| Author | Message | ||
     Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Is that the name for them? Novels made by lumping short stories together? I'm reading Toby Litt's "I play the drums in a band called okay" which is a novel made out of short stories. It could well be one of the best examples of this type of novel that I've read. I say one of because I think the greatest novel written that way has to be Dandelion Wine, it holds up brilliantly as a novel or as short stories, whichever way you want to read it. Martian Chronicles I thought was a brilliant story collection but it didn't hold together as a novel. ("There will come soft rains" is a story that still makes me cry even though there are no people in it) Green shadows White Whale (Bradbury again) is another great one but a couple of the stories don't fit. From the dust returned - Bradbury's last novel in this form, was a huge disappointment to me. I loved his stories of "The family" but when they were put together as a novel, it doesn't work. The stories contradict each other too much and don't hold together at all as a full length story. you don't notice the contradictions when you read them in separate collections but... I'm sure other writers have used this form but I'm struggling to think of any. can anyone help? | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.32.208.231 |
Michael Cunningham's recent Specimen Days says on the cover 'A Novel', but it's really three loosely-connected novellas. Guess the publisher felt that it had to reassure readers, because we all know short stories and novellas don't sell. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.156.247 |
What about our very own John L Probert's THE FACULTY OF TERROR? | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
Tim Winton's The Turning qualifies, and it's quite brilliant. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.48.91 |
R Chetwynd Hayes' The Monster Club if you're of such a persuasion (and if not why not - it's marvellous) And of course my Faculty of Terror - thanks Mick! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
I'll third John's Faculty of Terror - a brilliant, brilliant book. Jesus' Son by Dennis Johnson isn't a genre book, but it is a novel made up of several short stories. It's also one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Son-Stories-Denis-Johnson/dp/0060975776 Chuck Palahnuik's recent Haunted is also a novel constructed from short stories. | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
I'll second that. Jesus' Son is great. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.110.155.77 |
Dan Simmons's HYPERION's my favourite of these things. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 38.113.181.169 |
Steve Rasnic Tem's THE BOOK OF DAYS | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.156.110.243 |
It's also known as an episodic novel. There are lots of great examples. My faves include Hubert Selby Jr's LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN and Pat Barker's UNION STREET. A pretty good recent example is Jake Arnott's crime novel THE LONG FIRM. It's uneven but has one great piece (the novella about Jack 'The Hat' McVitie) at its heart. It's just a shame the publisher made him take the last word off the original title. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.189.128 |
Arthur Machen's The Three Imposters is another example (and one of my personal favourites). |