Has anyone else read Karen Russell's first book of short stories, St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves?
Really imaginative, interesting, and genuinely inspiring short stories (not as in "inspirational writing" but they're so good I immediately picked up a pen when I was finished with them).
Does anyone know of other semi-surrealist short stories I can dig my teeth into? I've been gobbling up a lot of brain research oriented books like The Midnight Disease and The Man Who Tasted Shapes, and such, but it seems the short story format tends to get me writing more
― Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Thursday, 21 December 2006 00:59 (nineteen years ago)
There's a collection of Kharms translations here:
http://www.sevaj.dk/kharms/kharmseng.htmI had a wee Kharms kick last year, when I somehow stumbled into a collection of Norwegian translations of his work. Great stuff. I don't understand it at all, but that's nothing new.
― Øystein (Øystein), Thursday, 21 December 2006 07:35 (nineteen years ago)
There's also a new book of that era Soviet writings, translated by Eugene Ostashevsky and the dude who runs Ugly Duckling Presse [Mitvai something?]. I don't have it but I flipped through it, it seemed interesting.
― Casuistry (casuistry), Thursday, 21 December 2006 07:49 (nineteen years ago)
I second the Saunders and the Barthelme, for what it's worth. And there's a book called 'The Suicide Kit' from a few years back, whose author I have forgotten, which also fits the bill.
― James Morrison (James Morrison), Thursday, 21 December 2006 23:11 (nineteen years ago)
Also, maybe the short stories of Gene Wolfe?
― James Morrison (James Morrison), Thursday, 21 December 2006 23:11 (nineteen years ago)
Wholeheartedly second the short stories of Kelly Link. Fantastical, dreamlike, sensual, cruel and oddly matter-of-fact. Cool stuff. I enjoyed her first collection,
"Stranger Things Happen" a lot more than the more recent "Magic For Beginners", but they're both worth reading.
Steven Millhauser's "The Knife Thrower" is another great collection of strange, ethereal, vaguely fantastical short stories that steadfastly resist any kind of genre classification. They're somewhat like Link's stories in that they come at you out of the fog and dissipate before you can really grab hold of them, but they're much drier and less humane. Millhauser trades in icy intellectual detachment, where Link is curious and playful.
And, of course, you've GOTTA read Angela Carter's amazing collection of reimagined fairy tales, "The Bloody Chamber". A short book of even shorter stories, this is one of my favorite books of ever, ever. With lots of exclamation points. Wild, subversive, sexy, smart and gorgeous.
Also:
Jorge Luis Borges - everything, but especially "Labyrinths" (= best book ever)
Stanislaw Lem - "The Cyberiad"
Anne Carson - "The Autobiography of Red" (a novel in verse, but hey, it's pretty short)
Italo Calvino - "Invisible Cities"
Robert Coover - "Stepmother" (another super short novel, bear with me)
― adam beales (pye poudre), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 23:06 (nineteen years ago)