Category: Short Story

Categories
1800s Short Story

The Necklace – Guy de Maupassant (Short Story)

41A8X85T6RL__SL500_AA240_Rob from RobAroundBooks is a big fan of short stories, and was disappointed to learn that I don’t like them. He suggested I try The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, claiming it would “touch my heart and soul”. I happened to have a copy in the house and so had no reason to refuse his suggestion – especially since The Necklace is only 8 pages long! If you’d like to read the story for yourself then just follow the link at the beginning of the post.

WARNING SPOILERS!!

Unfortunately The Necklace didn’t come close to “touching my heart and soul.” It only confirmed all the major problems I have with short stories.

Let me explain the problems I had with this story by working through the plot.

  • Couple receive invitation to a party. It’s all going well so far.
  • Woman whinges about how she has nothing to wear. I’m beginning to go off it.
  • Woman begs husband for lots of money to buy a new dress and the husband gives in. The plot continues to cause me minor irritation.
  • The woman then begins to moan about not having any jewelry to wear for the night out. I become increasingly irritated by her shallowness.

“I am vexed not to have a jewel, not one stone, nothing to adorn myself with. I shall such a poverty-laden look. I would prefer not to go to this party.”

  • They decide to borrow a necklace from a friend. Can you guess what happens next?
  • She loses the necklace. You see with a short story there is no time for the plot to develop properly – you can see everything coming a mile off.
  • Instead of owning up to losing it she buys another one, ruining 10 years of her life to pay it off. Do they not have any insurance?
  • It turns out the necklace was a fake, so she has wasted all that time/money on nothing. Stupid woman. I have no sympathy at all.

The problem with short stories is that there is no time for any proper character development. To enjoy reading something I need to become emotionally involved with them. The characters in short stories almost always come across as shallow individuals. This is because there isn’t the time to allow all sides of their character to be revealed. In just a few pages it isn’t possible to show all their flaws and explain the history behind them.

The plot in a short story is always very simple. I can normally see it coming a mile away. I like my plots to be complex and preferably surprising too.

Sorry Rob! This one just didn’t do it for me!

Do you have similar problems with short stories?

Did you enjoy The Necklace?

Categories
1950s Short Story

The Victorian Chaise-Longue – Marghanita Laski

  Persephone No. 6

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Claire from Paperback Reader and Verity from The B Files are hosting Persephone Reading Week. I have not read a Persephone book before and so decided to take this opportunity to try one. I admit to searching out the shortest one I could find (The Victorian Chaise-Longue is just 99 pages long), but I think it was a very good choice, as I really enjoyed it and will go on to read many more in the future.

The Victorian Chaise-Longue tells the story of Melanie, a young woman suffering from TB in the 1950s. She recovers enough to be allowed out of her sick bed for the first time and decides to sleep on a Victorian chaise-longue. When she wakes up, she discovers that she has been transported back in time and is now living inside the body of a Victorian woman, who is also ill.

This book is suppossed to be dark and spooky. Nymeth described it as being a

chilling, atmospheric and suffocating novella.

but I’m afraid this book didn’t scare me at all. I think the main reason for this, is that this isn’t very likely to happen. Blindness had a real impact on me, as I can foresee it’s shocking events occurring one day, but I’m afraid I’m not a big believer in time-travel.

I enjoyed reading this book, but I actually found it funny as opposed to scary. The rantings of Melanie trying to persuade the people in her Victorian world that she was from the future just made me smile.

‘You think I am Milly Baines gone mad,’ she said, ‘but I am not. I am another woman. I don’t know where Milly Baines is, perhaps she is in my time and we have got changed somehow, or perhaps I am just dreaming and I cannot wake up. But I do not belong here, I tell you, all my life is in the future, my child, the man I love.

This is a lovely little book, and whether it scares you or makes you laugh, I’m sure you will enjoy it!

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Am I alone in finding this book funny?

Have you ever found a scary book amusing?

 

 

Categories
2009 Short Story

Nocturnes – Kazuo Ishiguro

I haven’t read any of Kazuo Ishiguro’s books before, although have a few here in the TBR pile and have heard only good things about his writing. I wasn’t planning to read this one, but then I spotted someone returning it at the library. I know how hard these new releases are to borrow and so snapped up the chance to get it, but when I got it home I realised that it wasn’t really my sort of book. I’m not a fan of short stories and  a quick scan through the blurb revealed the stories to be based around music – something I like listening to, but have no real passion for.

I read the first story, and had almost decided to return it to the library when I spotted Jane’s review. She urged me to continue, highlighting the fact that it is a quick, well written read. I agree with her, and in many ways I am pleased that I read it all the way to the end.

The stories are all based around ‘music and nightfall’ and while they are well written, they encounter the major problem I have with short stories, which is that the moment I start to bond with the characters and become interested in their story, they are gone. The depth and complexity of plot which I love in a novel can never be present in a story lasting just a few pages.

