June 28th, 2010 / 11:02 am
Random
Nick Antosca
Random
FAVORITE SHORT
You only get one short story to read for the rest of your life. What do you choose? I might go with “The Hortlak” by Kelly Link. Or “My Lord You” or “Platinum” by James Salter.
Tags: james salter, kelly link
Either Tiny, Expressionless Animals (DFW) or The Delicate Prey (Paul Bowles) or The Deathbird (Harlan Ellison)
erm, “Little” not “Tiny”
One of Peter Markus’s Brother / Fish stories – they seem endless to me even after dozens of reads.
“The Open Boat” by Stephen crane
“Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek.
First thing I thought of was Grace Paley’s “Wants” but it’s only two pages long (must have read those two pages 100 times), so I’ll go with “The Long-Distance Runner” instead. I mean, if we’re talking about the rest of my life… “The Delicate Prey” is another one I love. Or I don’t know. This is impossible.
This is almost impossible to answer.
Barthelme’s “Views of My Father Weeping” maybe.
“The Dead” James Joyce
Good choice.
Yes!– “the sacred cheese of life!”
Voodoo Heart, by Scott Snyder is maybe the best short story ever. I must have read it a dozen times in the year or so since I found it.
Wow, what a question. It makes my teeth hurt to imagine such a situation. Today, my answer would be “The people who own pianos” by Kevin McIlvoy. But tomorrow, it might be “The Smallest Woman in the World” by Clarice Lispector.
Maurice Blanchot’s Death Sentence (although, it may be classified as a novella being 80 pages).
Can someone please collect these into an anthology? Maybe one called THE LAST ONES THAT WE EVER READ? I would buy it.
Maybe I’d take the last two pages of that book.
jesus christ
good old neon, dfw
or
a romantic weekend, mary gaitskill
Bartleby the Scrivener, mothafuckas.
‘The Great Wall of China’ by Franz Kafka
Strays by Mark Richard
Gut reaction: “Emergency” by Denis Johnson.
On further thought: “The Gospel According to St. Mark” by Borges. Not Johnson.
(As I type this, reconsidering and thinking: “The Fire and the Hearth” by Faulkner. Or “The Bear.” Or “Pantaloon in Black.”
And then there’s Barry Hannah’s “Water Liars”…and then and then…)
“Shower of Gold” or “Game” both by Donald Barthelme.
That’s a great idea.
To Fill – Lorrie Moore
Kevin Canty’s “Dogs” (from A Stranger in this World).
I wish someone would compile a book of these!
Bartleby the Scrivener for sure.
Love this!
Harlan Ellison’s “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore”
I too am a huge fan of this story. Have you read Scott’s comics work?
“Lady With the Pet Dog” by Chekhov or “Liars in Love” by Richard Yates.
Yeah. Such an amazing story.
James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”
Something by Arthur Bradford.
Yeah, something by Johnson maybe. (I said Bradford below but forgot about Johnson.)
Three Way Tie:
“How to Date a Brown Girl, Black Girl, White Girl or Halfie,” By Junot Diaz,
“People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babblings in Peed Onk,” By Lorrie Moore
“Raw Water,” By Wells Tower
I’m weary to put “Raw Water,” because it’s come out in the last 5 years and hasn’t subjected itself the test of time, but the other side of me doesn’t think it needs to.
The Day We Got Drunk On Cake, William Trevor
or Me and Mrs Mandible, Donald Barthelme
or The Acquatic Uncle, Italo Calvino
but probably The Day We Got Drunk On Cake
short story collections don’t sell.
Swamp Boy by Rick Bass
Either Tiny, Expressionless Animals (DFW) or The Delicate Prey (Paul Bowles) or The Deathbird (Harlan Ellison)
erm, “Little” not “Tiny”
One of Peter Markus’s Brother / Fish stories – they seem endless to me even after dozens of reads.
“The Open Boat” by Stephen crane
“Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek.
First thing I thought of was Grace Paley’s “Wants” but it’s only two pages long (must have read those two pages 100 times), so I’ll go with “The Long-Distance Runner” instead. I mean, if we’re talking about the rest of my life… “The Delicate Prey” is another one I love. Or I don’t know. This is impossible.
This is almost impossible to answer.
Barthelme’s “Views of My Father Weeping” maybe.
“The Dead” James Joyce
Good choice.
“Wounded Soldier” Geoge Garrett
Oh yeah, Emergency. Actually that might be mine, too.
Good call on William Trevor. I almost said a Trevor but couldn’t decide which one.
Yes!– “the sacred cheese of life!”
Voodoo Heart, by Scott Snyder is maybe the best short story ever. I must have read it a dozen times in the year or so since I found it.
