What characterises a short story (besides length)? To be honest, I think that length IS the unifying feature of all short stories. Obvious, I know. Perhaps you could say that a short story is to a novel what a haiku is to a sonnet. I believe the short story lends itself to a punchier narrative; something more surprising, rapid, persuasive. The nature of the short story means the author must squeeze at their world and characters, getting all their words worth of content. Most of the time, short stories aren’t read in isolation.
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez fosters the unique energy of the anthology. We love a ghost story. Don’t we? A visceral collection of Argentinian horror; Enriquez’ book has an unnerving energy to it that you can’t quite shake. Set in Argentina, her familiar literary landscape provides the cultural vibrancy -rich in urban legend, political history, mysticism, catholic imagery and folk horror- to sow the seed of fear. This fear creates good horror; being at once scary, possible and unknown is a difficult thing to achieve. From being haunted by the bones of a dead child, to burning alive due to a banal accident, Enrqiuez uses the language and themes of the body to pull us into the narrative. We all share the experience of a body. Enriquez asks us, what happens when it is used against us?
Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s and Three Stories is often forgotten as having those three more stories. In my opinion, Tiffany’s is by no means the star of the four. The other narratives complement Tiffany’s story beautifully. They speak to the nature of loss and freedom. Dimond guitars on the road to prison escape, and a struggling prostitute under the spells of a rural grandmother should be expected amongst the weird and wonderful world of Capote’s imagination. He paints real characters, with a striking relatability; giving men and woman alike that true flair to the human soul that is often lost to the writers voice. Snappy, seamless dialogue and generous setting descriptions makes it feels like he lets his characters live for their own reasons; reminding us, that, is what freedom is.
These anthologies may be unified under a broad genre like horror, or theme, such as quest for liberation. But the relative freedom for an author to write a completely different story, within the same book universe, genre or general vibe of narrative is what lends the short story its power. Only recently have we been allowed to distil epic tales into one long text. Perhaps the anthology is a more honest form of communication from this point of view. Modern short stories share ancestry with spoken folk tales, vignettes and sketches. That’s why I like short stories. They feel like I am in the dark, round the fire with my fellow humans, listening to tales that could be true.
Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash
