Category: Short Story Review

  • Best of 2023 – Short Story Review: “Valley of the Moon” by Paul Yoon

    (The short story “Valley of the Moon” by Paul Yoon appeared in the July 3rd, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (SPOILERS should just be expected.)

    Illustration by Dadu Shin

    “Valley of the Moon” is an exquisite short story by Paul Yoon. Writing a good short story is hard enough, but writing a short story that feels lived in by complicated and authentic people, is pretty damn tough. Yoon takes it a step farther, and creates a story that speaks to the cycles in life, and how meaning remains elusive for some people.

    The story is about Tongsu, a one-eyed man who, after the end of the Korean War, returns to the valley and home he was born in. His family is long gone, but Tongsu repairs the home, and makes his way as a substance farmer in the valley. There is a river that runs through the valley, and a set of rocks that as a child Tongsu was told the moon emerges and crashes down every night – only to repeat the process the next evening. One night, by these rocks, Tongsu is attacked by a man, who Tongsu kills out of self-defense, and proceeds to bury by these stones. Years pass and two orphans, and boy and a girl, from a local church come to live with him. Years pass, and then one day a man passes through the valley looking for his uncle that went missing, but Tongsu is able to send the man on his way without raising any suspicions. Not long after that, one of the pigs dies, and Tongsu beats the boy for it. Soon the children run away, leaving Tongsu alone again. Years pass, and the story picks up with the girl, Eunhae, now living in a city and working in a hotel. She is given Tongsu’s phone number through the church, and she calls him. The reconnect, though never discussing the past, and she decides to visit him back in the valley. Things happen, but you can read about it.

    What I loved about this story, and I just latched on to it, was the prose of this piece. It’s third person, with a detached and unemotional way of presenting the story. There is a “matter of fact-ness” to it, almost a simplicity, that keeps to story moving forward, but it never hinders the emotions. I found myself tensing up as the stranger arrived looking for his missing uncle, and also a pure shock that Tongsu would snap one day and beat the boy. And when the conclusion of the story arrives, still in this simple and direct prose, I was moved at how well these pieces played together, and brought me to a feeling that I had truly lived through this experience with these characters.

    And that is the real trick with this story – creating that feeling of cycle, and continuation. I loved how this story was making the point, ever so slyly, how one decision creates new decisions, and how certain choices can never be undone. I also like how this was a story about fading memories, and what we chooses to hold on to, and let go of. All of it coming back to the idea that life continues on, repeating the cycle.

    “Valley of the Moon” by Paul Yoon is the type of short story that makes me love short stories. This is a world that is different from my own, I am presented with characters that are realistic and complicated. There is a plot and a climax that feels organic with the story that’s being told. It all feels so easy and simple, and I know creating a story like this isn’t easy or simple.

  • Best of 2023 – Short Story Review: “Different People” by Clare Sestanovich

    (The short story “Different People” by Clare Sestanovich appeared in the January 30th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (SPOILERS ahead!)

    Illustration by Jillian Tamaki

    I have been trying for some time to come up with a good introduction for this piece, but I have decided that the best way to open this is to say that I really, deeply enjoyed reading “Different People” by Clare Sestanovich. So much so that I just want to start talking about it.

    This was such a smart, honest, tactile story which allowed me to meet and spend time with three characters. This was a story where I enjoyed the journey it was on, and when the conclusion of the piece arrived, I was completely satisfied with how it all tied together, and ended the way that I knew it had to. This is the type of story that inspires me to write. It’s about people living their lives, and it is so cleverly constructed that the story never feels forced, or artificially fabricated.

    The story is about Gilly and her parents, Peter and Lisa, their divorce, how all of them change because of the divorce, and how Gilly begins to see her parents as people. But, it’s also about how one should beware of what they wish for. Or, it might also be about the need for security even as the world shifts under one’s feet. Or it might be about how one has to always grow and learn. Maybe it’s about how people hide in plain sight. Maybe. Maybe not.

