, agreed with my assessment of its' emotional power, but then
sorta de-constructed it too much, using that English Major Mojo, and pointed out
some major flaws that I most likely would have seen myself, had I not been so
enamored with the author .... then, sometime after that, this same girl started
talking trash about Christina Rossetti's poetry, and I fed her some mushrooms
and pushed her out of the truck somewhere in the desert between Elko & Carlin ....
The Rocking-Horse Winner, D.H. Lawrence
The Landlady, Roald Dahl
The Idealist, Frank O'Connor (Mike O'Donovan)
A Sunrise on the Veld, Doris Lessing
The Leader of the People, John Steinbeck
The Egg, Sherwood Anderson
The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Brett Harte
Mister Toussan, Ralph Ellison
We'll Never Conquer Space, Arthur C. Clarke (essay, not fiction, but one the most
important pieces of short-writings of the 20th Century)
"science-fiction" of a sort:
Follow My Fancy, Joan Aiken
History Lesson, Arthur C. Clarke (this is one Keith sodomized at 14)