Tag Archives: Fiction

My own Dumb List…of SHORT STORIES!?

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Before it got eclipsed by the Oyler stuff, the nascent lit twitter discourse that threatened to get good and roiling was about whether novels were, inherently, a bourgeois form. I don’t care about that, and neither should you, but it did get me thinking about how novels ARE afforded too much deference, especially given that they’re decidedly the lesser form of prose literature, vastly inferior to the stately and transcendent Short Story. And then THAT got me thinking about the dumb novel list from last post and how you never (or rarely, at least) see a list of favorite SHORT STORIES out there.

So, anyway, I thought I’d take a swing, and make a list of my favorite Short Stories (in no particular order). Here’s 25, and maybe I’ll add some more in future posts as they come to me.

1 – Red Wind (Raymond Chandler, 1938) – This is the short story that immediately comes to mind for me when I start mullin’ over the form. There’s a tightness to this, and even though it’s a bit on the longish side it’s super efficient, packing in a huge amount of characterization and style and depth into something readable in a single sitting. It’s got some great Chandler flourishes too, both in the descriptions of the Santa Ana winds and in the dialog, AND it has one of the greatest endings in all of literature, genre or no. Just a really masterful example of the power of the short story!

2 – The Gutting of Couffignal (Dashiell Hammett, 1925) – while we’re on hard-boiled detectives, we might as well talk about the greatest writer of the genre, Hammett. Fer my money, this is his masterpiece, an inventive and exciting crime story that has another really fantastic ending that springs a sudden depth and humanity on the reader that, I think, a lot of people might not expect.

3 – Neighbors (Raymond Carver, 1971) – I dunno if this is one of the Lish-ed up stories or not, but it’s absolutely my favorite Carver work; nothing else of his even comes close, in my opinion. A real lived-experience kind of story, extremely perceptive and real, that captures something about our innate and sometimes obsessive curiosity about other people.

4 – The Killers (Ernest Hemingway, 1927) – I mean this one doesn’t need a lot of explication, I think; it’s great, a story about gangsters and crime and murder told via a strange interlude before all the more “traditional” action and violence and whatnot.

5 – The Lovely Leave (Dorothy Parker, 1943) – Parker is, of course, a master of the short story, and while there’s a bunch of her funnier ones that belong here, I think this rather serious and wistful story is probably my favorite. The tension and anxiety of expectation, and the way even in the midst of huge earth shattering events our little lives must go in…it’s just really fantastic.

6 – Boule de Suif (Guy de Maupassant, 1880) – THIS was a hard choice, probably the hardest that I’ll be forced to make on this list, because in my opinion Maupassant is the greatest short story writer who ever lived. An absolute MASTER of the form with, like, a hundred stories that belong on a list like this. This one, translated as “Ball of Fat,” is a profound meditation on hypocrisy, cowardice, and dignity, everything precise and perfect and wonderful. Being a monolingual dummy I’ve only ever read it in translation, of course, but given how many home runs ol’ Guy here hit in his tragic lifetime, I think it’s safe to say that his genius shines through in English too. Really, if you haven’t, read some Maupassant, this one and as many others as you can find!

7 – The Overcoat (Nikolai Gogol, 1842) – I mean, look, sometimes things are a classic for a reason, right? Gogol is the greatest Russian writer of all time, and this is his best story. What more can I say?

8 – The Crop (Flannery O’Connor, originally in her ’47 thesis, but not available until 1971) – In terms of American short story writers, O’Connor is definitely near the front of the pack, a genuinely innovative talent. And while she’s certainly famous for her big, apocalyptic, visionary works, I think this littler, quieter, and funnier story is her very best piece. There’s a real playfulness here, which is something that’s in a lot of her work but rarely as centrally placed as it is in “The Crop.” Plus, there’s a precision on display here, with everything humming along in service to story itself, that makes it a joy to just read.

