There was a time last year when Ive decided that the only fiction that I will read are short stories. Given the short minutes I squeeze in as reading time before sleeping, I hate it when I get cut off in the middle of chapters in a novel or continue on until 3am and discover that there's only 3 more hours to sleep before preparing for work.
(I bought too many short story collections last year. Big portions of current bookshelf are now occupied by collections).
Besides the anthologies, I have been reading the short fiction in the New Yorker (my subscription will last until July) as well, especially when I see a well-known author or a skimmed random dialogue that catches me.
From this pool that Ive accessed, this is the best short story that Ive read in 2010.
Besides mentioning that it is about drug-testing toward inmates, I dont need to introduce it further, because it is short enough for a 30-minute read.
It's also fantastic how the New Yorker story was accompanied by an author (George Saunders) interview. Read it after reading the story (not before, I warn you). But here's an excerpt anyway (available at the new yorker website):
"So most of what I’m doing on a given day is just trying to ensure that the wild ride happens, trusting and hopeful that the thematics will take care of themselves..."
Do you ever wish for just a small dose of VerbaluceTM while writing?Well, define “small.” I tend to use 50 ccs for fiction. For an interview like this, I’ll use 25 ccs, which runs out in about an hour or so. Dosage is key. One doesn’t want to underdose. Because an interview like this is important. Think of it: tens of thousands of readers reading me on there IPids. This is no time to take chanses. On a too low dose; their mite be a tendency: for my prows and sin tax and punch you ashun to get less presise. Which wud suk, sence I/am riting to the intervew to the yew norker, one of are mast presijus, if not most, magizins, who stil even publich friction in are dekadint acche!
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