I'm sure I've written before about my long-standing distaste for short stories. It probably stemmed from early adolescence, when I was forced to read 'The Gift of the Magi' one time too many. All of the awful short stories that English teachers make kids read give the impression that all short stories must have some kind of macabre, twist ending. As an adult, I skipped over the short story in every issue of The New Yorker, and it wasn't until I read George Saunders that I really started to enjoy them.

I'm not too proud to confess that I bought The Collected Short Stories of Lydia Davis purely for its aesthetic appeal: it's tiny and thick and the most beautiful blushy-orange color. It looks extremely satisfying on my nightstand, and I'm really enjoying the slow process of consuming it. Some stories are as short as a paragraph or a even a sentence, so it's hard to recommend to short story skeptics like myself, because Davis' stories are an exercise in the dismantling of the genre. Even so, for those who never found short stories appealing, the fact that her collection is so very different may be precisely what converts you.

Embarrassing as it is to admit now, I was a short story skeptic for the better part of my literate life. I am not an English teacher and really have no proposal for improvement, but I think my hatred stemmed from the way short stories were incorporated into English curriculum (i.e., poorly). As an adult, I finally dipped my toes in the short story water with George Saunders, and shortly thereafter, Karen Russell. She makes for a good liaison in that she has published both short story collections as well as a novel and an e-book novella; whatever your fancy, she will help convert you. I started with Vampires in the Lemon Grove, her most recent story collection that was picked for our book club. It yielded one of our best discussions, and surprisingly everyone had a different favorite. I have yet to dig in to her other work, but I have a copy of her first story collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves in my stack, and I’m anxious to get my hands on the much-lauded Swamplandia. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to read her e-book, as I’m a book fetishist and a total luddite when it comes to e-readers, but I love her writing enough to figure it out. So then Karen Russell will have converted me into a lover of short stories AND a user of e-readers, two impressive feats. Did I mention she is young, beautiful, a prolific writer (4 books in 6 years) and now a MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ recipient?