9 – The Last Man Left in the Bar (C.M. Kornbluth, 1957) – Kornbluth is one of the major figures in mid-20th century science fiction, a member of the (vaguely socialistic) Futurians who, despite his small body of work, had an outsized influence on the genre. Anyway, this is a weird little bit of esoterica that I just love, an absolute gem that’s almost experimental in form, something really out of the ordinary for Kornbluth. It’s a lot of fun, kind of weird, and really captures a flavor of the otherwordliness that typifies some of the best of that era’s science ficiton.

10 – And the Moon Be Still as Bright (Ray Bradbury, 1948) – Bradbury’s greatest work was all in his short stories, and his collection “The Martian Chronicles” is absolutely essential reading. This story, which was originally published in the pulps before getting collected, is a a great and very satisfying take down of Western (and, especially, American) colonialist attitudes and behaviors. Bradbury always wore his heart on his sleeve, but here it serves him well, and the sadness and bitterness on display in this story elevates it into something special, in my opinion.

11 – Thanasphere (Kurt Vonnegut, 1950) – unlike Bradbury, Vonnegut’s short stories are generally not his strongest work. They’re often pretty one-note, in my opinion, and oftentimes that note is kind of unpleasant (i.e., Harrison Bergeron). But I do really like “Thanasphere,” which takes the time to really explore its weird conceit.

12 – Major Pugachov’s Last Battle (Varlam Shalamov, 1973) – Shalamov’ collection “Kolyma Tales” is essential reading, grim and humane and wonderful, and this is my favorite story from it, about an escape attempt from the prison colony of Kolyma. What’s so great about Shalamov is that his writing, intense and almost journalistic, is ALSO extremely stylized and vibrant, and the stories he tells are rich, deep, full of a kind of terrible majesty in their unflinching examination of humanity.

13 – The Night-Wire (H.F. Arnold, 1926) – I’ve written at length about this, one of my favorite pieces of weird fiction ever, so I’ll just once again state that the pulp era was THE golden age of the short story, with a huge number of venues publishing short fiction and a truly staggering number of people actually reading them! A wonderful bygone age!

14 – No Woman Born (C.L. Moore, 1944) – In fact, why not just get a few of these stories that I’ve already written about knocked out, eh? I wrote a bunch about this story, too, an example of some great early feminist sci-fi from one of the masters, C.L. Moore!

15 – Worms of the Earth – (Robert E. Howard, 1932) – One more from the blog; I make no apologies for my love of Sword & Sorcery, a unique, vital, and inventive literary genre born in the pages of Weird Tales magazine, and this is the single greatest story in that genre ever written, period.

16 – “Aye, and Gomorrah…” (Samuel R. Delany, 1967) – An unbelievable debut story (it was his FIRST story he ever sold…) from one of the truly great writers of the past 100 years. This appeared in Ellison’s “Dangerous Visions” volume, a seminal piece of literature, and even so it’s probably the best story among a bunch of really phenomenal pieces in there.

17 – Enoch Soames (Max Beerbohm, 1916) – One of the funniest stories ever written, and the weirdness and fantastical elements are really smoothly integrated into a piece that, really, is a send-up of artistic vanity and solipsism.

18 – Jeeves and the Old School Chum (P.G. Wodehouse, 1930) – Speaking of humor, any list of the best short stories absolutely must include Wodehouse, one of the greatest practitioners of The Art ever. In addition to offering, in each story, a master class on the art of plotting, characterization, and dialog, he is also a comedy genius. All of his stuff is remarkable, but this story made me collapse with laughter all alone out in the field in Wyoming once, confusing the hell out of a coyote pack that lived in the next wash over.

19 – The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter, 1979) – Carter is great, and you should read everything she ever wrote, but this retelling of the Bluebeard legend is one of my favorites. The ending in particular is just a great, liberatory moment in feminist writing, really wonderful stuff!

20 – The Colour Out of Space (H.P. Lovecraft, 1927) – Certainly the greatest writer of weird fiction in the 20th century (and also enormously influential; his fingerprints are all over the past 70 years of pop culture, not just in horror, but in sci-fi, fantasy, comics, games, you name it!), and this is probably his best story (it was certainly HIS favorite).

