On short stories

I said I still revered the form of the short story. This is like poetry to me too but more sustained and often a fragment of a novel. Some of my absolute favourites are collections by authors who build towards an interconnected story or narratives which intersect and share characters, like the brilliant Jhumpa Lahiri - wow, she is an amazing writer. I think some people might find her somewhat depressing but her stories are spartan and yet rich, controlled and also incredibly wild, for me, anyway. There's some interesting commentary around - go to her official site at: http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/jhumpalahiri/

One of my best friends in Melbourne, Kate Ryan, is writing brilliant short stories. I told her they were the kind that made me want to write. One of them appears in http://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/title/new-australian-stories-2/ . Kate's been working on a scholarly account of American writer Lorrie Moore who also writes short stories and novels. We talk as much as possible about our favourite short story writers. I'll never forget discovering Salinger's classic 'A perfect day for bananafish' as a kid reading the books from the glass cabinet in my grandparents' house in Orange, NSW. Probably not considered terribly appropriate then, though I've not realised until recently re-reading it that it was so dark. What I must have admired then was the strange, hypnotic and spare form, the odd landscape in the American hotel at the beach, the silence, if not the terrible conclusion. My mum's parents lived at the top of a sloping cul-de-sac and only possessed a few books unlike our own groaning shelves but what they had was good stuff. I remember that cabinet of books, my gran whistling and singing all day with the endless cups of tea, the smell of porridge cooking since 5am, the walnut tree in the backyard, and my pop on the red painted porch (or was it green?) peeling oranges.

The senses evoked by short stories are different too. Sometimes all the patience I have is for a bite, a morsel, something little that opens up a world of words and thoughts. And sometimes I need to be shocked or disturbed, or taken out, elsewhere. I go to Granta quite often for that! Buying the latest Granta is a regular, special treat on less frequent trips to Auckland.

Ok so my real ambition (fantasy) is to set up a Unity Bookstore in Hamilton. How I wish it could be true. There would be an e-corner for the e-books and the e-nuts. I promise, if only I had capital, drive, the will!