The Recommend a Short Story Thread!

[waryan]

So I'm doing some personal research on the modern short story (maybe 1900 and up?)- really breaking it down and so far I have done John Cheever's "The Swimmer" and John Updike's "Seperating" of which I both enjoyed.

Next I plan for O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" as well as Oates' "Where are you going, Where Have You Been?" Not to mention Jackson's "The Lottery."

Anyway, I was wondering if there were any modern stories in particular which have really blown you away and you might recommend for fellow members? (many apologies if this has already been created)

I've come across some duds mainly because I'm picking and choosing from Literary Anthologies which are albeit good, but don't compare to a personal recommendation.

Always grateful, thanks!:thumbs_up

[Oniw17]

I love short stories. I'm not sure about the dates, but some of the ones I liked and can remember the names/authrs of include James Hurst's The Scarlet Ibis; Jack London's To Build a Fire; Isaac Asimov's The Feeling of Power; Saki's The Interlopers; and Richard Conel's The Most Dangerous Game. Have you read any of those?

[waryan]

oniw17, though I've read some Asimov, I haven't read that one particular but I do have an anthology of his stuff so I'll be tending to that one first, more likely. I have read The Most Dangerous Game a few times and still love it.

Antiquarian, I've not even heard of Steven Millhauser, but will be seeing into your tips with haste, as well.

Thanks for the recommendations guys ;)

[aeroport]

Well, of course Hemingway might serve your purposes nicely. I'd check out 'Hills Like White Elephants' and 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'.
Joyce's 'The Dead'.
Philip Roth's 'Goodbye Columbus' and Other Stories is also really good, especially 'Defender of the Faith'.

[Il Penseroso]

I just read an Updike short story called "Separating" a week or so ago. That was quite good.

[NickAdams]

The one that blew me away was Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges; many of his short stories are mind blowing actually.

[Charles Darnay]

The one that blew me away was Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges; many of his short stories are mind blowing actually.

Yes, "Circular Ruins" is fantastic!!! Most of Borges' collection "Labyrinths" is great.

Other short stories.....

Virginia Woolf: Mark on the Wall (if you love stream of consciousness, you can't go wrong with this).

Margaret Laurence - anything from A Bird in the House

James Joyce - The Dubliners (especially "Araby" and "The Dead" (I know that's already been metnioned).

Herman Melville - Bartleby

[Chester]

Three I've read within the past month that I absolutely loved:

The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A Haunted House, Virginia Woolf (700 words, how can you go wrong?)
The Catbird Seat, James Thurber

[Morten]

For short stories in the tradition of Cheever and Updike, those New Yorker-esque stories that I love, I'd recommend the following.

Richard Yates - "Builders"
J.D. Salinger - "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"
Carson McCullers - "Who Has Seen the Wind?"
Flannery O'Connor - "Everything that Rises Must Converge"
Harold Brodkey - "Sentimental Educations"
Raymond Carver - "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"
John Updike - "The Slump"
Richard Ford - "The Womanizer"
John Cheever - "Goodbye, my Brother"

[Virgil]

I was rereading "Up In Michigan" by Ernest Hemingway last night. Top notch. Hemingway was at his best in short stories. :)

[stlukesguild]

Almost anything by J.L. Borges... esssential!
Kafka... even more essential!
Gogol
Tomasso Landolfi- Gogol's Wife
Italo Calvino
Maurice Blanchot
Julio Cortazar- Blow Up and Other Stories
H.G. Wells
C.K. Chesterton
Sherwood Anderson- Winesburg Ohio
Ernest Hemingway
D.H. Lawrence
Joseph Conrad- Heart of Darkness
I.B. Singer-
Sholem Aleichem
S.Y. Agnon
Isaac Babel
Donald Barthleme
Harold Brodkey
W.S. Merwin- Selected Prose (fictions/prose poems?)

[JBI]

Alice Munro, just pick up any anthology.

[JBI]

William Faulkner, Barn Burning, A Rose for Emily.

[aeroport]

Sherwood Anderson- Winesburg Ohio


Forgot about this! If you are researching the modern story, waryan, this book is pretty much essential, it seems.
I would also add Katherine Mansfield.

