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Re: Best VN short story (fwd)
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From: "Welch, Rodney" <RWelch@SCES.ORG>
Glad my question has sparked some responses; I really must take
anoher look at "A Visit to the Museum."
I also most heartily agree with Mr. Asmussen's sentiments regarding
"Signs and Symbols," to which I add only this -- it's really short. The best
short stories do a lot in a small space. Updike said on the Charlie Rose
show that he rejected James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" because it went on far
too long for what it accomplished. I think it pays to keep that in mind as a
standard when judging stories.
Like Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," Cheever's "The Five
Forty-Eight," and Kafka's "the Country Doctor," "Signs and Symbols" is a
virtuouso performances where brevity is absolutely key. The result in each
case is the literary equivalent of a swift, clean, knockout punch.
I've always been especially touched by the description of the
mother: "Unlike other women of her age (such as Mrs. Sol, their next-door
neighbor, whose face was pink and mauve with paint and whose hat was a
cluster of brookside flowers), she presented a naked white countenance to
the fault-finding light of spring days."
That parallel says it all, doesn't it?
Rodney Welch
Columbia, SC
Glad my question has sparked some responses; I really must take
anoher look at "A Visit to the Museum."
I also most heartily agree with Mr. Asmussen's sentiments regarding
"Signs and Symbols," to which I add only this -- it's really short. The best
short stories do a lot in a small space. Updike said on the Charlie Rose
show that he rejected James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" because it went on far
too long for what it accomplished. I think it pays to keep that in mind as a
standard when judging stories.
Like Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," Cheever's "The Five
Forty-Eight," and Kafka's "the Country Doctor," "Signs and Symbols" is a
virtuouso performances where brevity is absolutely key. The result in each
case is the literary equivalent of a swift, clean, knockout punch.
I've always been especially touched by the description of the
mother: "Unlike other women of her age (such as Mrs. Sol, their next-door
neighbor, whose face was pink and mauve with paint and whose hat was a
cluster of brookside flowers), she presented a naked white countenance to
the fault-finding light of spring days."
That parallel says it all, doesn't it?
Rodney Welch
Columbia, SC