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"How short can a story be and still truly be a story? This volume of seventy-two very short fictions, none much more than 750 words in length, demonstrates to our repeated satisfaction that less can be more, small can stand tall, and the diminutive can be dynamically and dramatically complete. Here for enjoyment and study are very short pieces by acknowledged modern masters -- including Raymond Carver, Richard Brautigan, Margaret Atwood, Julio Cortázar and Tim O'Brien -- as well as fiction by newer talents, who have embraced the short form with much gusto and considerable grace. With a rich variety of stories and authors, subjects and styles and sensibilities, these flashes of fiction make for eclectic -- and often electric -- reading. The volume is a must for readers and writers, indeed for anyone interested in the finely sharpened edge of contemporary literature"--Jacket.… (more)
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To the credit of the editors, they've picked a number of great pieces that really fit the flash fiction criteria. The pieces that don't are either staples (like Carolyn Forche's prose poem about dinner with Castro) or that are interesting enough that genre definitions don't matter (Russell Edson, for example). The ordering is wacky at time but the overall collection makes up for it.
For people hesitant to approach new genres like this, the editors have included a lot of recognizable names. All in all, it's a good anthology-- accessable, cheap, and it represents a wide variety of styles.
It was the German playwright Goethe who succinctly captured the route towards creativity when he said,
‘One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read
This book is a way to glimpse a little of the unusual and unexpected. In just over 200 pages it presents over 70 very short stories by different authors. The styles and subjects very greatly, yet each fits into no more than a couple of pages and each has the potential to spark a new thought, or create a new step on your journey.
Who could reasonably ask for more.
But as James Thomas shows in this 1992 anthology, flash fiction can be a respectable genre that is not only daring, but stories in the same way longer stories are, with affect and the ability to leave an imprint on the reader's mind. Overall, the anthology shows that flash stories--these stories with less than 1000 words--can be full stories, all the same, and maybe perhaps more.
The anthology includes many stories that are considered by now modern classics by authors who have made footprints in the literary sands. Among them are Francine Prose, Raymond Carver, and Maragret Atwood, just to name a few outstanding pieces. These stories in particular show writers of short prose taking chances with shorter forms, with the results not unlike their masterpieces. FOr example, Raymond Carver's "The Father" shows the king of minimalism at his most minimalist, in a story about adultry and distrust--all of which implied--in a matter of three pages (only one of which is full).
Also of note here are the writers who are not so well known. These are really the treasure pieces of the book. Among them are Carol Edelstein, Richard Shelton, Jo Sapp, as well as foregin authors such as Pavo Pavlicic and Luisa Valenzuela. These are especially prizes since some of these works are no longer in print.
The collection as a whole is something to be cherished, for it is one of the few in its genre. Yet for one of the few, it does a splendid job: gathered here are short, short stories, but full stories nonetheless that capture perfectly the power of language to linger in the head. The only complaint is that this collection is too old, yet can we say: classic? Jame Thomas's anthology, is indeed a classic in the genre, and needs to be read as soon as possible for anyone thinking of writing flash fiction, especially those seeing it as an easy way to get published. The collection shows that flash fiction can be just as complex and spellbinding.
The publishing scene needs more books like this.
"Deportation at Breakfast" by Larry Fondation is one of my favorites; in
One interesting thing is there are not a lot of big names in this collection. Looking through the authors, I recognized the names of only seven.