Wow, what a question. It makes my teeth hurt to imagine such a situation. Today, my answer would be “The people who own pianos” by Kevin McIlvoy. But tomorrow, it might be “The Smallest Woman in the World” by Clarice Lispector.
Maurice Blanchot’s Death Sentence (although, it may be classified as a novella being 80 pages).
Can someone please collect these into an anthology? Maybe one called THE LAST ONES THAT WE EVER READ? I would buy it.
Maybe I’d take the last two pages of that book.
jesus christ
good old neon, dfw
or
a romantic weekend, mary gaitskill
One of these three (probably the Kafka):
“The Bridge” – Kafka
“Lessness” – Beckett
“The Beast in the Jungle” – James
Bartleby the Scrivener, mothafuckas.
‘The Great Wall of China’ by Franz Kafka
Strays by Mark Richard
Gut reaction: “Emergency” by Denis Johnson.
On further thought: “The Gospel According to St. Mark” by Borges. Not Johnson.
(As I type this, reconsidering and thinking: “The Fire and the Hearth” by Faulkner. Or “The Bear.” Or “Pantaloon in Black.”
And then there’s Barry Hannah’s “Water Liars”…and then and then…)
ORBIT by Noy Holland
No question about it: “A Poetics for Bullies” by Stanley Elkin.
“Shower of Gold” or “Game” both by Donald Barthelme.
That’s a great idea.
To Fill – Lorrie Moore
Kevin Canty’s “Dogs” (from A Stranger in this World).
I wish someone would compile a book of these!
Bartleby the Scrivener for sure.
Love this!
Harlan Ellison’s “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore”
man, that’s tough
“Parts” by Holly Goddard Jones
or
“Puppy” by George Saunders
or
“”The Paperhanger” by William Gay
I too am a huge fan of this story. Have you read Scott’s comics work?
“Lady With the Pet Dog” by Chekhov or “Liars in Love” by Richard Yates.
Yeah. Such an amazing story.
“Climb Aboard the Mighty Flea” – Jim Shepard
Love + Hydrogen, as a whole, is wonderful, but the last paragraphs of this just fucking lift-off.
“Testimony of Pilot” by Barry Hannah, easily.
James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”
Something by Arthur Bradford.
Yeah, something by Johnson maybe. (I said Bradford below but forgot about Johnson.)
Three Way Tie:
“How to Date a Brown Girl, Black Girl, White Girl or Halfie,” By Junot Diaz,
“People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babblings in Peed Onk,” By Lorrie Moore
“Raw Water,” By Wells Tower
I’m weary to put “Raw Water,” because it’s come out in the last 5 years and hasn’t subjected itself the test of time, but the other side of me doesn’t think it needs to.
“We have become the unbelievable. We are our own descendants, the children we have always wanted to be.” I mean, Christ.. This question prompted me to go back and take it down from the shelf again. Thanks, Nick.
The Day We Got Drunk On Cake, William Trevor
or Me and Mrs Mandible, Donald Barthelme
or The Acquatic Uncle, Italo Calvino
but probably The Day We Got Drunk On Cake
short story collections don’t sell.
Swamp Boy by Rick Bass
The Birth of the Poet, Kathy Acker.
James Boice’s “Pregnant Girl Smoking”
“Wounded Soldier” Geoge Garrett
Oh yeah, Emergency. Actually that might be mine, too.
Good call on William Trevor. I almost said a Trevor but couldn’t decide which one.
“Demonology” by Moody. “Bullet in the Brain” by Wolff.
One of these three (probably the Kafka):
“The Bridge” – Kafka
“Lessness” – Beckett
“The Beast in the Jungle” – James
‘Bullet in the Brain’ for me too.
No question about it: “A Poetics for Bullies” by Stanley Elkin.
no, but i’ve been meaning to. are they as good?
man, that’s tough
“Parts” by Holly Goddard Jones
or
“Puppy” by George Saunders
or
“”The Paperhanger” by William Gay
“Climb Aboard the Mighty Flea” – Jim Shepard
Love + Hydrogen, as a whole, is wonderful, but the last paragraphs of this just fucking lift-off.
“Testimony of Pilot” by Barry Hannah, easily.
shit, that’s a good one.
ooo or the jewish hunter
this thread makes me happy
“We have become the unbelievable. We are our own descendants, the children we have always wanted to be.” I mean, Christ.. This question prompted me to go back and take it down from the shelf again. Thanks, Nick.
“No Place for You, My Love” by Eudora Welty
The Birth of the Poet, Kathy Acker.
James Boice’s “Pregnant Girl Smoking”
“Demonology” by Moody. “Bullet in the Brain” by Wolff.
