Misha's comments (member since Sep 15, 2009)

Misha's comments from the Short Story lovers group.

I read it as the woman in the story being scared of the possibility -- hope can be such a scary thing to feel, because it's so awful when it's ripped from us -- but the possibility being there nonetheless. I'd like to think that beyond the edges of the story, they have a coffee together. It's probably awkward and they don't know what to say and there's this underlying hum of yearning, but the possibility of the whole thing just grows and grows. I'm in love with possibility. Possibility is the best.

Jessica, I would consider your story "There's a War On" from A Robber in the House a story of hope and possibility. I'm kind of a sucker for the possibility of romance.

I hit a point around the middle where I realized every story was told with the same voice, regardless of whether the character was an elderly man just discovering his homosexuality or a runaway teenage female stripper. And I thought July worked a little too hard to be quirky. That was a bit annoying, but then the last few stories were so lovely and poignant and heart-wrenching that I ended up giving the book five stars despite the sagging middle. It's a collection that got under my skin and inspired me to do some writing of my own, so I think she earned the rave review from me despite the flaws.

Reading Etgar Keret's The Nimrod Flipout and Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You back to back inspired my current obsession with reading short stories. They're both excellent, and had me thinking about them for days after I finished.

I'm new to the group, and newly in love with short stories. I'm reading everything I can find. I'm leaning toward more recent writers at the moment -- Miranda July, Amy Hempel, Jhumpa Lahiri, Etgar Keret, Jonathan Lethem, Jessica Treat, Haruki Murakami. There are several others in my "to read" stack, but they escape my fingertips at the moment.

A couple of perennial favorites of mine are Ernest Hemingway and Ray Bradbury. I never get tired of reading them.

I'm especially enthralled with the short-short story because it takes so much skill to do it well. I'm in awe of a writer who can take me on a journey or sock me in the gut in just a few hundred or maybe a thousand words.