Twenty Short Story Collections For People WIth Short Attention Spans
I’m back again. Sadly this means we’re all still stuck in our houses waiting to be let out. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably starting to go stir crazy. This week I have taken to pacing around the living room whilst reading in order to try and maintain some level of concentration from one page to the next. I have also tidied my sock drawer and hosted a small drinks party with a number of stuffed animals. Hopefully you’re finding more profitable ways to fend off the boredom. Maybe you’re reading. (I hope you’re reading). Maybe you’re looking for the next great book to dive into and considering picking up a short story collection. (I do hope so). I’m here to help.
Short story collections can be a bit intimidating if you’re not used to them. Yes, they are generally smaller than novels but they do ask a lot of the reader. Over the course of two hundred pages they’re liable to pitch you into dozens of different scenarios, time frames, points of view and styles. They can also be a bit of a mixed bag, which is to say, there are a lot of shite short stories out there. In a single collection you may find some stories you absolutely love, some you detest and a fair few vanilla-flavoured page fillers. There’s no real way of knowing how you’ll find a story until you’re well into it. (Nb maybe a ratings guide should be offered on the contents page with 5 stars allocated to the best story and 1 to the story the editor shoved in last minute to make up the word count). I like to compare the experience of reading an unknown short story collection to that of consuming a box of chocolates after you’ve lost card telling you which flavour each one is.
I hope i haven’t put you off the short story collection because the short story as a concept is exactly what you need during such frazzly-minded, confusing times. Short stories are usually short, self-contained and capable of being read in a single coffee-shaped sitting. For those of you currently suffering from short and wandering attention spans, the short story could well be the read you’re looking for. There are millions of fantastic short story collections out there. This is Ireland. The short story was pretty much invented here. If there’s nothing on my list that tickles your fancy go out and track down an anthology of Irish short stories. I can absolutely guarantee you’ll stumble into genius. There are also some great resources online like the New Yorker and The Stinging Fly where you can read archived short stories and decide for yourself whether you enjoy a writer’s work before investing in a whole collection.
I’ve literally spent a whole week deliberating over what to include in my list of recommended short story collections. I was aiming for ten, then upped my total to fifteen and was so drawn between my favourites i’ve ended up with twenty books listed below. (It could easily have been forty). Let me add some caveats before I share my recommendations. Firstly I’ve not mentioned Cary Davies’, The Redemption of Galen Pike or Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love because both have already been recommended on previous blogs. I’ve also not added Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Interpreter of Maladies because somebody seems to have stolen it. All three would definitely be on this list. Secondly, I’ve refrained from adding anthologies as I wanted to use this list as a platform to introduce you to each writer’s work, but there are some fantastic anthologies out there. Anthologies can be a great way to sample lots of different short story writers if you’re not sure what kind of stories you like. I’ve also deliberately left out some of my favourite very establised short story writers because I couldn’t pick a single collection and to recommend a huge, weighty collected volume might be a bit off putting for someone just beginning to read shorts. However, it goes without saying that you should read all the Alice Munro, Edna O’Brien, Tobias Wolff, F Scott Fitzgerald, William Trevor and Lorrie Moore beacuse that lot really know how to put a story together. Finally, these are my go to collections, the ones that shaped me, influenced me, blew my reading socks off and made me want to write better short stories. They may not all be to your taste. I’m definitely on the magic realist spectrum; I’d say 60% realist 40% not of this world and those tastes are very much reflected in this list. Saying all that, I hope you find something here you enjoy.
I’ll be back next week with some books that help unless of course there’s some miraculous intervention before then. Stay well and stay well read, Jan
Shirley Jackson- Dark Tales - Twisted, slightly macabre and absolutely unforgettable. If you’re looking for a door into the dark world of Shirley Jackson this collection is a fantastic first read.
Mary Morrissy - A Lazy Eye - If you like Cement Garden era Ian McEwan then these stories are just the ticket for you. Dark, clever and beautifully written. One of my all time favourite Irish short story collections.
Ramona Ausubel - A Guide To Being Born - Strange, otherworldy little contemporary fairy tales which almost always pinch a little. Ausubel’s best work by far.
Flannery O’Connor - A Good Man Is Hard To Find - I come back to this collection over and over again because the stories are as close to perfect as makes no difference. Flannery could always see both the best and worst in people and her stories are shot through with humanity peeled back to its ugly/beautiful bones.
Richard Brautigan - Revenge of the Lawn - These tiny stories mess around with the short story form. They’re playful, irreverent and occasionally devastatingly wise. They get right to the heart of Beat era America yet still seem oddly relevant right now.
Elizabeth Taylor - The Blush- I’m just going to say that Elizabeth Taylor was a very classy writer and in my opinion this is her at her classiest.
Karen Russell - St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves - I’m not sure how to define these short stories. They’re fairy tale-esque. They’re allegories for contemporary life. They offer a deft analysis of American history. They’re incredibly beautiful and so very well written. This is my go to book when I need a grounding, comfort read.
George Saunders - Civilwarland in Bad Decline - Do you like historical theme parks? Do you like ghosts, sex, violence and incredibly witty insightful writing? Then this is the collection for you, (and also me).
Laura van den Berg - The Isle of Youth- The stories in this collection all feel like dreams I’ve had where I dreamt I was an American. That is to say, they make me feel nostalgic for an experience I’ve never had. They’re wistful, dreamy, funny and very clever. I love this book.
Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - If I could be any kind of writer I’d be a Southern Gothic writer (I can’t because I am not Southern), and McCullers was the writer who first drew me to circus freaks and small town repression and all that good inbred stuff. There are some blindingly good stories in here.
Leonora Carrington - The Complete Stories - Short, slightly mad stories mostly featuring cats and strange creatures eating each other. Utterly brilliant but do not read just before falling asleep.
Aimee Bender - Willful Creatures - There is a story in here about a woman who has potato babies instead of real babies and it is so strange and sad and poignant it is the story I wish I’d written more than any other storysimply because it takes the suspension of disbelief so seriously that it made me actually cry for the poor potato babies the first time i read it.
Alessandro Boffa - You’re an Animal Viskowitz - Viskowitz is a different animal in each of these short stories and he’s always exploring what it means to be in love. It’s high concept stuff but it works like a dream.
Kevin Barry - Dark Lies the Island- Nobody writes dialogue like Kevin Barry. These stories are dark, funny and a wee bit odd but it’s a collection I keep returning to over and over again because the characters are so well written.
John McGahern - That They May Face the Rising Sun - Do you know what? You need to read all the John McGahern but there’s no better place to begin than here. These stories are timeless and devastatingly good.
Daisy Johnson - Fen - I am very jealous of Daisy Johnson. There’s such an intense darkness to these stories and yet a real lightness and fluidity in the way she writes the most disturbing things. I honestly don’t know how she does it. These stories haunted me for days after I read this collection.
Claire Keegan - Antarctica - These stories are flawless. Do not read this before sitting down to write because you’ll just sit there, staring at the screen, knowing you’ll never write anything as good as this. (True story).
Frances Leviston - The Voice in My Ear - It’s not even published yet and this collection is already one my new favourites. You can tell Frances’ background is in poetry, the language here is so subtle and loaded but the stories are also incredibly well executed. I just couldn’t put this down.
Denis Johnson - Jesus’ Son- Also read all of Denis Johnson. He had a masterful way or recording unseen America and some of the stories in this collection are undoubtedly amongst his best work.
James Lasdun - It’s Beginning to Hurt- I knew nothing about Lasdun when a friend gave me this collection as a gift. The stories here are sparse and really grapple with what it means to be a flawed and broken human being. It’s a genuinely devastating collection.