21 – Gunslinger (Ed Gorman, 1988) – Gorman writes in a variety of genres, but his westerns are my favorite; he’s got both a strong sense of the genre traditions as well as the skill to tweak ’em just enough to make ’em interesting. Highly recommended!

22 – Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (Ursula K. Le Guin, 1994) – A beautiful, meditative piece on life and the choices that go into making it, executed by a great artist at the height of her powers.

23 – The Drowned Giant (J.G. Ballard, 1964) – This is one of those stories thats faceted like a gem, with lots of different ways to approach and understand it. Ballard is always wonderful, grotesque and profound in equal (and complementary) ways, and this story basically condenses everything he ever wanted to write about down into one punchy little piece.

24 – Subsoil (Nicholson Baker, 1994) – You’ll never look at ‘taters the same way again!

25 – Second Variety (Phillip K. Dick, 1953) – My favorite Dick short story, one that neatly encapsulates all of his biological/ecological musings along side his (mostly dim) view of human nature.

Anyway, that’s probably enough for now. Go read some short fiction!

Dumb lists

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Frustratingly, I find myself thinking about the goofy 100+ entry list of “The Great American Novels” that The Atlantic put out last week (I’m not going to link to it…I’ll not give them that satisfaction, at least). It’s not the WORST one of those things I’ve ever seen, of course – I mean, at least it has some genre stuff on there. The inclusion of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is a relief, and Djuna Barnes is good and correct (Nightwood is legitimately one of the great novels of the 20th c for sure), but there’s also a lot of dumbness on there. For one thing, the restriction of the list to the last 100 years is just plain ridiculous, even with the weakass “modernism!” excuse they offer. I recognize that I’ve definitely got some serious biases; I’m by nature and inclination a very historically-minded reader, but even if you’re not it still seems like a kind of pointless obfuscation of whatever the fuck “American” literature is to not have Jack London, Booth Tarkington, or James Branch Cabell, all of whom were enormously influential writers in America that had a major impact on 20th century literature.

Like I said above, it IS nice to see some genre stuff on the list, but I kind of feel like some of it is rather poorly thought out, a quick grab of some Big Names rather than any serious attempt at identifying any of the actually important or interesting books by some of these folks. I mean, they picked The Dispossessed over The Lathe of Heaven or The Left Hand of Darkness? That’s just dumb “ah but you see this must be SERIOUS sci-fi because it is about Something Else” bullshit. Ditto for PKD’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which is, while a fine book, nowhere near his greatest or most quintessentially “American” novels (that’d be A Scanner Darkly, UBIK, or Dr. Bloodmoney). ALSO, with regards to “American lit” and genre: where the fuck are the westerns!? (Blood Meridian doesn’t count).

Anyway, to exorcise my annoyance, I figured I might list up a handful (or two) or some of the more egregious absences on the Atlantic List, with of course the caveat that I’m just a simple country geologist what likes to read.

Dhalgren (1975, Samuel R. Delany) – Right off the bat I text searched “Dhalgren” on the Atlantic List, and when I saw it wasn’t included I knew it was Amateur Night over there. This is the most important novel of the 20th century, period, AND one that is quintessentially about America; Bellona is every city facing deliberate policies of urban decay, and The Kidd is every American trying to navigate them. It’s complex, stylistic, enigmatic, and while it is certainly anchored in Delany’s experiences of 60s/70s America, it is also utterly timeless and mystical and just plain rad as hell.

The Stars My Destination (1957, Al Bester) – yeah yeah, I know, it was originally published in England in ’56 (as Tiger, Tiger!) which precludes it from the original list b/c of the dumb rules the Atlantic made for themselves, but I mean, c’mon…Bester IS an American and this book is a turning point in science fiction, a clear break from older technopositivist and space operatic-modes that had dominated the genre. It’s an early example of science fiction seriously examining cultural, economic, psychological, and social questions, all while reveling in (and taking seriously) the imaginative framework of the genre. It’s a masterpiece that fundamentally changed one of the 20th century’s most important genres!