    This story is divided up into six sections. Each of the sections are paced well, leading to a rise in the action, and then if not ending with a small climax of the section, it concludes with a “button.” And these buttons do a wonderful double duty of enlightening us on the characters in these sections, but also foreshadow upcoming events. Yet, this foreshadowing is so slight and sly that is seamlessly exists with the flow of the story, and doesn’t reek of a plot point.

    Also, I so enjoyed the very smart choices that Sestanovich made to develop her theme. I appreciated that the narrator doesn’t dwell often in the internal thoughts of any character, and allows actions to do the telling. Even a simple choice of having the parents referred to by their first names, which never puts the reader in the frame of thinking of these two people as parents first – Peter and Lisa remain adults. Thus, the reader sees the world as Gilly does – observing these two adults and how they react to this situation. All choices made by a writer that understands the craft of storytelling.

    I have read this story three, maybe four times now; it’s like a song I like listening to on repeat.  I still find these three characters compelling, and hope the best for them, if that makes sense. It’s also nice to be surprised by a well written story.

  • Short Story Review: “Let Me Try to Make It Interesting” by Francesca Leader

    (The short story “Let Me Try to Make It Interesting” by Francesca Leader appeared on December 7th, 2023 in Milk Candy Review.)

    And then I read something that just floors me. Like, pulls at me in a way, like my breath is being evacuated from my body. That a piece of writing can use words and language in a way that plays like a delicate symphony in my mind, but at the same time has a weight, and honesty, and a brutal truth to it that just crushes me in the best possible way. In 400+ words, Francesca Leader crafted a mini triumph with “Let Me Try to Make It Interesting.”

    The piece does have a content warning, as the story deals with sexual assault. The narrator, from the beginning, believes that her story would “bore” us, so she goes on to describe the abuse in a metaphorical way. The vividness of the imagery that Leader creates does a disturbingly excellent job of incapsulating the violence, but especially the emotional toll on the narrator. I couldn’t shake the thought that the narrator felt she needed to create this imagery because of how sexual assault is not taken as seriously as it should be; that the truth still didn’t carry enough weight to it. Yet, this story does have a journey to it, a path the narrator follows, which leads to a conclusion that is neither preachy, nor cliché.

    “Let Me Try to Make It Interesting” is a very good and serious piece, crafted by the very talented Francesca Leader. This is one of the best flash pieces that I have read in a very long time, not only for the subject matter, but because Leader used the flash fiction format to its fullest. I am still taken aback that in 400+ words she created such a complete story that left an impact while also being hopeful. It’s just impressive.

    If you or anyone you know is being sexually assaulted, help is available at https://www.rainn.org and also by calling 1-800-656-4673.

    RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.

    RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country.

  • Short Story Review: “Self-Portrait in Assignments” by Max Kruger-Dull

    (The short story “Self-Portrait in Assignments” by Max Kruger-Dull appeared on November 30th, 2023 in Milk Candy Review.)

    I am a strong proponent for flash fiction to not behave like a short story. That’s not to say that a writer cannot craft a well written short story in under a thousand words which exhibits all the qualities of a traditional short story; opening, rising action, climax, conclusion, character development…etc. I hold to that flash fiction should reject the use of plot, climax, and even resolution. Flash should be its own beast that is about the expression of an idea or an emotion, wherein the narrative ends with the conclusion of the idea or emotion, but does not necessitate a resolution of the idea or emotion.

    (Academic enough for you?)

    “Self-Portrait in Assignments” by Max Kruger-Dull came across my desk last week, and I have been kicking it around in my head ever since. It’s the type of flash story that was a bit of a gut punch and made me question my approach toward this style of fiction. The piece is made up of ten short vignettes, just about all dealing with words that, in one way or another, have been assigned to the narrator. Each short piece is titled with the abbreviated name of the person who did the assigning.

    So, that’s the form of the piece.

    The way these ten vignettes play with each other creates a picture of the narrator, though not in a linear timeline, more of a sequence that exemplifies the narrators emotional standing, and ultimately, emotional growth. Though the narrator comes across as a smart person, there is also a hint of a lack of self-confidence, though a determination to keep trying also exists in the character. That determination is exemplified in the love and care that the narrator has for his daughter. Kruger-Dull smartly gives three examples of interactions with the daughter; one being before the daughter was born thus showing how her influence was already present in the narrators life. By using the rule of three, the importance of this relationship is made paramount, thus signaling the emotional conclusion of this “self-portrait.”

