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Original poster

let's name some great short stories - I'll kick off...

54 replies

harpomarx · 28/08/2008 21:39

with The Diamond as Big as The Ritz by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Had read all his novels but this really stuck in my mind.

Also just about anything by Borges, J G Ballard, Julio Cortázar. I could go on, but I'll let you lot have a go too!

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NotDoingTheHousework · 28/12/2008 11:45

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reindeercantdancethetango · 28/12/2008 11:42

The only short story I can remember is The Landlady

UnquietDad · 28/12/2008 11:38

Helen Simpson doesn't like men very much, it seems from her stories. She comes across as a bit nasty and spiteful in places.

Shena Mackay is a good short story writer.

And one of the best SF short stories I have read is Robert Silverberg's "What We Learned From This Morning's Newspaper".

FlossieT · 28/12/2008 11:28

Just read a fantastic collection that I was bought for Christmas - The Loudest Sound and Nothing: Clare Wigfall. Highly recommended. The jacket blurb says "natural successor to Helen Simpson" but her range is much, much wider than Simpson's (note: I love Helen Simpson too, but she does have a particular focus, and this collection is completely different).

TwoIfBySea · 04/09/2008 20:26

Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber, a whole selection of goodies in there.

Stephen King - Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption: The Mist

Joanne Harris - Jigs & Reels, again another good selection.

But I can't choose just one.

gingerteam · 02/09/2008 21:17

Okay just realised other posts have recommended Helen Simpson (first ever post - new to this) but hey all the more reason to find yourself a copy and enjoy!

gingerteam · 02/09/2008 21:11

I agree with wotsits that Alice Munro writes excellent short stories.
I would also recommend Helen Simpson who has a really good collection called "Hey yeah right get a life" on the joys/pain of family life.
Although written a few years ago I could relate to it and found it relevant to modern motherhood as I experience it. smile

turtle23 · 30/08/2008 08:47

The Stories of Eva Luna...Isabel Allende

slayerette · 30/08/2008 08:38

Another vote for Saki and Dorothy Parker is just so so funny - a must read! I'm also a fan of Stephen King's short stories - he's a much much better writer than some exponents of his genre. Similarly Jeffrey Deaver's short stories are excellent if you're a fan of crime fiction.

Indiestarr · 30/08/2008 08:27

George Saunder's two collections - Pastoralia and Civil War Land In Bad Decline are two I dip back in and reread now and then - they are brilliant. His setting is the US in the slightly near future, a world where almost everything has been turned into a theme park, and his characters are generally trailor-trashy. The stories are hilarious and disturbing at the same time. Would recommend, although not for the faint-hearted!

Also agree about Daphne du Maurier, she was ace. The Birds is great - much more unnerving than the film.

FlossCampi · 30/08/2008 00:03

Oh, how could I forget Helen Simpson?? DEFINITELY.

Marina · 29/08/2008 23:14

My perennial favourites are:

Saki (HH Munro)esp Sredni Vashtar
Chekhov
MR James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Helen Simpson - Four bare legs in a bed and Hey Yeah Right Get a Life
EM Forster The End of the Machine
and
Tell It to a Stranger

bundle · 29/08/2008 22:08

recently read Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri - not as good as her collection The Interpreter of Maladies, but v thought-provoking re: displaced peoples and how they adapt to their surroundings, being neither fish nor fowl.

shreddies · 29/08/2008 22:07

Raymond Carver. Need never read anything else

Cicatrice · 29/08/2008 22:05

I like Colette.

FlossCampi · 29/08/2008 21:59

Lorrie Moore

Alice Munro deffo

Carol Shields

+1 vote for Raymond Carver

Dubliners also amazing.

Surprisingly hard to do well.

GloriaStits · 29/08/2008 15:48

Chekov and Raymond Carver get my vote. Chekov -I like all of the "about love" collection and carver- can't choose.

BEAUTlFUL · 29/08/2008 00:02

Ray Bradbury

hobnob · 28/08/2008 23:45

I quite agree, Swedes and jennifersofia.

Swedes · 28/08/2008 23:40

Raymond Carver's short stories are brilliant. He does hopeless desperation like nobody else. I would urge any would-be writer to read his work as he is so brilliantly concise and unpretentious.

frisbyrat · 28/08/2008 23:39

The Lighthouse by Agnes Owens.

hobnob · 28/08/2008 23:36

Katherine Mansfield is fab.

Quattrocento · 28/08/2008 23:36

I second Daphne du Maurier who wrote some wonderful short stories. The Hitchcock film The Birds was actually one of her short stories.

Also I love WB Yeats' short stories, they are wild and whimsical and steeped in Irish legends

Saki yes very funny.

mrsbabookaloo · 28/08/2008 23:33

Solid Geometry by Ian McEwan blew me away...they made a film of it, and they mucked it up....

Swedes · 28/08/2008 23:32

Andre Gide - Marvellous.