Short stories are best when you don't see the ending coming. You can't say that about Smith's writing.
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While admitting Ms. Smith is one of the premier essayists of our time, I don't feel the same about her fiction. In my opinion she falls into the category of a "acquired taste". Perhaps it's because she's a little too British (for an American reader) in much the way that Martin and Kingsly Amis were in their day. Plus a large dash of ADD/ADHD. I found White Teeth grating. Be that as it may, her recent launch into post-mod shorts is apt due to the direction of literature these days. The trouble is, it's already been done, as far back as the 60s. This new collection according to the young "critics" on Good Reads rate it consistently 5 stars, which is troubling; especially in the post-mod/post-plot sense. Even Ben Lerner crafts a well plotted short. Picasso proved he could actually draw before going cubist. Boiling down a good short into a series of shiny fragmented sentences isn't a good short; it's devise, an act, to simply demonstrate a facile turn of phrase at worst or the gifted ability to polish stones at best. The young love shiny things. When a writer's words and sentences call attention to themselves too often it's like being the prettiest girl in the room all the time. Tiring. Writing may very well be a kind of performative act, but the best advice, in terms of acting, is: don't act, behave. Otherwise it just looks like your acting. An essay is an act we expect; a good short should be an act we never saw coming. There are precious few wondrous bow tie endings nowadays.
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@Tee Jones
To each their own. I love her work and don't find it "too British" at all (nor the Amises, for that matter). She's an important, gifted writer with keen and interesting things to say.
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