Lord of Light (1967, Roger Zelazny) – Look, if the Atlantic is gonna put Lincoln in the Bardo (a dumb-as-hell book) on their dumb list, then I get to put Zelazny’s story of religion, rebellion, and neo-mystical culture jamming on MY list, dammit!

Ragtime (1975, E.L. Doctorow) – I mean, ostensibly this list of “Great American Novels” is supposed to be concerned with novels that are written “about” or somehow in conversation with a muzzy, muddled kind of “American-ness,” right? If that’s the case there’s no excuse for NOT including Ragtime on there, which in addition to being all about America, is also very good and interesting to boot. Leaving it off their list smacks of rank contrariness, and it shall not stand!

The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975, Edward Abbey) – Again, if you’re makin’ a list about American literature, not having Abbey on there seems to require some kind of explanation. This is a great novel, vibrant and fun and dynamic, AND it also is talking about some of the quintessential debates of the 20th century, namely wilderness, the history of the Western U.S., conservation, and again, rebellion. It’s weird that it’s NOT on their list!

The Circus of Dr. Lao (1935, Charles Finney) – a wild, weird fantasy book set in a 30s desert town? A meditation on exoticism, early 20th C consumer-culture, myths, religion, and carnies? Fairly obscure, not really read by a lot of people? It’s fuckin’ MADE for this list!

Cugel’s Saga (1983, Jack Vance) – I just like sword and sorcery, okay? No, fuck YOU!

The Vanishing American (1925, Zane Grey) – ANY list about the Great Novels of American Literature that DOESN’T have a real western on it (not just a deconstructionist one like Blood Meridian) is simply wrong. Grey didn’t create the modern genre, but he did perfect it, and this book (his best) shows both his technical prowess as an adventure writer AS WELL AS a keen observer of western history and exploitation. In addition to being an exemplar of a hugely important genre in American Literature, it’s ALSO a remarkable novel that recognizes and condemns the violence and acquisitiveness inherent in white settlers in America. It’s a book of its time, of course, and there’s some uncomfortable bits, but its a remarkable document nonetheless as well as a good novel.

Rum Punch (1992, Elmore Leonard) – speaking of books that incisively and sharply dissect “America,” Elmore Leonard’s absence from the Atlantic List is yet ANOTHER sign that the compilers weren’t taking seriously the “American” part of “The Great American Novel.” For my money, there’s no finer writer about America than Leonard, and while we might disagree which of his novels belongs on here, I think he certainly HAS to be included in the list. Rum Punch in particular is an excellent meditation of the American Dream, warts and all.

Dog Soldiers (1974, Robert Stone) – This one is so obvious that it feels like a provocation that it’s not on the original list. A novel about the way the American war machine chews up and spits out the poor suckers who do the fighting, the death of American optimism, the poisoning of the counter culture, this novel has it all!

Almanac of the Dead (1991, Leslie Marmon Silko) – A legit masterpiece that is also one of those big, sprawling novels that are so impressive to reviewers (Silko earns it here, though, in my opinion). It’s also one of the rare works that takes seriously the idea that “America” is not just the Estados Unidos sensu stricto. It’s weird that the Atlantic put Silko on the list with her earlier book The Ceremony, which is fine but, honestly, feels a little bit like they picked the “arsty” book over the “better” one. Almanac of the Dead is a great novel and should’ve been on the list.

Yo-Yo Boing! (1998, Giannina Braschi) – The only book to rival Joyce in terms of language, intensity, invention, and transcendence, in my opinion.

There you go, a dozen novels that 100% belong on any list of the “Great American Novel” (whatever the fuck that means). They’re all really good, and you should read them if you haven’t. Anyway, hopefully that has exorcised my annoyance with the Execrable List as Presented by The Atlantic.