‘Bullet in the Brain’ for me too.
Yellow Rose, by William Vollmann…
…or Dr. Faustroll, by Alfred Jarry (though it’s been called a short story, a novel, and a novella).
Good times.
no, but i’ve been meaning to. are they as good?
The Hospice, Robert Aickman
The Jolly Corner, Henry James
shit, that’s a good one.
ooo or the jewish hunter
this thread makes me happy
‘love too long’ by hannah is a top contender. maybe something from joy williams’ last collection. that bukowski story where a man shrinks down to the size of a clothes-hanger or something, that one always stuck with me for some reason. i don’t know, ‘facing the music’ by larry brown?
Good job, everyone! The majority of the stories mentioned in these comments are unread by me. I have (likely very rewarding) work to do.
“No Place for You, My Love” by Eudora Welty
Owls by Lewis Nordan. The Magic Trick or The Babysitter by Coover. Julie: A Memory by Larry Brown. Just about any story from Judy Budnitz’s Nice Big American Baby.
I love Emergency. And Out on Bail. I read that one all that time.
Yellow Rose, by William Vollmann…
…or Dr. Faustroll, by Alfred Jarry (though it’s been called a short story, a novel, and a novella).
Good times.
The Hospice, Robert Aickman
The Jolly Corner, Henry James
The problem with the question is that it raises issues that are different in kind than the kinds of issues that concern us most when we’re thinking about what makes a story great or lasting. Foremost among these issues is this: All the best stories traffic in big trouble. If some kind of draconian limitation has been placed upon your life such that you can only ever read one more story, you’re already near-drowning in big trouble, and not big trouble of the story variety, but big trouble of the life variety. So if you already have that kind of trouble, and you only get one story to comfort you, why would you choose the kind of story that best stories usually are, which is the kind of story meant to bring the opposite of comfort? It seems like if you picked a story like most of the stories people have offered here, you’d be inflicting a real psychological menace upon your future self.
The short story is a little incendiary device. The best ones can blow you up the way the best poems can. I could see picking a big long narrative you might lose yourself in, such as the Bible or the Odyssey or the Arabian Nights or Ulysses or even (hell, why not) Finnegan’s Wake. Because there you’ve given your mind an organizing task to put itself to, and a cast of characters to keep you company through the long dreary mostly story-less life you have ahead. But one single killer short story would only serve I think to hasten your decline into sadness, and no thank you is what I’d say. Or else I’d cheat and pick one of those long stories that’s really a novella or a short novel but everybody still calls it a short story.
When I was a senior in college, my girlfriend broke up with me, and I was sick sad. I was sitting in a living room full of decent books and really good serious movies, and near a library stocked with foreign films and continental philosophy and all of Faulkner and so on, and I don’t think I would have been able to bear five seconds of any of it. What kept me company all that time was watching Happy Gilmore over and over again. That’s a movie that tells us the story we want to believe about our lives instead of telling us something more true and ultimately more despair-raising. If you only had one thing to keep you company and comfort for the rest of your life, I don’t think it would be super-wise to pick the short story that tells the truth.
I mention this for your own good, in case this fate actually befalls you. I hope it doesn’t. Now I’m going to read a little Denis Johnson and Barry Hannah and call it a night.
Pleasant dreams.
‘love too long’ by hannah is a top contender. maybe something from joy williams’ last collection. that bukowski story where a man shrinks down to the size of a clothes-hanger or something, that one always stuck with me for some reason. i don’t know, ‘facing the music’ by larry brown?
Good job, everyone! The majority of the stories mentioned in these comments are unread by me. I have (likely very rewarding) work to do.
Owls by Lewis Nordan. The Magic Trick or The Babysitter by Coover. Julie: A Memory by Larry Brown. Just about any story from Judy Budnitz’s Nice Big American Baby.
Icicles, William H. Gass.
Or In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, by same.
I love Emergency. And Out on Bail. I read that one all that time.
I would buy it, as I have many other short story collections.
The problem with the question is that it raises issues that are different in kind than the kinds of issues that concern us most when we’re thinking about what makes a story great or lasting. Foremost among these issues is this: All the best stories traffic in big trouble. If some kind of draconian limitation has been placed upon your life such that you can only ever read one more story, you’re already near-drowning in big trouble, and not big trouble of the story variety, but big trouble of the life variety. So if you already have that kind of trouble, and you only get one story to comfort you, why would you choose the kind of story that best stories usually are, which is the kind of story meant to bring the opposite of comfort? It seems like if you picked a story like most of the stories people have offered here, you’d be inflicting a real psychological menace upon your future self.