Each of the stories was based around the lives of reasonably normal people, and so didn’t give any insight into different lives or ways of thinking, as in The Thing Around Your Neck (one of the only short story collections I’ve ever liked). The plots were all quite gentle, and this book reminded me of Brooklyn, the Booker prize nominated book, which I read recently. I think anyone who loved Brooklyn would enjoy reading this collection, especially if you are a music fan.

If you enjoy reading short stories, then this is a reasonably good collection, but it wasn’t for me.

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I’m planning to read at least one of Kazuo Ishiguro’s books before the end of the year.

Which one do you think is the best?

Categories
Short Story Weekly Geeks

Mr Icky from ‘Tales of the Jazz Age’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This review has been specially written for this week’s weekly geek task. It is written using randomly generated key words and phrases.

Some of the weekly geeks are writing reviews for real stories, others imagined. 

 Do you think this review is for a real story?

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald is most famous for writing The Tale of Benjamin Button, which can be found in in his collection of short stories Tales of the Jazz Age. In the same collection is the strangely titled short story Mr Icky.

Mr Icky is described as the quintessence of quaintness in one act.

Mr Icky is an old man, dressed in the costume of an Elizabethan peasant. He has a conversation with a young boy called Peter. They discuss the planets, the bible and many seemingly random aspects of life.

Some of the language is a bit strange:

How ghastly! Science is the bunk.

The story isn’t all garble though – the jazz lusts throughout the pot of this story. It is a tale full of promise and happiness. I don’t think it will win a prize for being the best short story ever, but it does contain a few memorable quotes.

I care not who hoes the lettuce of my country if I can eat the salad!

Overall I found it to be a pretty average short story and I recommend it only to people who have an interest in studying short stories of this time period.

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Do you think this review is for a real short story?

Which are the randomly generated words I had to use?

Visit the other Weekly Geeks to play along!

NO GOOGLING!!!!

Categories
Short Story

The Lottery – Shirley Jackson

Claire from Paperback Reader alerted me to the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. She described herself as ‘feeling traumatised’ after reading it, so I was immediately intrigued and decided to track down a copy on the internet. If you’d like to do the same, then you can read the story here.

The Lottery was initially published in the New Yorker in 1948 under much criticism, and having read the story I can see why people were distressed.

The story takes place in a small village, where everyone knows everyone else, all are friendly and seem to enjoy the festive atmosphere as they gather in the village square for the lottery. Shirley Jackson builds the tension masterfully, as the short story heads towards it’s shocking end.

I was very impressed with the writing, and am now even more keen to get my hands on We have Always Lived in a Castle. I was interested to see that Molly from My Cozy Book Nook compared The Lottery to The Hunger Games, now she mentions it, there are many similarities, and I think anyone who has read the Hunger Games recently would be interested in comparing the two. I wonder if Suzanne Collins has read Lottery?

I’m not normally a fan of short stories, but will keep an eye out for this book, so I can read the rest of the collection.

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Were you shocked by The Lottery?

Do you think The Hunger Games was based on this short story?

Categories
2009 Recommended books Short Story

The Thing Around Your Neck – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is the best selection of short stories I have ever read! Chimamanda’s ability to draw you into each of the characters in such a small space of time is phenomenal. The short stories are focused upon Nigerian life, but many of them are based in the west. The balance between tragedy and happiness is perfect, leading to a book which does not dwell on hardship, but shows vivid glimpses of it, making the messages come across far more powerfully than continual horrific scenes.

Each story is unique, and although they all contain Nigerian characters, none have the same atmosphere or feel like repetitions of the same idea. The book is very easy to read, and is the perfect introduction to her writing style, as Half of a Yellow Sun, although I’m sure it will be amazing, is very long. 

The only flaw in this book is that I was left yearning to know more about each character. I could easily have read whole novels based on each short story, in fact I’d be happy to read a book written by her once a month for the rest of my life! She gets my vote for a Nobel Prize – how many books do you have to have written to qualify as a ‘body of work?’  Sorry for gushing, but talent like this needs to be read by everyone!

Highly recommended to everyone!!

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I’m really looking forward to reading Half of a Yellow Sun next week, and hope it will have the character depth and plot complexity to become my third, five star read of the year.

Is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie one of your favourite authors?

Which of her books do you like the best?

Will you be rushing out to buy a copy of this one as soon as  it is released?

If you can’t wait until June then you could order a copy from the UK – just click on the book cover above!

Have you ever ordered a copy of a book from another country, just to get it a few weeks earlier?

I’ve ordered a copy of Sarah Water’s new book, The Little Stranger from America, just so I can read it a few weeks before it is released here in the UK!!

I look forward to hearing all your thoughts!