Hint Fiction: An anthology trying to capture the world 25 words or less at a time... (Robert Smartwood, Editor)

BLOT: (30 Oct 2010 - 02:05:15 PM)

Hint Fiction: An anthology trying to capture the world 25 words or less at a time... (Robert Smartwood, Editor)

If you had twenty-five words to write an entire story, what would have to go into it? Plot would be nearly impossible, even a short, "He came home to find Sheila waiting for him," would burn up 9 of the 25 words. Unless you pull an immediate punch, you have only 16 words to go. You'll have to rely heavily on suggestion. "She was wearing a thin diamond necklace he had not bought for her. Explanations were absent." I think that would make the whole "story" 25 words. I made that up, writing this post, but it shows off the overall form of the micro-story, the literary equivalent to a one minute movie. You can only imply. Telling, explicitly saying what happened in short form could be a temptation, but doing so utterly wrecks any chance of the micro-story to breathe. No one wants to know that Sheila cheated on Frank. Maybe she got a raise. Maybe it was a gift from her mom. The point is that it works because it plays with the notion that husbands give certain types of gifts to their wives, and as long as you are knee deep in implication, the brain tries to fill in gaps.

So we have Hint Fiction a collection of 125+ micro-stories. An introduction exlaining them. Also explaining how the "For sale: baby shoes, never used." story may be apocryphal (if not Hemmingway, who did write it?). Then Smartwood, the editor, discusses the concept of "hint fiction" as opposed to short fiction. Hint fiction is designed to hint at the larger story, by resonating with the reader. To paraphrase and possibly speak for Smartwood. That is our collection, these micro-length hint stories, some by well known writers and others by less known. They are pooled into three large categories—Life and Death, Love and Sex, and This and That. Each page has one story, with its author, a title. Sometimes the title is used cheatingly, to fill in gaps the story does not answer. I guess that is fine as long as the whole thing, title and all, is less than 25 words. I have not counted. That would seem to be petty.

Speaking of the title, these are often innocuous words used to "mark" the stories. In a couple of cases, they are the key to the story. Joyce Carol Oates' "I kept myself alive" does not require the title "The Widow's First Year", but it does significantly change the flavor of the story. In one case, David Joseph's "Mein Fuhrer", knowing the title ruins, for me, the vibe of "By now, I have burned more pages than I have read." It becomes a critique of fanaticism, and feels like little else when those words were invocation on their own.

The experiment is interesting and worthy, as are a good number of these micro-stories. I was especially intrigued to see a number of horror/thriller writers contributing (LANSDALE!). The problem, for me, is that many would make awesome first lines or last lines to a story, would make intriguing twists at the middle, flavorful punches somewhere near a climax, but feel too open to be standalone. I know the goal is to "hint" at the larger story, but it still feels more like I am hearing the set up rather than the summation, given the shout (or sometimes cough) of a story but not its soul. The introduction cited "For sale: baby shoes, never used." says just about all it needs to say. It doesn't have to exist in the context of a fuller story to have all the emotional impact. It does exist in the context of a larger story but it is that longer story's utter essence.

Bill Napier's short piece is possibly my favorite, discussing small houses with smaller couplers inside a cadaver. Amazing how much imagery went into it.Jack Kilborn's "Chuck", which is apparently about a stewardess eating vomit, gets a special clap for being as much of a horror/gross story as you need in under 25 words. L. R. Bonehill's "Cull" also manages to punch in some horror in a short space: "There had been rumors from the North for months. None of us believed it, until the night we started to kill our children, too."

Overall, I am going to give the book a Fair, and do recommend it, though (maybe sadly), not quite at its $13.95 price tag. Borrow it, if you wish. Buy it if it intrigues you. Just maybe try it out first. It is not just a gimmick, but neither does it caome across as full realized product.

TAGS: Book Reviews

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 43
BY MONTH: October 2010