Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short Stories [Paperback]

Robert Shapard (Editor), James Thomas (Editor), Charles Baxter (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1989

“Sudden Fiction International is even better than its predecessor. It's a fine teaching tool, a good gift, it's Around-the-World-in-Sixty-Stories, with many surprises, new friends, old friends, almost every stop a brief wonder in itself.” —Alan Cheuse

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shapard and Thomas ( Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories ) gather 60 highly readable, very brief tales from 32 countries, including the U.S. In an astute introduction, Charles Baxter ( First Light ) points out that the shortest stories often have "to do with a sudden crisis, in which the character does not act so much as react . . . . When a character reacts, the situation is larger and more powerful than that character is." In Colette's "The Other Wife," a married couple enters a restaurant, where the man steers his wife away from a table occupied by his ex-wife; in "One of These Days," by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a mayor in a totalitarian regime demands to have an infected tooth pulled, threatening to shoot the dentist if he refuses, and the dentist proceeds without anesthesia, saying, "Now you'll pay for our twenty dead men." Many writers here (e.g., Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, Jorge Luis Borges) are widely published; others, such as Poland's Slawomir Mrozek and India's Krishnan Varma, present foreign cultures in distinctive styles that invite further attention.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A follow-up to Sudden Fiction ( LJ 11/1/86), this anthology presents an enticing smorgasbord of 60 short-short stories (none longer than five pages) from every continent, including work from such rarely represented countries as Botswana, Guatemala, Cyprus, and Pakistan. Although a quarter of the stories are from the United States, where the short-short form now flourishes, the catalog of international writers is impressive: Cortazar, Kawabata, Boll, Colette, Dinesen, Gordimer, Garcia Marquez, Babal, Calvino, and splendid lesser-knowns such as Krishnan Varma. Not all these exotic delights will suit every palate--the stories range from realism to absurdist fantasy, poetic lyric to political allegory--but one is always left hungry enough to try another. The collection also includes commentaries by the writers and translators and is perhaps even better than the earlier book.
-Peter Bricklebank, City Coll.,
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (October 17, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393306135
• ISBN-13: 978-0393306132
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great short story collection, May 30, 2000

By 

audrey laferlita (boulder, colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short Stories (Paperback)

This anthology is an excellent source for learning about various cultures and also for pure entertainment. I have used this as a text in a graduate level course. The stories have universal themes and so can be savored by all. Some are culturally specific whereas others are about one culture. Many are slice of life stories..........Enjoy!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A feast of short international fare, January 10, 2001

By 

Julia M. Reffner "avonleajules" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short Stories (Paperback)

A great book for those with short attention spans, short story writers (or aspiring short story writers), and those who want to see the variety of short shorts available. These stories are short but they have a sharp impact on the reader. The Afternotes section provides extra information about the author, which is often not included in short story collections. It also provides interviews with the authors on their inspiration for the story of theirs included in this volume and occasional interviews with translators on how they set about getting the most accurate translation of the story.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something for EVERYONE, July 27, 2000

By 

"stbob" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short Stories (Paperback)

This is a great book to buy for someone who doesn't have the patience to read. There are some brilliant works in here, some of them only a few pages long. Leave it in the bathroom or somewhere else you have a captive audience. You just might turn someone on to reading.