Short Stories

I just finished reading a book of short stories.  Merriam Webster's word of the day a few weeks ago was "Walter Mitty" defined as: a commonplace unadventurous person who seeks escape from reality through daydreaming
Reading the origin of the term was from a short story by James Thurber, I felt the need to read the origin.  My local library had a book which included The Secret Life of Walter Mitty among other titles.

Short story books are good to read when there can be lapses between starting a finishing a book.  Every story is an end to itself and if any of them aren't very good, it won't last long.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was very short, and not terribly interesting. But a few other short stories from the book made the time spent worthwhile.  I'm surprised a movie was made out of this, I may have to look for it as well?

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story I knew about, but had not read.  I think we were shown a movie short on it in junior high school.  I'm familiar with the writing of Ambrose Bierce mostly through short quips and musings, reading something slightly more substantive was interesting.  The story is morose, but inventive.

The Pearl by John Steinbeck was also a good read, if not particularly fun.  The story is inventive, with many parts that tie together only tangentially.  I have not read The Grapes of Wrath as it is sort of over my usual length limit.  I may have to revisit this the next time I know I'll have time and energy to read it in entirety.

While not contained in the recent book, a few other short stories have made an impression on me.

T.C. Doyle's After the Plague is a little disturbing, bringing together love, hate and death all in one story which is both uplifting and a let-down at the same time.

Barn Burning by William Faulkner is like a shortened version of A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren.  One short story and one book that tell a similar tale, but altogether different.

No discussion of short stories is complete without talking about A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison.  This was made into a movie starring Don Johnson.  The movie is good (a true guy's movie if there ever was one), but it defaced the story.  The end of the written short story brings a different feeling to the final scene in the book.  As is almost always the case, the book (or story in this case) ends up being much better than the movie.

True to the genre, this posting is short.  I'd say I can follow this up with a fictional short story of my own, but given that no one would ever likely read it I would then be acting in the way of a true Walter Mitty.