Some Like It Short

I wouldn’t call myself a fan of short stories. They often seem too short and commonly end abruptly with a “ta-da!” that I just don’t get.

Reading stories that inspired films, such as Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain” or F.X. Toole’s “Rope Burns,” only adds to this feeling of inadequacy: No more evidence is needed as to why I am a librarian and not a world-famous movie director.

Of course, there are exceptions. I loved the stories in Andrea Barrett’s “Ship Fever,” and one of my all-time favorite quotes comes from “The Year of Getting to Know Us” in Ethan Canin’s collection “Emperor of the Air.”

I was so taken with the geek’s world view explored in the unusual collection “On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction” by robotics engineer Karl Iagnemma that I bought my own copy and insisted that my book group read it.

And now I have discovered two new must-read collections in our new book room.
The first, “Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes” by Daniel Kehlmann, is a translation; the author writes in German and has won many prizes in Europe. This one is not, in my opinion, really a “novel” but rather a series of interconnected stories. Though the translation seems accurate, I would say the stories are more about “identity” — who we think we are, who we wish we were, who we want to become.

The first story concerns a man who is badgered by his family into getting a cell phone. He then begins getting calls for someone else. After several futile attempts to correct this situation — “simply couldn’t happen,” says customer service — he gives up and starts playing with this new identity.

Eight connected episodes follow, all exploring similar themes of recognition, identity and, yes, fame.

A novelist’s girlfriend is fearful of finding herself in one of his works, while a blogger is obsessed with getting himself into a novel. A famous actor’s phone falls suddenly silent; a substitute speaker for a well-known author finds herself trapped forever in a Kafkaesque absurdity.

These stories are pure fun; their ties are clever but never strain credulity. The author, with two previous novels, is a young man to watch.

The second collection is one of pure enjoyment. Anthony Doerr’s “Memory Wall: Stories” includes several prize-winning stories and has recently appeared on the New York Times and Amazon Best Books for 2010 lists.

That’s not why you should read this book; you should read it because it is just plain wonderful. The stories all relate to memory and the way that memory — or its absence — shapes our lives. Otherwise, these stories are wide-ranging.

There is one wildly imaginative story set in South Africa that suggests possible future treatments for memory loss that come with some interesting unintended consequences.Another explores the reaction of an aging Chinese woman to the news that her ancestral village is slated for extinction by a new and glorious dam. Her son is in charge of the evacuation.

Doerr, who resides in Idaho, writes primarily short stories, and he has the requisite skill for creating characters with just a few strokes. What struck me most, though, about these stories was the compassion and tenderness with which he presents his characters. The maturity and depth revealed seemed unusual for an author not yet 40.

I read “Memory Wall” over the Thanksgiving holiday and thought, what a marvelous collection this is for the season. The characters are real — they are people dealing with real everyday problems: loss, infertility, homesickness, decline and regret. But the outcomes are hopeful, uplifting and equally real.

I haven’t encountered many collections where I loved each and every story, but in this one I did. It is a perfect antidote to the dark, cold nights ahead.

Perhaps I’m a fan of short stories after all.

Photo by myphotosshare (Creative Commons)