(The joke of "To Build a Fire" is that it was originally written as a children's story, and was considerably less dark than its current format. I twas actually rewritten for publication twice, and the version we read today is the darkest version.)
I can occasionally find mainstream short story collections a slog, especially if there is no unifying theme or principle -- it's like sitting at table with no idea what the next course will be. Also, for some reason the dominant paradigm of mainstream story stories right now seems to be kind of -- dull, to me. I can't really describe how, just, it's rare that a short story outside the genre really turns my thumbscrews, whereas recent mainstream novels have worked well. Maybe I'm crappy at picking short stories?
Shirley Jackson is a great short story writer, beyond "The Lottery." I would tell you why, but I am full of snot and cold medicine.
But I love her! And her novels are so short -- she really gets the most out atmosphere and characters in a compact form.
Yeah, she's an excellent economical writer. A more recent novel in her style is Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, which is a great piece of mundane horror from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator. The other two Banks novels I've read were terrible, though.
Song of Stone was one, but I can't recall the name of the other one offhand.
I'm completely wrong. A quick glance at his novels tells me that it was The Business, and I remember enjoying that one quite a bit.
The other one is probably
The Algebraist.
I picked it up at the library based on the jacket blurbs. I got ten pages into it and gave up in disgust.
I'm completely wrong. A quick glance at his novels tells me that it was The Business, and I remember enjoying that one quite a bit.
I quite enjoyed The Business myself, though I think Whit is my favourite (after The Wasp Factory). A Song of Stone hit me pretty hard, but I couldn't say I enjoyed it. I'm still not sure what I think of it. The other Banks I've read was The Crow Road, which never really grabbed me. It felt rather bland compared to his other work.
A Song of Stone just pissed me off with all the relentless nihilism. Since The Big Lebowski, relentless nihilism is just so played, y'know?
According to the site I looked at a minute ago, Banks actually uses his middle initial when writing science fiction, and The Algebraist is one of those. Why he feels compelled to ghettoize his own writing is beyond me.
