Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories

Roseville is really great, written by a poet but it's a short story.

This book has a selection of 1-2 page stories which are incredible as they develop such incredibly complex story lines in such little space. I have enjoyed this book for decades. I have read the stories "The Stones" and the Dancing Bears story to groups of people at campouts and they have loved them. This is a great collection of really short stories!

In addition to the literary quality of the writing, the book worked as a textbook for learning just what is meant by "flash fiction." The book includes many authors I haven't read, but also such well-known authors as Alan Gurganus, Raymond Carver, Richard Brautigan, Jamaica Kincaid and Joyce Carol Oates. This is a keeper, to be reread.

The stories in flash fiction read as though their diminutive size came naturally; these are stories that were printed without regard to their size but have been reprinted because of their size. Unfortunately, many of the stories would be more satisfying within a mix of story sizes ... the stories are simply shorter than one's mind switches between stories. The anthology is a standard mix of stories that have strong appeal, are technically fine but "don't speak to me", and those you wonder why they were printed. Personal favorites:The Corporal by Carolyn Forche, I first read as a prose poem. This story speaks strongly to the mentality behind repressive governments - a theme strong in much of Forche's work.Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is a story that shows the creativity of Kincaid (best illustrated by At the Bottom of the River) that speaks in an unusual way to the relationship between a girl and her mother ... and her mother's expectations.Bread by Margaret Atwood may not exactly be a narrative but again it is a strong piece regarding social justice in a variety of forms.Subtotals by Gregory Burnham is an interesting evaluation of life by enumeration - a clever idea well executed that left me less than satisfied.The Haircut by Mary Morris is a story in which non-verbal communication in an intimate relationship is well used; still I found the story only interesting.Spencer Holst's Brilliant Silence is a brilliant story of dancing bears deserted by their owner but still dancing.Richard Shelton's The Stones is another brilliant story built on a premise of stones having life of a sort.Adrienne Clasky's From the Floodlands explores a setting so wet that one can drown in the air, that the sky and the sea merge as the horozin fails to delinate the line between them.Other tales may catch your attention; there is sufficient variety that nearly everyone should fine some stories to their liking.

Some of the stories are strange and even lame, (in my words) but there are a lot of interesting ones as well. since the stories are so short it is easy to hold my attention for a bit. I recommend a story called "bread" if you appreciate life perspective! =]

boughjt for school as a required read

Great collection of flash fiction. Started loving the writing style because of this book! You won't regret buying these tasty niblets of literature and reading them over and over. Love it!

Great stories in a few words. Pendergast's Daughter is my favorite. Seemingly so simple yet I keep thinking about it, from all the layers of complexity, nuance and the history of human relationships. Other stories in the book are just as nuanced.

This book is a way to glimpse a little of the unusual and unexpected. In just over 200 pages it presents over 70 very short stories by different authors. The styles and subjects very greatly, yet each fits into no more than a couple of pages and each has the potential to spark a new thought, or send you off in anew direction.As Goethe said `One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.'This books offers over seventy leaps of the imagination. Who could reasonably ask for more.

それぞれの小説は、見開き程度の長さです。見開き起こしでなくて、片起こしにしてあります。編者の工夫です。これ以上、短くなると、小説としては厳しいと思います。Micro Fiction というジャンルはあります。また、twitter で小説を書くという試みもあります。が、そうなると、桑原武夫が『第二芸術』で指摘しているような、「短詩形文学」の弱みが出てきます。要は、共通の文化の中でしか通じないということです。その意味で、この、Flash Fiction は、ギリギリの長さ（短さ）でしょう。なんてことは抜きにして、72の小説と出合うだけで、楽しい体験です。私は毎朝、通勤列車の中で、１つずつ読むようにしています。すごいね、この表現は、というのに、毎日１つ、出合います。日本語の小説も、負けてはいられない、という気持ちになってきます。書き続ける勇気をもらっています。

I like this very much - the stories are really short but there is a great range of genres and authors. I used this as source-material for my English class and, so far, the stories have been well received.

All I can say at this point in time, is that this book has been recommend to me by teacher "Writing for Fun", to learn from other authors of writing short stories. Some of the stories are unbelievable short.

This is an anthology of flash fiction, which the editors (James Thomas, Denise Thomas, Tom Hazuka) define as 'stories of circa 250-750 words in length'.The stories are good, well plotted, well structured, well written, in a wide variety of genres and styles. Some are omnisicent, others are in single limited point of view. Some are funny, some are emotional, some raise questions in the reader's mind, and most contain twists and surprises. I was astonished at the vibrant details some of the stories contained, and admired how the authors managed to fit a whole story with details into such a short space, but it was obviously a matter of choosing the right details to convey. The stories are all good, although some contain too much explaining for my taste; I prefer stories in which the plot unfolds without the author explaining it.I first read this book twelve years ago (in 2005), when I started writing flash fiction and sought inspiration and examples to follow. The book provided this in an enjoyable way. I read the book again recently (2017), and enjoyed the stories again. They were all fresh and surprising, like I'd never read them before. While this 'fresh' re-read was enjoyable, it also means that none of the stories had left a lasting impression. A great story stays in the mind forever, or at least comes back to the mind when re-reading. None of these did. So I'd say the stories are good rather than great.