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Diary of an Interesting Year by Helen Simpson Short Story Analysis
“Diary of an Interesting Year” by Helen Simpson is a science fiction short story and the final story in her collection In-flight Entertainment. This story is written in diary format and is a critique of the apocalyptic dystopian genre. “Interesting” of the title is classic understatement. The comedy achieved by the irony and satire in this story is dark. FEATURES…
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See Saw by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“See Saw” is a short story by Katherine Mansfield, published 1919. Before Katherine Mansfield (and similar writers e.g. Chekhov) came along, stories were all about storytelling. The whole point of telling a story: To immerse the reader in a fascinating event, to paint a picture of setting and character, and possibly to teach readers a life lesson without forcing them…
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Carnation by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“Carnation” (1918) is a short story by Katherine Mansfield, included in her Something Childish collection. I like this one very much — a rare story of blossoming female friendship. SETTING OF “CARNATION” Mansfield often opens stories in medias res and grounds us in the setting: On those hot days The entire story takes place in a French classroom at a…
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Up At A Villa by Helen Simpson Short Story Analysis
“Up At A Villa” is a short story by Helen Simpson, opening her 2011 collection In-flight Entertainment. This is a lyrical short story full of symbolism. Cover copy tells us to expect work a la Alice Munro. Of all the stories here, the images in “Up At A Villa” are most reminiscent of Munro — young and old are juxtaposed,…
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Two Types Of Short Stories
Length aside, short stories are not like other works. There is something just… different about them. This difference is not about length; it’s about function. However, some stories function no differently from a novel. They’re simply… shorter. This post is an exploration of the qualitative differences between what we might call The Literary Short Story compared to short narratives enjoyed…
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In-flight Entertainment by Helen Simpson Analysis
“In-flight Entertainment” is a short story by Helen Simpson, published in her 2010 collection of the same name.
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Something Childish But Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“Something Childish But Very Natural” is a short story by Katherine Mansfield, published 1913, 1924. The story is named after a poem Harry reads in the book-stall. The poem is by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This poem provides Mansfield’s re-visioning with a nutshell emotional arc:
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How To Write Like Alice Munro
**UPDATE LATE 2024** After Alice Munro died, we learned about the real ‘open secrets’ (not so open to those of us not in the loop) which dominated the author’s life. We must now find a way to live with the reality that Munro’s work reads very differently after knowing certain decisions she made when faced with a moral dilemma. For…
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Tricks by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
I have a soft spot for short stories about spinsters about town, enjoying their passions in solitary fashion. “Tricks” by Alice Munro calls to mind Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill”, especially after mention of the symbolic scarf: Miss Brill, you may recall, wears a fur. Robin of Munro’s story “Tricks” does not; she is instead disturbed by someone else’s fox scarf…
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Powers by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“Powers” is the final story in the Runaway collection by Alice Munro, published 2004. I find this story the most challenging of the lot — as in, what in holy heck was that all about? I’m going to have to write about “Powers” in order to understand it. Here goes my best shot. What can we learn about storytelling from…
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Pictures by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“Pictures” is a short story by Katherine Mansfield, published 1919. The London Evening Standard said of the story ‘it is stark realism from first word to last and yet it gives an impression of infinite understanding and pity’. The character Ada Moss was inspired by a woman Mansfield met three years earlier. They had sat in the same cinema. We…
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Trespasses by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“Trespasses” is a short story by Canadian author Alice Munro, included in the collection Runaway, published 2006. This piece might challenge everything you’ve learned about how to structure a story. All the parts are there, but not as you’d expect. If Alice Munro had anonymously joined one of my writing critique groups over the years, she may well have been…
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Graduation Afternoon by Stephen King Short Story Analysis
“Just After Sunset” is a 2007 short story by Stephen King. This 9/11 story was first published in Postscripts Magazine.
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Blackberries by Thomas Kenneally Short Story Analysis
“Blackberries” is a short story by Thomas Keneally, included in an anthology I got free when buying another book at Dymocks back in 2009. Allen and Unwin have since released a number of short stories from big name Australian authors as eBooks, including “Blackberries”, available for a couple of bucks each.
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Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan Analysis
“Singing My Sister Down” is a horror short story by Australian author Margo Lanagan. Find it in Lanagan’s collection Black Juice, published by Allen and Unwin. Black Juice was published in 2004, but “Singing My Sister Down” has proven especially resonant with readers, anthologised numerous times since. “Singing My Sister Down” is now a modern Australian short story classic. Reading it…