My interest in reading, and writing, short stories has been growing for years. It started with the five Dancing Priest novels, which provided an outlet for sections that were cut, or exploring ideas that were good in themselves but didn’t fit the larger story. In some cases, they were small spinoffs from that larger story. A few have appeared online; most have not.
But I found myself becoming increasingly interested in the short form of writing fiction. I’ve written several for the Cultivating Project. Recently, I began participating in a short story writing project, a simple, self-reporting tally every week of stories and word count (more on that next week).
I’ve also spent more time reading short story collections. Two recent ones that were well worth the time, more than worth the time, in fact, are Here It Snows in June by Eric Cyr and 13 Short Stories of Longing by Adam Nettesheim.
Eric Cyr writes about where he lives, and that happens to be northern Minnesota. The 15 stories of Here It Snows in June are varied, but they have a fundamental theme in common. They are about men, young men, and teens looking for meaning, looking to transcend the circumstances, the family situations, or the realities of their lives.
A boy finds a deer skull in the woods near his home. Two seminarians face a robber with a gun. A boy goes on his first hunt. A baseball game comes down to a boy facing the final strike of the final bat. A young man needs to talk with his father about attending a fine arts academy, something he suspects his father won’t like. A fishing trip. Couples playing charades. And more. Seemingly ordinary things of life become windows into hearts, uncertainties, and hopes.
Cyr writes quiet stories about quiet people. You identify with these stories, with the people they’re about. The story about the hopes for fine arts academy reminded me of a time, decades ago, when my father got so caught up at work that he forgot he was supposed to be taking me on a father-son dinner. Another story pitched me backward in time to being accused of something I didn’t do, and the angry apology that eventually followed that made the situation worse. I know these characters; I lived these lives.
13 Short Stories of Longing falls into a decidedly different category. In this collection, Adam Nettesheim writes what might seem like children’s stories, or folk stories, or fables. They could be read to children; they could also be read to adults. As the title implies, all of the stories are about the longing in the human heart.
A pixie feels the loneliness in his heart. A plant sprout seems almost desperate to be planted. A species called the Everbright, made of sunlight, seek emergence. A little house wren wants to hatch her eggs, but life might have other plans. An older couple hearken back to a classic story by Charles Dickens. Mr. Porcupine hopes for a playmate, or perhaps simply to be accepted. A mother receives a last letter from her son from a battlefield. A twinkling light watches children through the glass enclosing her filament.
The stories are simultaneously charming and striking. I didn’t expect that Dickens-connected story until the very end, and the ending changed the story. A story about musical life from the perspective of a clarinet, reminded me of how I gave objects (and especially toys) human personalities as a child. Nettesheim writes simply, moving stories, and while many project human characteristics upon animals, plants, and objects, we know what he’s really writing about is the longing within each of us.
Both short story collections are readable, engaging, and fraught with meaning. Short stories are not easy to write, or not as easy as you might think. But as Cyr and Nettesheim demonstrate, short stories are well worth the investment of time and focus to read.
Top photograph by Nong via Unsplash. Used with permission.
