Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short-Short Stories

by James Thomas and Robert Shapard

Book Overview

Gathers stories by Julio Cortazar, Margaret Atwood, Colette, Heinrich Boil, Jorge Luis Borges, Doris Lessing, and Isak Dinesen. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393306135
• ISBN13: 9780393306132
• Release Date: October 1989
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

International Lightning Bottled Up

~~It's a great book to have. You can read it on the subway and chew on a few stories in one transit, or just scan the beginnings and look for what catches your eye, or you can curl up on a rainy day and devour the whole book. You can consider this book an appetizer to an entree of international literature. It whets the palate. There are some very good writers, from many cultures, and writing in many languages, with many types of stories. Rarely can you find such a wide range of talent in one book. There¡¯s Argentine Julio Cortazar¡¯s zany surrealism, Margaret Atwood of Canada with her bizarrely constructed feminist romance deconstruction, and Krishnan Varma of India with an exotic tale of poverty. Each of these stories is immensely different but all are captivating. Most stories are marvelous; they have no wasted words yet come with tightly woven plots and compelling characters. These stories are a marvel to see and a must for anyone interested in fiction. It's incredible how much depth and diversity is possible in such a short space. Mark Twain once said "the difference between the right word and almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." Here is lightning (and the bug?) bottled up.

A fine and comprehensive anthology

This is priceless collection of very short stories from all over the world.In this cosmopolitan range of stories many known authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez,Julio Cortazar,Heinrich Boll,Nadine Gordimer and Mrozeck are joined by those we will come to know better later by reading their well crafted short short stories.I have translated 37 of these collection into Farsi.The Farsi title is Dastan e Nagahan meaning Sudden Fiction.Thanks to the talented authors of this anthology and its fine predecessors,Sudden Fiction and other titles like Flash Fiction and Sudden Fiction Continued.I recommend the readers to buy this book and enjoy its taste in discovering a world wide scenery,multi cultural surprises and find new friends.The stories are indeed perfect for bed time reading

A feast of short international fare

A great book for those with short attention spans, short story writers (or aspiring short story writers), and those who want to see the variety of short shorts available. These stories are short but they have a sharp impact on the reader. The Afternotes section provides extra information about the author, which is often not included in short story collections. It also provides interviews with the authors on their inspiration for the story of theirs included in this volume and occasional interviews with translators on how they set about getting the most accurate translation of the story.

Something for EVERYONE

This is a great book to buy for someone who doesn't have the patience to read. There are some brilliant works in here, some of them only a few pages long. Leave it in the bathroom or somewhere else you have a captive audience. You just might turn someone on to reading.

Great short story collection

This anthology is an excellent source for learning about various cultures and also for pure entertainment. I have used this as a text in a graduate level course. The stories have universal themes and so can be savored by all. Some are culturally specific whereas others are about one culture. Many are slice of life stories..........Enjoy!