10 Great Short Stories I Have Read


                                   

To pick only 10 from among the hundreds of short stories that I have read is a Herculean task. Short stories have the power to impact you emotionally and intellectually. Unlike novels, where thousands of words are required to create an impact, short stories, in a few hundred words can create a bigger impact on the reader.

In the hands of a true master, the short story becomes an effective medium to titillate, baffle, shock, surprise, and floor the reader. While reading short stories, I have experienced all sorts of emotions. But when a great story ends, then the mind becomes numbed. And it takes a while before you are out of its spell.

But there are some stories from whose spell you can’t come out, even after years have passed. So from the stories that have cast a spell on me, I pick the top 10. Here they are:

1.      Khol Do (Untie It) by Saadat Hasan Manto

What a story! What a touching story! How can anyone shake you up so much with only a few words. Manto was a master. There’s no doubt about it. Every time you read this story its effect remains the same. A classic, a masterpiece. A story that has stood the test of time. A story that will continue to stand the test of time. A story that is timeless.

2.      Gift of Magi by O. Henry

This story has everything. The ending is so stunning that for a moment it’ll leave you gasping. O. Henry’s ability to end the story with a dramatic twist remains unsurpassed. Gift of Magi is one of the most famous short stories of all time. Anyone who is even remotely connected with literature must / should have read this story.

3.      The Dead by James Joyce

James Joyce is known more for his trailblazing novels than his short stories. But the great writer in Dubliners, a collection of 13 short stories (The Dead is one of them), has proved that he was a master in his own right in short fiction too. Joyce’s play with words is unique. His prose can be melodic at times and staccato at times. He could do whatever he wished to with sentences.  In The Dead, he creates sheer magic with words. The concluding paragraphs of this story is among the greatest prose ever written in any language.

4.      The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

The atmosphere, the situation, the narrative style and the climax – all are faultless. Like a calm sea suddenly turning violent, this story behaves in the same way. The reader’s mind is lulled at the beginning, as if all is well, only to get jolted by the unexpected storm that the story creates in the end.  


This is the story about which Gabriel Garcia Marquez said, “One night a friend lent me a book of short stories by Franz Kafka. I went back to the pension where I was staying and began to read The Metamorphosis. The first line almost knocked me off the bed. I was so surprised. The first line reads, “As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. . . .” When I read the line, I thought to myself that I didn’t know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago. So. I immediately started writing short stories.”  And Marquez himself is a wonderful short story writer, a modern master.   

6.      Lihaf (The Quilt) by Ismat Chugtai

If Chugtai had not written anything before or after she wrote this story, she would still have been considered a literary giantess. Can anyone narrate a story the way she has done? Lihaf will make you wonder, ponder and shake your head in disbelief. A milestone in storytelling.      

7.      The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

The Necklace is a literary treasure. Read it (if you haven’t) to know how the French master has weaved a heart-breaking tale out of nothing. This story shows Maupassant’s mastery. Without depending on any literary props, he carves out a near-perfect work of art. 

8.      The Tale of the Turd by Hanif Kurieshi

Kureishi’s imagination deserves a thunderous applause. This story and My Son the Fanatic qualify Kureishi as a writer who shouldn’t be ignored. The Tale of the Turd is in a different league. How could someone think of weaving a tale around a turd? For this reason, this story finds a place in the top 10.        

9.       Kafan (The Shroud) by Premchand

Munshi Premchand is Munshi Premchand. If he was writing in English, he would have definitely been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. This story alone shows his class and calibre. Kafan is as good a story as was ever written in any language.  

10.  All stories by Anton Chekhov

The grandmaster of all storytellers. If anyone wishes to learn how to write short stories then Chekhov is the writer to go to.  Each story is a lesson in short fiction. No creative writing class can teach what Chekhov’s stories can. Read all his stories. They all belong to the top drawer. Leo Tolstoy - a fierce critic of Chekhov’s plays – said of his stories, ‘Chekhov was a great artist whose masterpieces could be reread countless times.’  

So that’s my top 10 – an impossible task that I made possible. But with a deep regret and pain on not able to accommodate anything from Hemingway, Tagore, Qurratulain Hyder, Maugham, Narayan, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Dostoevsky, Jeffrey Archer, Flannery O’Connor, Mansfield, Mann, Saki and others – all of them can not only write short stories but play havoc with your mind and heart.

-          NZ

4.7.2019

       

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