    All the notes are played right in this piece, which left me feeling satisfied with the journey that this piece took me on. I want to say that the narrator started in one place and finished in another, but did they? Did the narrator only acknowledge their shortcomings, and choose not to pass them on to their daughter? I first thought there wasn’t a conflict in the piece, but was there? Was the narrator fighting to accept himself in the eyes of his daughter? To be better for her, even if that means he has to fake who he is?

    See; I can’t put my finger on what it is. But what I do know is that “Self-Portrait in Assignments” is using flash fiction in a specific way to express an emotional idea that couldn’t exist an any other format.

  • Short Story Review: “According to Alice” by Sheila Heti

    (The short story “According to Alice” by Sheila Heti appeared in the November 20th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Illustration by Janet Hansen

    At the very end of “According to Alice” by Sheila Heti, there is an addendum which states:

    This story was written in collaboration with a customizable chatbot on the Chai AI platform, which Sheila Heti started engaging in conversation early in the summer of 2022. To create the story, she asked the chatbot questions, some of them leading and others open-ended, to which its answers were never more than a sentence long. Sometimes she repeated a question to get a new answer. She removed her side of the conversation and threaded together the chatbot’s answers, at times cutting and tweaking for comprehension and flow.

    So… this is an experimental short story. I love experimental, crazy, envelope pushing, outta left field short stories that play with form, structure, tone, format, and everything else. I like people who take the rules and throw them out the window and try something new. Sometimes it works and it’s amazing; sometimes it’s a dumpster fire of awful; but most of the time it’s just okay, but I value the effort. When it comes to “According to Alice,” as an experiment, it’s pretty cool as it raises many questions about literature and writers interacting with AI; as a story – it’s not very good.

    On the Experiment Side of Things: I have several friends that are in WGA, and the AI issue was a big part of the strike, and still an issue of trepidation for them. No one knows how, or if, AI will be a helpful tool for writers. Some are looking for ways to use AI, while others want to chase it out of town. So, to see Heti engage with AI is intriguing to me. Though from the addendum, it sounds more like Heti behaved like an interviewer, editing down the responses to create the story. If that is true, does that make her an editor? Or is she more like a collage artist? (Donald Barthelme did call collage the art form of the 20th Century. Maybe it’s being extended to the 21st?) I also had to wonder what writers had been feed into Chai AI’s learning to create the prose? (Being that ChatGPT stole many authors books for its “learning.”) If other author’s books were used in Chai AI, does Heti need to share credit with them? Does Chai AI also deserve credit as the writer of this story along with Heti? Also, how much editing and rearranging was needed to create this story? I see why The New Yorker printed this story for its “AI Issue” as it raises many ethical questions, as well as makes me wonder how much can a writer use AI and still call it “their” story? In the end, what makes someone, or something a creator?

    On the Story Side of Things: Yeah, I didn’t find the story to be very compelling. Oh, it moved along at a clip, but it never felt like it was going anywhere. Before I found out that it was “written” by AI, I had this thought that the story felt like what a freshman English major would write if they were asked to create an absurdist/surrealist short story. Sure, it has some jabs at Christianity and the Patriarchy, but I could never tell if these were meant to be honest criticism, or more an attempt at making a joke. The story, not surprising, doesn’t feel like there is a heart in it. And the fact that the AI element was revealed at the end, leads me to believe that I was supposed to think a human “wrote” this, only to have it revealed that it was written in conjunction with AI. That’s kind’a gimmicky, if I’m going to be honest. And also goes back to the ethical aspect; when does the audience need to know that AI was involved with the creation of a story?

    What I am saying here is that, yes, you should read this story. I respect that Sheila Heti is the type of writer, and an artist, to tackle AI, and see if there is a way for writers to use it. That does take courage, because as far as I know, she is the first person to give something like this a try. The end result isn’t the best, but if literature is going to continue to grow and explore as an art form, then experiments like this are needed.