Sherry Chandler

The nature of the short story revisited

I said the other day that I had given up on the short story, but that was twenty years ago and I think they may have changed since then. At any rate, I used to love the form and for years tried to write it.

Here is a nice definition of what short story should do from the Introduction to the Raymond Carver/Tom Jenks anthology, American Short Story Masterpieces (Dell, 1987), which collects stories from 1953-1986. (I think they’re out to prove me wrong):

When a reader finishes a wonderful story and lays it aside, he should have to pause for a minute and collect himself. At this moment, if the writer has succeeded, there ought to be a unity of feeling and understanding. Or, if not a unity, at least a sense that the disparities of a crucial situation have been made available in a new light, and we can go from there. The best fiction, the kind of fiction we’re talking about, should bring about this kind of response. It should make such an impression that the work, as Hemingway suggested, becomes a part of the reader’s experience. Or else, and we’re serious, why should people be asked to read it? Further—why write it? In great fiction (and this is true, and we mustn’t fool ourselves that it’s otherwise), there is always the “shock of recognition” as the human significance of the work is revealed and made manifest.

Back in the 80s, I got stuck on the “why write it” question, and well I should have. I don’t have the story-tellers imagination. Which is not to denigrate my imagination. Just to define it. Writing poetry suits me and satisfies me.

I know a number of writers who try to double, writing poetry and fiction. But I really don’t think one writer can do both.

I’ll have to say that I’m not sure the Dorothy Allison story “River of Names” will “become part of my experience.” It shocked me and horrified me but I’m not sure that it changed me in any way. Time, I suppose, will tell.

Possibly related posts:

Heartland Review Short-Short Fiction Prize

The Heartland Review Short-short Contest

Heartland Review’s Short-Short Contest

Nature in Legend and Story (NILAS)

Don’t Write What You Know

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