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danahuff's review against another edition
5.0
This book is an excellent short story collection, but what I like the most is that the selections are paired with reflections in the writers' own works about their writing and philosophy of writing. The back of the book has some excellent ancillary material that is helpful to students. Highly recommended.
deborahrosereeves's review against another edition
4.0
In the spirit of Emerson who said "First we read, then we write", I picked up The Art of the Short Story. I'm learning so much from all who have gone before me. It can be intimidating, how can I hope to follow...? My favourite thing about this book is that each author is presented in three parts: a Biographical Sketch; an example of their work; and their perspective on why and how they write, the difficulties and pain involved... This section gives me hope. Everyone struggles, no-one finds it easy, every "great" was once a novice who looked to the "greats" before them...
snazel's review against another edition
The lit-fic aesthetic is really not my favourite.
allisonhollingsworth's review against another edition
5.0
Haven't read all of it, but will come back to it later. I read it for one of my classes!
mraible18's review against another edition
5.0
This was the reader that went along with my Intermediate Fiction Writing class this semester. We would read a story a week and respond to it. I really enjoyed the stories anthologized here and was definitely introduced to some new authors whose writing I really enjoy!
jpbehrens's review against another edition
3.0
So, my rating is entirely based on the job the editors did. The fiction is masterful, a glance down the Table of Contents will affirm that.
My issues with this collection are these:
The authors are arranged alphabetically. Normally this would not be an issue, however, the book’s stated purpose is to show the art of the short story. Most of the bios reference other authors featured in the book as influential to how later authors write. It’s jarring to bounce through time. The works should have been arranged chronologically. If you pick up this book, go by the dates and bounce around in the book. You will learn more.
Next, the author’s perspectives at the end of each section are not as informative, inspirational, or useful as one would hope. Most are interesting as a look into an authors personal perspectives, but few have any real advice for writers.
Finally, the end matter of the book is directed at college students and reads as a 101 level writing textbook.
All of the collected authors should be read, only this collection is organized is a way that causes confusion at times and deep shifts is readability slipping from modern Magical Realism to turn of the century dark parables and back.
My issues with this collection are these:
The authors are arranged alphabetically. Normally this would not be an issue, however, the book’s stated purpose is to show the art of the short story. Most of the bios reference other authors featured in the book as influential to how later authors write. It’s jarring to bounce through time. The works should have been arranged chronologically. If you pick up this book, go by the dates and bounce around in the book. You will learn more.
Next, the author’s perspectives at the end of each section are not as informative, inspirational, or useful as one would hope. Most are interesting as a look into an authors personal perspectives, but few have any real advice for writers.
Finally, the end matter of the book is directed at college students and reads as a 101 level writing textbook.
All of the collected authors should be read, only this collection is organized is a way that causes confusion at times and deep shifts is readability slipping from modern Magical Realism to turn of the century dark parables and back.
bufally47's review against another edition
3.0
I think I read 55ish of the 61 stories in here. The editors tried as hard as white men can to provide an array of diversity in authors but I still felt stifled, perhaps because the overwhelming majority of the stories seemed to come from the 1920s - 60s. I would have ordered things differently, and not included a picture of goddamn Ernest Hemingway at the introduction.
Several selections were exactly what I'd desired: pieces that say something new and profound by authors who excel at their craft but who have been mostly overlooked. Ha Jin, Katherine Mansfield, and Yukio Mishima especially stuck out. Unfortunately I first had to trudge through Stephen Crane, F. Scott Fitzgerald (whom I no longer respect), John Cheever, Hawthorne, Hemingway, London, etc.
This is one of the few books I purchased rather than got from the library because of its size and scope, but also because of its -- ultimately empty -- promise of "advice from 52 of the world's most acclaimed writers" on plot, character, style, and suspense. Yeah, no. More like ramblings on life philosophies, responses to critics (#dontcare), and meaningless drivel in the vein of "when plot becomes the outward manifestation of the very germ of the story, then in its purest -- then the narrative thread is least objectionable, then it is not in the way" (Eudora Welty).
Still, they did include Borges, Joyce's The Dead, and opened me up to the magnificent D.H. Lawrence. Also, although her spiel was supposedly on suspense and offered no advice about that specifically, I loved this gem from Flannery O'Connor: "...in my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace."
So this compilation has its pros and cons and when all is said and done seems above average, but the Goodreads ratings overall are too generous.
Several selections were exactly what I'd desired: pieces that say something new and profound by authors who excel at their craft but who have been mostly overlooked. Ha Jin, Katherine Mansfield, and Yukio Mishima especially stuck out. Unfortunately I first had to trudge through Stephen Crane, F. Scott Fitzgerald (whom I no longer respect), John Cheever, Hawthorne, Hemingway, London, etc.
This is one of the few books I purchased rather than got from the library because of its size and scope, but also because of its -- ultimately empty -- promise of "advice from 52 of the world's most acclaimed writers" on plot, character, style, and suspense. Yeah, no. More like ramblings on life philosophies, responses to critics (#dontcare), and meaningless drivel in the vein of "when plot becomes the outward manifestation of the very germ of the story, then in its purest -- then the narrative thread is least objectionable, then it is not in the way" (Eudora Welty).
Still, they did include Borges, Joyce's The Dead, and opened me up to the magnificent D.H. Lawrence. Also, although her spiel was supposedly on suspense and offered no advice about that specifically, I loved this gem from Flannery O'Connor: "...in my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace."
So this compilation has its pros and cons and when all is said and done seems above average, but the Goodreads ratings overall are too generous.
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