Comments on: Writer’s Notebook: I Love It When MacArthur Fellows Have the Same Problems I Do

By: Kat Asharya

Kat Asharya — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:02:36 +0000

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I really loved Miranda July’s stories; I haven’t read them in a long time, so it would be good for a revisit! And thanks for the Jon McGregor recommendation. I know lots of people who are fans; I should def. seek him out.

xo Kat

By: Kat Asharya

Kat Asharya — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 20:53:07 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions! I read Borges ages ago & def. want to revisit him, and I haven’t read enough of Mansfield…will have to add them to the list, for sure! As for Gibson, I actually have never read his shorter fiction work… I’ve still yet to read his recent collection of short non-fiction. So many things to read!

I do think a lot of short stories do feel mean-spirited. I think it’s because writers can use them to explore characters for a short period of time that would otherwise be agonizing when you write something longer about them.

xo k.

By: mikkie

mikkie — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 19:34:44 +0000

I really loved Miranda July’s Noone belongs here more than you. And Jon McGregor writes wonderful, poetic books, more about atmosphere than plt really. His last book was a collection of short stories which is supposed to be very good as well.

By: John

John — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 20:22:50 +0000

As a reader, actually, I’m not a big fan of short stories. I don’t know why exactly. One thing is that, without time to flesh out the characters, they end up feeling more like puppets than people a lot of the time. I feel like there’s something bad-natured about a lot of short stories, a lack of sympathy for absolutely everyone, which is less common in novels.

I have however been reading a bunch of Borges lately, which is great. I also like Katherine Mansfield. As for sci-fi, I really think the only ones I remember enjoying very much are William Gibson’s in Burning Chrome.