Book Review – The World's Shortest Stories
An Extremely Disappointing Collection of 55-Words-Or-Less Fiction
As The World’s Shortest Stories (edited by Steve Moss, Running House, ISBN: 0762403004, 1998) is a collection based solely around word-count, one needs to think about the direct effect word-count has on flow, tone/voice, and the way the reader takes the story in. The number “28” counts as one word when written as a numeral, but counts as two when written out as “twenty-eight.” They mean the same thing, but the spelled-out version is much more mature, and carries more weight because it takes up more space on the page and is read as opposed to recalled.
Contractions, too, are obvious ways to gain an extra word. “He won’t go,” is three words. “He will not go,” is four. Again, they mean the same thing, but the former is conversational and the latter is more stated and hefty, taking up more room on the page as well as simply being the opposite of conversational.
The editor of the book suggests not “shortchanging yourself when writing with a word-limit.” To paraphrase, be frugal with the words. He fails to mention there’s a difference between economy of language and economy of voice. “Don’t shortchange either one,” is probably better advice.
Seeing the End of a Story
People read a story differently when they see the end, just as they do a paragraph or a sentence. Seeing the end from the very beginning clicks something in the brain. A natural sense of cadence, perhaps. Everything can arrive and leave in a single breath, a single page.
An attractive quality of minimalistic writing that floats around the 700-word mark is a lean towards the understated and the line between implication and assumption. It's something Raymond Carver does perfectly most of the time and Ernest Hemingway does perfectly some of the time.
Chekhov, in addition to being a smashing bore, can be either confusing or beautiful with his brevity. Even when Charles Bukowski was rambling, he was rambling in a quick and efficient manner. By putting their stories across a couple pages, they were able to draw the reader in before letting them know how close to the end he may be.
A 55-Word Story Is Possible, but Rarely Found In This Collection
These stories are far less than 700 words, and while a compelling, well-written narrative can be formed in 55 words, less than a dozen of the stories in this collection are worth reading. This is microfiction for dilettantes: adjectives stomp around and fluff-up what needs to be lean, single-sentence paragraphs try to squeeze depth out of vapid quirks and/or twist endings, melodramatics (a gun, a knife, a murder, etc.) replace structure.
None of these stories are well-written enough to earn foregoing a wind-up and a wind-down, and in doing so, they almost always end up making a gimmick out of a form that is, essentially, already a gimmick itself.
Collections That Show the Power of Short Short Fiction
Though this anthology is a failure, there are collections out there that show the power of short short fiction. A great starting place would be the collection Jerome Stern edited (Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories) or, for more bizarre fare, Donald Barthelme’s 40 Stories or the shorter selections from Woody Allen’s books. The Stern collection sets a 500-word limit (a lot of the stories are closer to 300 words) while Barthelme and Allen are more all-over the place in regards to word-count.
Sure, they’re not “the world’s shortest stories,” but a short-short story that’s brilliant is always going to be better than the shortest story that’s mediocre. This isn’t a race. This is art.
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