{"id":1622,"date":"2023-03-18T23:31:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T23:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregmaxwell.net\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2025-08-21T19:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:49:16","slug":"a-story-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregmaxwell.net\/index.php\/2023\/03\/18\/a-story-short\/","title":{"rendered":"A Story Short?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Short Story???<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lydia Davis is a crowned master of the very short story, not to mention a preeminent translator of classic French literature. Davis didn\u2019t invent flash fiction, but she is certainly its most famous\u2014and perhaps its best\u2014practitioner. Her work is always where I start when I get into a flash fiction reading jag, but of course, it\u2019s not usually where I finish, else what kind of jag would it be? Perhaps it\u2019s time to remind ourselves what very short stories can do. Here are eleven very short stories that you must\u2014and can<\/em>, thanks to the magic of the internet\u2014read at your earliest opportunity. NB: this list should by no means be taken to reflect the \u201cbest of all time,\u201d merely \u201cmy own personal favorites,\u201d and is only a taste of what\u2019s out there\u2014so do us all a favor and point us to your own beloved micro-fictions in the comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lydia Davis, \u201cThe Outing<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to pick a favorite from Davis\u2019s massive body of work (\u201cBreak it Down<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Center of the Story\u201d are two more that I love, though they\u2019re a bit long for this list), but on the flip side, pretty much everything she writes is good. I like \u201cThe Outing\u201d because it\u2019s the skeleton of a story, poking fun at the notion of \u201cwhat happens\u201d\u2014and yet still creates a powerful sense of what indeed happened. How does she do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deb Olin Unferth, \u201cLikeable<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first heard Deb Olin Unferth read, I was so desperate to write down what she\u2019d said that I scribbled her phrases on my own pants in eyeliner. This piece, originally published in NOON<\/em>, is one of my favorites of hers, and a very fine commentary on the plight of the \u201cunlikeable\u201d woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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George Saunders, \u201cSticks<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story slays me. Saunders builds meaning out of nothing, slowly, it seems\u2014although in a story this short there\u2019s hardly room for slowness\u2014and then rips it all away from you in the end, leaving you gutted and empty, which is just the sort of abject cruelty you really want from a writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lucy Corin, \u201cMiracles<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is my favorite story from Corin\u2019s collection of (mostly) flash fictions, One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses<\/em>. (My second-favorite story, just to be maximalist about it, is \u201cWitches<\/a>.\u201d) The creepy presence of one mother and absence of another, the glossed-over apocalypse, the temporal swerve\u2014all of these make the story echo for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amelia Gray, \u201cThe Swan as Metaphor for Love<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sorry, but Amelia Gray doesn\u2019t get enough credit for being fucking hilarious. This story makes me laugh every time I read it, and also has taught me several facts about swans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sofia Samatar, \u201cThe Huntress<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every sentence here is a story in itself\u2014and then there\u2019s the actual story, of a huntress (or two). I\u2019m always impressed by the way Samatar conjures an sustains mood; this piece would poke a a wet black hole in any shining day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hugh Behm-Steinberg, \u201cTaylor Swift<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I encountered this story\u2014which is about Taylor Swift clones\u2014when it won the Gulf Coast<\/em> Barthelme Prize a couple of years ago. The judge was Steve Almond, who wrote<\/a>, \u201cI tried quite hard to resist choosing \u201cTaylor Swift\u201d as the winner of this year\u2019s Barthelme Award. Why? Because all the stories I received were worthy and many were more technically ambitious when it came to language and form, by which I guess I mean experimental. . . . But what the hell. In the end, I just wanted to read this thing again and again.\u201d Which is exactly right. Whatever you think of the actual Taylor Swift, this story is just plain fun<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jamaica Kincaid, \u201cGirl<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one of the most widely-anthologized short stories<\/a> for a reason: rhythmic and lyric, a triumph of voice and immediacy. I think of it as a ribbon that unwinds and unwinds, revealing a relationship, a way of life, and of course, a girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joy Williams, \u201cAubade<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just about any of the pieces in Ninety-nine Stories of God<\/em> would do here, honestly, but I love the firm wink of \u201cAubade,\u201d only the third story in the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amy Hempel, \u201cHousewife<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the shortest story on this list\u2014a few words shorter than Lydia Davis\u2019s, even\u2014but packs a lot of drama into that single sentence. It\u2019s one of those that I read long ago but has stuck in my mind permanently\u2014particularly the beat of that French<\/em> film, French<\/em> film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bonus: L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai, \u201cI Don\u2019t Need Anything from Here<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just read this for the first time, and loved it: a glut of words to luxuriate in, and then leave behind. Jonathan Lethem\u2019s \u201cElevator Pitches<\/a>,\u201d the first in The New Yorker<\/em>\u2018s summer flash series, is also great, and very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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