Thursday 19 May 2011

Party party

Thanks to J, S, N, C and my Mum for unofficially launching The Best British Short Stories 2011 last night in the pub, complete with pink balloons. We always meet once a month or so to talk about a book we've all read so it seemed a good idea to try some short stories for a change, since BBSS11 was thrusting itself at us, waving wildly, shouting 'pick me! pick me!'. Though it's only been out a fortnight we all had a copy (might have something to do with my wild excitement when I heard I'd be in it).

The idea was that we'd pick our six favourites and see which two came out on top - but our taste turned out to be so varied that no two did come out clear favourites (no one was allowed to pick mine, to save embarrassment). So we talked about what makes a short story (something has to change, thanks Nic Royle, for your helpful introduction) and why some of these made us squirm, others puzzled us, and several made us bow down in awe.

And now we're going back to re-read to see if we can work out what the deeply unreliable narrator in So Much Time in a Life was telling us, and what the lozenge shape on the lawn was in Flora, and we'll re-read all the rest simply to wallow in the pleasure of a perfect variety pack of stories.

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