In this essay, shortlisted for the 2017 THRESHOLDS International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition, MORGAN OMOTOYE is reminded of the power of the short story in Jennifer Egan’s ‘Why China?’: ‘While reading ‘Why China?’ I was a sad-sack stock trader, a sculptor, a globe trotting criminal, an ‘Asian woman in a collegiate headband’ and a twelve-year-old girl. Egan’s skill lies in presenting the immediacy of these lives in moments of duress and transformation. While I read there were no walls, no borders, no barriers between what these characters made me feel and think. I was me and also not only me…’
NAFISA MUHTADI discovers the power of ugly prose: ‘The more I read short stories that are written in the lyrical style beloved by some competition judges, the more I crave ugliness in prose. Poetic narratives with windswept thoughts lyrically describing landscapes, rivers and seas are not for me…’
‘I have come across quite a few such readers who react vehemently to the Saunders worldview. They wonder why he bends the moral situation so far that it almost breaks. But some, like me, may beg to differ…’ JOSE VARGHESE takes us into the intricacies of George Saunders’ ‘Escape from Spiderhead’.
‘From the story’s opening, there has always been violence lurking at the periphery, like the many tentacled horrors of a story by Lovecraft…’ MORGAN OMOTOYE explores the darkness and beauty of Denis Johnson’s short story ‘Two Men’.
JULIET WEST ponders the role of women in George Saunders’ latest collection, Tenth of December: ‘I marvelled at the breakneck prose, the dark humour, the searing satire on Western consumerism. Yet, as I read, I began to experience an increasing sense of unease. At times, I felt as if I had landed in the fantasy world of a deviant male adolescent…’
THRESHOLDS EXCLUSIVE: Guardian columnist and short story writer Chris Power discusses the state of the short story and why the dominant narrative of imminent death or blazing renaissance should be rejected…
‘When it comes to reading short stories, I’d prefer not to. As a premise for a piece submitted to a site promoting the short story, this is not a hugely promising start. But bear with me…’ CHARLES DAVIS discusses the short story form.
