Customer Reviews

Anti-Story: An Anthology of Experimental Fiction

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over the years, I have used Stevick's book as a reader in several fiction classes I have taught, and it is simply the best, most clearly organized and well thought-out anthology of experimental fiction available. I would love to see it expanded and updated, but even as is, it is thought-provoking and generates wonderful class discussions about the possibilities writers have for deviating from the Aristotelean template. Bravo!

As with most experimental fiction some of the stories really blew me away while others did absolutely nothing for me. But in this case the good outweighed the bad - and even the bad were at least original. I especially enjoyed the stories by Barth, Disch, Ionesco and Landolfi.

Anti-Story is great. A sizable portion (arguably most) of seminal postmodern short story writers are represented here, at a much lower cost than you might expect (I can imagine a comparable Norton anthology running something like forty or fifty dollars). In addition, the editor has organized the stories according to what convention of fiction he thinks they break, and how he thinks they get away with it. In the process, he makes an argument as to what a conventional story is, and how a story that breaks with convention can maintain a reader's interest. This organization, more than anything, makes Anti-Story useful for people interested in how short stories work, and why experimental fiction might be notable or worthwhile. If you teach, the organization could also help you integrate this material into a course, as the book provides such a strong context from which to begin a discussion.

If you like this kind of stuff, you need this book. Buy it.

As a person with a scientific background who works in a technical field, I often try to pick my leisure reading to be as different from my daily work as possible. I also prefer not to dedicate too much time to one long book or one subject in order to keep things new and stimulating. Hence, I often choose to read short story anthologies or collections of shorter works grouped by author or subject. The downside is that it's sometimes hard to find contemporary work published this way.

I suppose I was in the mood for something a little more modern, and the idea of "experimental" fiction appealed to me; something with a less traditional form interested me when I saw this book listed. Like almost all anthologies, I found this one to have its ups and downs. Some of the stories are flat-out tedious, while others are intriguing, if only to see an experimental idea being handled. On the whole, a good set of stories that met my purpose - read something off the beaten path.

I would probably give this book three stars if it was purely for the strength of the stories themselves. However, this book has an interesting structure which I found profoundly informative - the editor grouped the stories according to the main ingredient in each that distinguishes it from the traditional story form. For example, there are three stories grouped under the heading "Against Subject", and these stories are non-traditional in the sense that they don't tell a coherent story. Later, you encounter the section of stories classified as being "Against Scale", which are stories so short they wouldn't normally be considered stories so much as perhaps poetry.

Not being an expert on the subject, this collection really got me thinking about how the traditional short story form has grown into a static entity in my mind, and how much fun it would be to try and stretch its boundaries. It seems to me like this book would be an excellent inspiration for those studying writing or art (the editor tells an illuminating personal story about how art can be most affecting when it breaks conventions in his Forward) and would probably serve as a good textbook for class work.

In short, I added a fourth star because I was impressed with this collection as a learning experience, even if the stories themselves were a little uneven as reading experiences.