[Morten]

Forgot about this! If you are researching the modern story, waryan, this book is pretty much essential, it seems.
I would also add Katherine Mansfield.

Winesburg, Ohio is a very underrated book, considering the fact that it is perhaps the most essential American short story collection of the 20th Century. Every short story writer is indebted to Anderson.

Mansfield, however, is overrated. She was too heavily influenced by Chekhov to ever produce anything original.

[capek]

Anything by Borges. Particularly Pierre Menard, The Lottery of Babylon, Three Versions of Judas, and Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.

Italo Calvino is great as well. A prime example of a modern fabulist. Check out Cosmicomics for his best work.

Stanislaw Lem is also a master. When it comes to modern humanist scientific literature you don't get any better than him. His dealings with artificial intelligence are very compelling. In particular, check out the stories The Inquest, and The Accident in the book More Tales of Pirx the Pilot.

David Foster Wallace is also great, from a more stylistically post-modern point of view. His collection of shots stories called Oblivion is great.

[waryan]

hey you guys are great- I can't thank you all enough for the recommendations.

I once read "Circular Ruins" about a year ago and made an emergency trip to the bookstore to get a collection of Borge's and have thoroughly enjoyed it; exact same story for Hands and WINESBURG,OHIO, ha. Also I've read The Yellow-Wallpaper and enjoyed that but how awful that that should be all!

I'll be getting started on these soon- oh and one more thing- is anyone in here a fan of Katherine Anne Porter? I have read a bit of her stuff as of late and loved it, but don't see her mentioned too many places and was curious of others' thoughts on her.

Again, the response has been great; oncemore many thanks! =)

[johann cruyff]

Borges was already mentioned - short stories were where he was at his best.

Also,Kafka: A Hunger Artist,The Metamorphosis,In the Penal Colony,The Judgment,The Great Wall of China,Description of a Struggle...Those are some of my favourite.

[JBI]

Katherine Mansfield, all works are good, but most famous is probably The Garden Party.

[islandclimber]

I have to say Borges like it appears a few others already... Just amazing...

and Gabriel Garcia Marquez... I have to say I like his short stories much more than his novels...

Ivan Bunin is fantastic...

Italo Calvino as well.

[Janine]

Katherine Mansfield, all works are good, but most famous is probably The Garden Party.

Thanks JBI, for that suggestion. I have been wanting to read her stories, since I discovered that she was friends with D.H.Lawrence. She admired him greatly and he her work, too. I love D.H.Lawrence short stories and since we formed a thread devoted to them on this site, that might help anyone reading his stories to gather more insight about each of the ones we have discussed this past year.
I looked up Mansfield's 'The Garden Party' and I found a number of other stories, I could copy, including that one. I am anxious now to print it out and read it soon. I have read some of Mansfield's poetry and liked it very much. I believe I do own a few anthologies, that contain some of her short stories. Here are some Lawrence short stories I would recommend:

Things
Odour of Chrysantamums
The Man Who Loved Islands
The Horse-Dealer's Daughter
Shades of Spring
The Prussian Officer

or any others that we have discussed on our SS thread. They were all excellent.

Another author I like is Willa Cather and I am embarking presently on her shorts stories. I think Amy Lowell was also in the group with Lawrence and Mansfield; not sure if she wrote short stories but she did write poetry.

[NickAdams]

Has any one read the short stories of Donald Barthelme? I've read a paragraph here and there and had a good chuckle, but I have too many commitments to really get into it. He is one of my must reads though.

[waryan]

thanks for everyone's suggestions

also thanks to all for suggesting Anderson's stuff so endlessly, as it had been two years since I had first and last read his stuff but started Winesburg, Ohio again and am seeing it in a whole new light.

also, I've delved into a few of Borges' other works beside "circular ruins" but lost interest- does anyone know of a few stand-out stories of his beside Circular Ruins to point me in the right direction?

Thanks ;)

[stlukesguild]

Borges stand-outs:

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
The Garden of Forking Paths
The Library of Babel
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
(Essentially you want the collections Ficciones or Labyrinths... after that you want Dreamtigers or El Hacedor)

The Aleph
The Maker
The Book of Sand
etc...