Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Fifty Really Short Stories

I have been a fan of Flash Fiction for years. There is no place or event that I can not pull this little gem out & catch a few pages. Most stories ARE just a page or one & a half. There are some WOW stories, some OMGoodness stories & some OK stories. I wish there was a yearly one. Well worth the few bucks for it!

There's some really brilliant and engaging work in this, and even the worst of it is worthwhile. It's an ideal introduction to the possibilities of this rapidly emerging genre.

Most of the stories in this collection are rather esoteric. I'll comment on a few favorites, though: --"Wrong Channel" by Roberto Fernandez is about a Hispanic immigrant who confuses TB with TV. --"All This" by Joanne Avallon explains the cycle of child abuse in a single run-on sentence. --"Chickens" by Elaine Magarrell is about a yardful of chickens whose lives are prolonged by a supernatural entity of their own species. --"Waiting" by Peggy McNally is about a substitute teacher who finds it difficult to become engrossed in her work. Like "All This," the story is reduced to one compound-complex sentence. The entire book can be read in a few hours.

There is something peculiarly strange and enticing about a 250 word or less short story, which is what Micro-Fiction is all about. Nietzsche said, "It is my ambition to say in ten sentences; what others say in a whole book." and this pocket-sized book quite nearly delivers on that idea. With the several great stories compiled here, amongst the run of the mill good ones and not so good, one obtains the euphoria of having read a novel but in several short minutes. That's the novelty as well as the sticking point that makes it worthwhile. Through a stilting of character build-up and plot formation the reader is treated to and surfeited with a story-line and climax without the usual bombast and self-serving rhetoric which encompasses many novels. I'm a great believer in the economy of words and saving the reader unnecessary heavy eye-work on tedious detail and this fits the bill. Although some of the fictions are amorphic and seemingly without any structure, they seem to be the most enticing, at least to me. But the majority present a story-line, often novel, which are to the point and leave the reader with a stamped impression and miles of possibility for examining what led what to where and why and how. In the back cover synopsis the reader is asked to ponder, "How short can a Micro be,..." and then challenges them to find out, "Look up Amy Hempel's contribution(which there are two), and you'll see." And see you will:HostessShe swallowed Gore Vidal. Then she swallowed Donald Trump. She took a blue capsule and a gold spansule--a B-complex and an E--and put them on the tablecloth a few inches apart. She pointed the one at the other. "Martha Stewart," she said, "meet Oprah Winfrey."She swallowed them both without water.--Amy HempelOf the several series of minimalist fiction in print (Sudden Fiction, Flash Fiction, etc.) I found this volume the most satisfying as well as the one I came back to the most. In fact when I was done reading it through the first time I did several internet searches to see if I could uncover more similar works. Sadly, with the passing of the editor and brainchild behind the collection back in 1996, the sub-genre has seemingly been left behind. Let's hope there is a revival and a subsequent significant publication(s) to follow.

Stern provides an introduction relating short-shorts and micro-shorts to teaching tales, fables, jokes and similar short tales with ancient roots both in literary and oral cultures. In doing so, he takes the short-short out of "current fads" and puts it into legitimate literature.His collection is based on a limit originally of 250 words, raised to 300 - micros not just short-shorts. The collection gleaned from contests is a very mixed bag - some tales are memorable, some interesting and forgetable, a handful you wonder how they made the cut. These fall into the normal percentages that an anthology normally presents.Memorable tales: The Poet's Husband by Mollie Giles - a wry look at listening to your spouse's confessional poetry. The Halo by Michael McFee - the difficulties (and solutions) to raising Jesus. Worry by Ron Wallace - observations on worry as a dominate family member. Painted Devils by Fred Chappell - a friendship in trench and safety.A few of the tales strike be as character sketches not narratives; a few seem to have been squished and mangled into a contest form rather than allow the tale to dictate its form. But given all that, this is a pleasant introduction to the smallest of the small.

Since I'm required to teach both poetry and fiction in my university intro class, this book provided a very logical bridge between the two genres and gave students excellent examples of how to sharpen their perception and language to fit a very small space. We've also enjoyed the variety of voices in this dynamite little text.