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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!

OP posts:
Swedes · 28/08/2008 23:29

Chekhov's Short Stories are the best.

anorak · 28/08/2008 22:52

Agree with Shoshe, the book of Annie Proulx short stories which contains Brokeback Mountain is my favourite.

And my fave story from it, favourite short story ever, is The Blood Bay.

Threadwworm · 28/08/2008 22:48

And White Nights, Dostoyevsky. Agree about the Ian McEwan short stories. Seedy in extreme but much better than his later novels.

Threadwworm · 28/08/2008 22:45

Dubliners

hifi · 28/08/2008 22:44

sutree, cormac mccarthy very different to his normal novel, also very disturbing.

all quiet on the western front, cant remember, or arsed to walk to top of house.very good though.

zippitippitoes · 28/08/2008 22:22

really

well theyb will muck up

is there a film in it

southeastastra · 28/08/2008 22:19

they're making a film of the yellow wallpaper though they'll prob muck it up

squeaver · 28/08/2008 22:19

Harpo - just get the collected work. That'll do you.

Sedaris is American, very dry and knowing lots of his stuff is auto-biographical. Can't really think who I'd compare him to. One of his collections is called Naked and he's got a new one out this one which is in my "pile to read"

zippitippitoes · 28/08/2008 22:18

the yellow wallpaper

Original poster
harpomarx · 28/08/2008 22:17

thanks, yogabird, for reminding of something else I have heard of and never read but want to!

(if I had a credit card, this thread would be expensive...)

OP posts:
zippitippitoes · 28/08/2008 22:16

i dont like short stories but in the seventies ian mcewan best work beyween the sheets comfort of strangers and firstlovelast rites

fishie · 28/08/2008 22:14

oh whistle and i'll come to you.. m r james
any and all saki
maupassant
rebecca west

southeastastra · 28/08/2008 22:14

stephen king nightshift

onebatmother · 28/08/2008 22:14

Margaret Atwood's collection - Bluebird's Egg. Picked it up by chance on holiday (have read all novels but not heard of the short stories) and they are breathtakingly good.

yogabird · 28/08/2008 22:10

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
hereis amazing

Original poster
harpomarx · 28/08/2008 22:08

oh, now I'm really glad I have started this thread. Have always meant to read Dorothy Parker and never have (for shame!). What books do you recommend, Squeaver?

And tell me more about David Sedaris, don't know him.

OP posts:
squeaver · 28/08/2008 22:06

David Sedaris.

Dorothy Parker - my all-time favourite writer.

Original poster
harpomarx · 28/08/2008 22:04

loved Bernice too, just found Diamond very strange. I have lent my copy to someone too and I really want it back!

my degree was Hispanic Studies, hence the Borges/Cortázar thing. What other US short story writers do you rate? I vaguely remember reading John Cheever some time ago and liking in a not much happens kind of way!

OP posts:
Slouchy · 28/08/2008 22:01

Read loads of his short stories for my
degree (US Studies) and really loved lots of them. Was more taken with Bernice (but was in a feminist/bitchy period then which that story suited(!). Actually, come to think of it, noticed my copy of FScott's stories on my sister's bookshelf when I stayed with her at the weekend. Oi! Sis! Give it back!

(you will like The Awakening, I think)

Original poster
harpomarx · 28/08/2008 21:55

did Diamond really knock you out Slouchy? I thought it was bizarre and beautiful, really unlike anything else I had read of his (and not like many other things I have read either)

OP posts:
Shoshe · 28/08/2008 21:52

I bought the short stories by Annie Proulx, after watching Brokeback Mountain. They are fantastic stories.

Original poster
harpomarx · 28/08/2008 21:52

have just looked it up, Slouchy - I like the sound of it and am surprised I haven't heard of it before.

OP posts:
mazzystar · 28/08/2008 21:52

Daphne Du Maurier did some corkers [Don't Look Now in particular]
Ian McEwan

funnypeculiar · 28/08/2008 21:50

Kate Atikinson could also be Kate Thingummy - Not the end of the World is fabbo (imho)

wotsits · 28/08/2008 21:49

Can't name them but Alice Munro's short stories are great