Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories

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Overview

How short can a story be and still truly be a story? This volume of seventy-two very short fictions, none much more than 750 words in length, demonstrates to our repeated satisfaction that less can be more, small can stand tall, and the diminutive can be dynamically and dramatically complete. Here for enjoyment and study are very short pieces by acknowledged modern masters--including Raymond Carver, Richard Brautigan, Margaret Atwood, Julio Cortazar and Tim O'Brien--as well as fiction by newer talents, who have embraced the short form with much gusto and considerable grace. With a rich variety of stories and authors, subjects and styles and sensibilities, these flashes of fiction make for eclectic--and often electric--
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More About This Book

Overview

How short can a story be and still truly be a story? This volume of seventy-two very short fictions, none much more than 750 words in length, demonstrates to our repeated satisfaction that less can be more, small can stand tall, and the diminutive can be dynamically and dramatically complete. Here for enjoyment and study are very short pieces by acknowledged modern masters--including Raymond Carver, Richard Brautigan, Margaret Atwood, Julio Cortazar and Tim O'Brien--as well as fiction by newer talents, who have embraced the short form with much gusto and considerable grace. With a rich variety of stories and authors, subjects and styles and sensibilities, these flashes of fiction make for eclectic--and often electric-- reading. The volume is a must for readers and writers, indeed for anyone interested in the finely sharpened edge of contemporary literature.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
In this collection of 72 previously published stories--none longer than 750 words--Raymond Carver, Luisa Valenzuela, Margaret Atwood and John Updike mingle with talented lesser knowns to form a marvelously varied bouquet. Bruce Holland Rogers describes a man who pours his unrequited love into a poem comparing his beloved's thunderously exhilarating effect on him to ``the Burlington Northern southbound out of Fort Collins.'' In Julia Alvarez's tale, set during the Cuban missile crisis, a young immigrant girl panics when she spots deadly fallout--until she learns it is snow, each flake unique, like a person. A man looking at an old photo of his parents sees not the second of promise captured on paper but the tragic consequences 20 years in the future, in Paul Lisicky's work. And Allan Gurganus's narrator shows that ``despite persistent rumors to the contrary, my grandfather did not die driving a Toyota across his pond'' in an attempt to prove the excellence of this car, for which he had conceived a bizarre passion. Savor this collection one minute at a time. James Thomas and Denise Thomas edit The Best of the West series; Hazuka is fiction editor of Quarterly West . (July)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780393308839
  • Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
  • Publication date: 7/28/1992
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 176
  • Sales rank: 199,807
  • Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 0.60 (d)

Meet the Author

Tom Hazuka has co-edited Flash Fiction and You Have Time for This, and other anthologies. He teaches fiction writing at Central Connecticut State University.

James and Denise Thomas live in Ohio, where he teaches at Wright State University.

James Thomas teaches literature and creative writing in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and co-edited Flash Fiction Forward.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11
Brilliant Silence 17
Pumpkins 19
The Stones 23
The One Sitting There 25
Crossing Spider Creek 28
The Lampshade Vendor 31
Roseville 34
Pendergast's Daughter 37
Ponderosa 39
Gold Coast 41
Mr. Mumsford 44
From the Floodlands 47
A Public Denial 50
232-9979 53
The Father 56
Love Poems 59
Night 61
Mandy Shupe 63
Wedding Night 66
The Appalachian Trail 69
Dinner Time 72
Vision Out of the Comer of One Eye 75
I Get Smart 77
True Love 81
The Colonel 84
Snow 86
Everything Is Green 88
Draft Horse 91
Corporal 94
Subtotals 97
Fingers 100
Nadine at 35: A Synopsis 102
Feeding the Hungry 105
Dish Night 108
Grace Period 111
The Haircut 114
Vines 117
How to Touch a Bleeding Dog 120
Girl 123
The Burlington Northern, Southbound 126
The Cage 128
The Restraints 131
Blackberries 134
A Continuity of Parks 137
The Paring Knife 140
The Widow 142
What Happened during the Ice Storm 146
Teddy's Canary 148
The Nicest Kid in the Universe 152
The Parents 155
Water 157
Stockings 159
The Hurricane Ride 161
A Moment in the Sun Field 163
The Philosophical Cobbler 165
Corners 167
Space 170
Fear: Four Examples 173
The Last Parakeet 176
Snapshot, Harvey Cedars: 1948 179
August Evening 181
The Factory 184
The Sewers of Salt Lake 187
Jane 191
Offerings 194
Bread 198
Yogurt 201
A Chronicler's Sin 203
Here 205
Here's Another Ending 209
108 John Street 211
Deportation at Breakfast 213

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Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 25, 2000

    A Blast!

    Flash Fiction is a blast! There are 72 wonderfully brief pieces here. This anthology allows for many writers to publish things that just won't appear anywhere else. Something that could be just a throwaway idea can be scribbled out in a few short sentences, paragraphs, or pages.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 2, 2004

    Short People ?

    It's daunting to review a book with 75 authors. I would like to give some general remarks. The shortest story has 185 words ('Water' by Fred Leebron). I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because very short stories are not really my cup of tea. I need time to get a grip on the story and the characters and this is difficult for me with a very short story. There are also a few stories included by foreign writers like Roland Topor, Heinrich Boll and Julio Cortazar. It's a little bit surprising that Sam Shepard is not included. Though he's mainly a playwright, he has some outstanding very short stories. This collection comes in handy when you like to read something in bed before you go to sleep.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 10, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

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