The short story is a little incendiary device. The best ones can blow you up the way the best poems can. I could see picking a big long narrative you might lose yourself in, such as the Bible or the Odyssey or the Arabian Nights or Ulysses or even (hell, why not) Finnegan’s Wake. Because there you’ve given your mind an organizing task to put itself to, and a cast of characters to keep you company through the long dreary mostly story-less life you have ahead. But one single killer short story would only serve I think to hasten your decline into sadness, and no thank you is what I’d say. Or else I’d cheat and pick one of those long stories that’s really a novella or a short novel but everybody still calls it a short story.
When I was a senior in college, my girlfriend broke up with me, and I was sick sad. I was sitting in a living room full of decent books and really good serious movies, and near a library stocked with foreign films and continental philosophy and all of Faulkner and so on, and I don’t think I would have been able to bear five seconds of any of it. What kept me company all that time was watching Happy Gilmore over and over again. That’s a movie that tells us the story we want to believe about our lives instead of telling us something more true and ultimately more despair-raising. If you only had one thing to keep you company and comfort for the rest of your life, I don’t think it would be super-wise to pick the short story that tells the truth.
I mention this for your own good, in case this fate actually befalls you. I hope it doesn’t. Now I’m going to read a little Denis Johnson and Barry Hannah and call it a night.
Pleasant dreams.
Pages From Cold Point by Paul Bowles. Because gay incest never gets boring.
“The Dead” by James Joyce
(with audio version by Stephen Rea)
Icicles, William H. Gass.
Or In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, by same.
I would buy it, as I have many other short story collections.
The School, by Barthelme. Even considering how short it is.
Pages From Cold Point by Paul Bowles. Because gay incest never gets boring.
“The Dead” by James Joyce
(with audio version by Stephen Rea)
The School, by Barthelme. Even considering how short it is.
Kyle Minor, that’s a damn fine point.
That said, I would have to choose “Beach” (a.k.a. “Playa”) by Roberto Bolano, because, holy shit, what a story.
And it’s short, only a few pages long, and gorgeous as well as incendiary as all hell, and, well, kind of sweet and redemptive at the end, so I feel pretty good about taking it as my last for however many years.
Kyle Minor, that’s a damn fine point.
That said, I would have to choose “Beach” (a.k.a. “Playa”) by Roberto Bolano, because, holy shit, what a story.
And it’s short, only a few pages long, and gorgeous as well as incendiary as all hell, and, well, kind of sweet and redemptive at the end, so I feel pretty good about taking it as my last for however many years.
A Small, Good Thing by Ray Carver (I just read the entire thread and saw no Carver—did I miss him? Is that possible? No Carver?)
“Beach” (a.k.a. “Playa”) by Roberto Bolano.
A Small, Good Thing by Ray Carver (I just read the entire thread and saw no Carver—did I miss him? Is that possible? No Carver?)
“Beach” (a.k.a. “Playa”) by Roberto Bolano.
A great story. I teach it to high school kids. Who knows what they think of it.
“Good Living” by Aleksandar Hemon.
me too
Yeah, and no O’Connor.
Impossible for mimi to pick just one story.
A great story. I teach it to high school kids. Who knows what they think of it.
“Good Living” by Aleksandar Hemon.
me too
Yeah, and no O’Connor.
Impossible for mimi to pick just one story.
Anything by Mary Miller
Anything by Mary Miller
Tobias Wolff – Bullet in the Brain
or maybe Etgar Keret Cocked and Locked
Tobias Wolff – Bullet in the Brain
or maybe Etgar Keret Cocked and Locked
“Helping” by Robert Stone
or
“Dirty Wedding” by D. Johnson
or
“Get Some Young” by B. Hannah
or
“Vandals” by Alice Munro
investigations of a dog — kafka
oops, didn’t mean to post that under yrs. blerghh.
welty’s story really is so, so lovely, though, that’s a great choice. her range was aboslutely mind-blowing. to think she wrote that story, and, say, “powerhouse,” and “where is the voice coming from?” etc.
i would add peter taylor, too, while we’re in the region. his “the old forest” i would not have a problem with anyone calling the greatest american story of the 20th c.
“Helping” by Robert Stone
or
“Dirty Wedding” by D. Johnson
or
“Get Some Young” by B. Hannah
or
“Vandals” by Alice Munro
investigations of a dog — kafka
oops, didn’t mean to post that under yrs. blerghh.
welty’s story really is so, so lovely, though, that’s a great choice. her range was aboslutely mind-blowing. to think she wrote that story, and, say, “powerhouse,” and “where is the voice coming from?” etc.
i would add peter taylor, too, while we’re in the region. his “the old forest” i would not have a problem with anyone calling the greatest american story of the 20th c.