Praising the American Short Story
Recently, three new literary biographies about Flannery O’ Connor, John Cheever, and Donald Barthelme have placed a new spotlight on the short story.
A. O. Scott wrote a piece in the NY Times this past weekend about the new resurgence of the short story. He writes:
Reading through their collected stories, you wonder if novels are even necessary. The imperial ambitions of a certain kind of swaggering, self-important American novel — to comprehend the totality of modern life, to limn the social, existential, sexual and political strivings of its citizens — start to seem misguided and buffoonish. More of life is glimpsed, and glimpsed more clearly, through Barthelme’s fragments, Cheever’s finely ground lenses or the pinhole camera of O’Connor’s crystalline prose.
You can read the rest of the article here.
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This is so true. It’s especially fitting as a writer, because it seems you’re allowed to say more things with more people and places to more people and places with the short story. Thanks for bringing this article to my attention!
Comment by Melanie — October 5, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
“to limn the social, existential, sexual and political strivings of its citizens” Who uses a word like “limn”?
Comment by Neil — February 12, 2010 @ 3:14 pm