Great Short Stories
A short story is the perfect bite of food, the heart of the watermelon. Read on for my favorites and fun facts about writers and writing. Darcy Alvey
Have you read this?
Featured Post:
Yiyun Li:
Techniques and Idiosyncrasies
The payoff of reading a story twice.
As a short story writer, Yiyun Li is a stunner. Her stories are like multi-layered cakes, held together by a variety of tasty fillings and covered in fondant as smooth as silk. She’s got the goods! My opinion won’t come as a surprise to short story fans. Li has been widely published and applauded, including many times in the big kahuna, The New Yorker. Her latest story, “Techniques and Idiosyncrasies,” is featured in their March 17 edition.
On the surface “Techniques and Idiosyncrasies” is tame enough. Lilian, a fifty-something woman, goes to a health clinic for an infection caused by the prick of a rose thorn. This turns out to be the least of her troubles. We learn about her as she endures the tediousness of a rather thorough physical examination. Lilian is a writer; therefore, an observer. As she gets poked and prodded, gives endless vials of blood, endures little indignities and humiliations, she interacts with the technicians and doctors, listens to their stories, shares hers with them--and us. She ponders the examined life. That’s where the real gold is. One nugget:
“It’s astonishing, Lilian often thought, that people feel this urge to talk about themselves with a stranger, however much or little they have lived. But few people would look at their own lives and think they have had only a meagre portion of experience; they must feel that they have experienced more life than they know what to do with—why else would they insist on telling Lilian their stories?”
While interacting with the technicians and doctors, Lilian reflects on her own existence, which has included deep personal tragedies. (I won't spoil the revelations here.) She has learned to cope by allowing life to happen, her life and others. Her insights become our aha moments. We marvel at her ability to stay the course. Maybe it gives us a little courage in return. I believe fiction has the ability to work that magic.
Short stories I admire I read twice. The first read is for the ride, the ups and downs, the twists and turnings, the bumps and bruises, the landing place. The second read is for the technique, how the writer gets me through, keeps me going, works me. “Techniques and Idiosyncrasies” is worth the second read.
Yiyun Li was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for her story collection Wednesday’s Child. Her memoir, Things in Nature Merely Grow, is due out in May. •
Quotes:
The special significance of a true work of art resides in the fact that it has escaped from the limitations of the personal and has soared beyond the personal concerns of its creator.
-Carl Jung
Dedications:
This book is dedicated to my brilliant and beautiful wife without whom I would be nothing. She always comforts and consoles, never complains or interferes, asks nothing, and endures all, and writes my dedications.
-Albert Malvino, Electronic Principles, 2nd ed.
Fun Facts:
It has been widely reported that Gertrude Stein's final words to Toklas were, "What is the answer?" With no reply forthcoming, Stein followed with, "In that case, what is the question?"