With the continued growing popularity of the short story, many good collections are released each year and yet sadly the majority go unnoticed by mainstream readers.
For many readers who are entrenched in their reading habits, it’s hard to be wholly enthusiastic about a short story when a novel can hold their interest for days or even weeks as they develop an affinity with the characters. And yet comparing the short story to long-form fiction is highly disingenuous. Long fiction is more trend centric. Think of Fifty Shades Of Grey, The Hunger Games or Harry Potter. They each spawned thousands of similar reads which with hindsight we more often than not remember the overarching structure of the story but rarely the detail.
The short story is different. The preamble is banished and their succinct length allows us to retain the entire story arc in our mind without relinquishing the detail for the length of its read and beyond. The good ones are like rare gems we can hold up and explore from different perspectives.
In fact, if you think about it the reluctance of long-form fiction readers to embrace the short story is actually counter-intuitive to the world we live in. With so many things competing for our attention. Especially social media platforms, the brevity of the short story provides a timely literary distraction without the guilt of lost time. That isn’t to say they should be rushed. Far from it!
Whether it’s the classics like Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell or Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood, or contemporary short stories like “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian short stories deserve to be savoured. Readers want to be entertained, amused, startled, inspired, kept on tenterhooks and seduced and the very best short stories condense and amplify these reasons to read them because we don’t have to wait for the build-up. The immersion is immediate and so is the satisfaction of a timely resolution. But for long fiction readers on the fence perhaps the definitive reason for reading short stories should go to Neil Gaiman who said “Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner.”
As always we hope our post has stirred a few thoughts and we always welcome comments for discussion.
Use Early Bird Entry Code MBA2020
to receive a 50% discount on entry fee.
We work with both traditionally published and “indie” authors who have self or independently published books and our mission is simple. It’s to discover new and talented authors and help them give their work the attention and awareness it deserves. We do this by providing professional and credible reviews which are respected by our readers. Our primary focus is on fiction across all genres, non – fiction with broad appeal and selected poetry.
“Schrödinger’s cat” was an infamous and cruel thought experiment dreamt up in the last century to expose one of the mistaken ideas current in science at that time. Now the cat is out of the bag and, in revenge, he has written up his own ideas on the false trails that modern science has followed.
How often do we read a book where a character appears in the mind’s eye fully formed?
When bombardier Micah Lund dies on a mission over Hiroshima, his spirit remains trapped in the land of his enemies. Dazed, he follows Kiyomi Oshiro, a war widow struggling to care for her young daughter, Ai. Food is scarce, work at the factory is brutal, and her in-laws treat her like a servant. Watching Kiyomi and Ai together, Micah reconsiders his intolerance for the people he’d called the enemy.
Rehoming a vulnerable and unwanted dog is an amazing thing to do. It gives a dog a second chance at a happier life, but there are huge benefits to dog companionship for us too.
A good memoir, told well with a modicum of literary prowess, builds an emotional bridge to its author.
From humble beginnings in 2002 as a book review club BookViral has grown to become the first choice in book reviews for authors around the world and one of the biggest book review sites on the web. BookViral reaches millions of potential readers through best practice SEO and a trusted social media presence ensuring readers get unbiased, critical recommendations they can trust.
BookViral also offers a full suite of author services, including, book editing services for unpublished and self-published authors, website design and bespoke SEO that help authors get discovered by more potential readers as well as industry influencers, such as publishers, agents and film executives.
© Copyright 2019 BookViral Reviews. All Rights Reserved.