Customer Reviews

Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was introduced to the genre of short shorts in graduate school and have used them in my classes and enjoyed them at home ever since. The Sudden Fiction anthologies are very good, but this is by far my favorite. My students are sometimes frustrated by the postmodern nature of the short short--they want answers. But after a while, they too are caught up in the excitement that these stories create. Stories such as "I Get Smart," "Snow" and "The One Sitting There" make this purchase more than worth the money.

I've had a copy of this book for years. It's dog-eared, and it's traveled with me when I've gone on trips. The book contains many stories, of varying styles and topics, from many different authors. Because of the brevity of the stories, they take on an odd character, somewhere between stories and poetry, though they are all in prose form. Some, like the beautiful first story "Brilliant Silence," describes the events of many years within two small pages. Others, such as "Gold Coast," captures a small but significant moment in people's lives. There are even some that tell about someone's life through a list. Many of the stories are unusual, and because they are so short, they can be used to fill small moments (such as when waiting for a bus,) or you can take thw whole book, choosing stories to read on a lazy afternoon. I've found myself picking up the book over and over again, and when I've lent it to friends, they've always found at least a few stories that they've enjoyed.For anyone, especially those who are buy but are searching for stories that are touching, funny, realistic, whimsical . . . well, whatever the taste, really, I strongly recommend this book. Also, because of the varied styles, I might even recommend this to student who are studying writing or literature.Happy Reading. :)

Flash Fiction is a book that realy let you read from many different point of views. you can see the imagination of people and the thoughts they may have about something you may not even consider in that sense. It was fun reading this book. I really enjoyed it. It proved to be more fun than it looks. There have been book with short stores in the past which I got the chance to read, but the emotion was not expressed very much as the authors did in there stories in Flash Fiction.

Bought this book at City Lights in 1992. Finished it that night on a flight to Las Vegas.

I liked 90% of the stories.

Re-read them yesterday with the same result.

Each is about a page and a half. If you don't a story, you haven't lost much of an investment of time, concentration, or movement of lips as you read silently.

Fiction with all of the fat trimmed away!

Blink and you've missed it. Don't blink.

Here is what you will see while your eye remains open, in a quick instant of bright color and imagined sound, or sweet fragrance, just sensed before it is gone, or sudden stink, or a momentary sensation across your skin, like the tickle of a feather, or the flavor of something, something, you can't quite place what, on your tongue that reminds of you someplace, someplace, you've been a very long time ago:

"The Burlington Northern, Southbound" by Bruce Holland Rogers...who writes a poem to Christine about the exhiliration of catching a moving train, wind, banged up knee, rhythm, blood rush, and compares it to how he feels about her, and waits for her answer...

"Subtotals" by Gregory Burnham... list of totals that comprise a life, nothing but a list, nothing but totals...number of refrigerators I've lived with, 18... number of gray hairs, 4... number of times wished I was dead, 2... number of light bulbs changed, 273... number of times born again, 0... number of times I forgot what I was going to say, 631...

"Space" by Mark Strand... a beautiful woman stands at the roof-edge of a highrise building, teetering, readying... and a man on the roof of the next building calls out to her... he calls out hope, a dinner proposal, a promise of better days, a marriage proposal... to this woman he does not know, the wind blowing strands of her dark hair across her lovely face... as he contemplates that space, that space between, him, her, the pavement, life, death...

Don't blink. There are 72 of these instant technicolor visions before you can blink again.

This book is quite useful in the classroom to review and to develop reading comprehension skills. Each story can be used to check the various short story parts, figerative language, and understanding. The stories allow a teacher an excellent tool to aid the curriculum. The stories are of high interest and appeal to the slower reader, as well as the better reader. There are a variety of stories which allow the teacher to select the ones wanted. This book is a solid contribution to reading in the classroom.

The stories in flash fiction read as though their diminutive size came naturally; these are stories that were printed without regard to their size but have been reprinted because of their size. Unfortunately, many of the stories would be more satisfying within a mix of story sizes ... the stories are simply shorter than one's mind switches between stories. The anthology is a standard mix of stories that have strong appeal, are technically fine but "don't speak to me", and those you wonder why they were printed. Personal favorites:

The Corporal by Carolyn Forche, I first read as a prose poem. This story speaks strongly to the mentality behind repressive governments - a theme strong in much of Forche's work.

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is a story that shows the creativity of Kincaid (best illustrated by At the Bottom of the River) that speaks in an unusual way to the relationship between a girl and her mother ... and her mother's expectations.

Bread by Margaret Atwood may not exactly be a narrative but again it is a strong piece regarding social justice in a variety of forms.

Subtotals by Gregory Burnham is an interesting evaluation of life by enumeration - a clever idea well executed that left me less than satisfied.

The Haircut by Mary Morris is a story in which non-verbal communication in an intimate relationship is well used; still I found the story only interesting.

Spencer Holst's Brilliant Silence is a brilliant story of dancing bears deserted by their owner but still dancing.

Richard Shelton's The Stones is another brilliant story built on a premise of stones having life of a sort.

Adrienne Clasky's From the Floodlands explores a setting so wet that one can drown in the air, that the sky and the sea merge as the horozin fails to delinate the line between them.

Other tales may catch your attention; there is sufficient variety that nearly everyone should fine some stories to their liking.

Every practicing artist knows that limitations can be inspiring, and the 75 artists gathered here offer an inspirational look at what can be done in the smallest of spaces. From Spencer Holst's perfect "Brilliant Silence", which opens the collection, through such masterworks as Allan Gurganus's funny-yet-wrenching "A Public Denial" & Bernard Cooper's enigmatic "The Hurricane Ride", to ending with Larry Fondation's eerie "Deportation at Breakfast", there isn't a runt in the litter. Frequently provocative, at times hilarious, and always satisfying, you simply won't get more bang for your book dollar than this anthology. Would-be practitioners of fiction take note: here's all the textbook you'll need. It's got it all: instruction AND delight

I bought this book for my boyfriend who is a writer. He loved it! He said the writing was superb and, within the context of the stories themselves, showed how to structure well-written short stories. He's told me on at least 5 separate occassions how much he appreciated this gift.

These stories are among the best I have ever read. Each is short, but full of excellent writing.