Clik here to view.
Last Night by James Salter: “Bangkok”
One of the most interesting things about working my way through a collection of literary short stories has been the obviousness of the author’s ideological assumptions. Most of the short fiction I have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Last Night by James Salter: “Arlington”
I am aware that my pieces about the stories in this collection have been growing increasingly ill-tempered. At first, Salter’s elliptical methods and saw-tooth stylings enchanted me but the novelty has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Last Night by James Salter: “Last Night”
While I have tried my best to stay out of the way of any essays or reviews that might have distorted my take on this collection, I had heard that the final eponymous story was something special. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colin Barrett’s Young Skins: “The Clancy Kid”
Having spent some time among the upper middle-class Americans of James Salter’s Last Night, I decided to go somewhere different for my next series of pieces about short fiction. Set in the fictitious...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colin Barrett’s Young Skins: “Bait”
“Bait” closely resembles “The Clancy Kid” in that it is another story about the gender dynamics of Barrett’s fictional Irish town. In Glanbeigh, the young women are fierce and exotic creatures while...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colin Barrett’s Young Skins: “The Moon”
Short story Short: This is yet another story about the impossibly fierce, beautiful and unapproachable women living in the fictional Irish town of Glanbeigh. Short story Long: This follows the example...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colin Barrett’s Young Skins: “Stand Your Skin”
I alighted on this book after reading a few reviews but none of them went so far as to mention a context for the book’s creation. Interviews with Barrett focus on his process and the fact that he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colin Barrett’s Young Skins: “Calm With Horses”
At 74-pages in length “Calm with Horses” is not only the longest work in the collection by some considerable margin. It is also the only work that might be described as a novella rather than a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colin Barrett’s Young Skins: “Diamonds”
If “Calm with Horses” was all about Barrett relaxing into the long-distance gait of the novelist then this story is all about the explosive energy of the short fiction sprinter. Even less concerned...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colin Barrett’s Young Skins: “Kindly Forget My Existence”
As I reach the finish line, I’m moved to consider whether or not Colin Barrett’s Young Skins is actually a decent collection of short stories. As I’ve mentioned before, Barrett’s name often features in...
View Article