Over the last several months, I have become more and more interested in that genre, or more appropriately sub-genre, of American Literature known as the short story cycle. The short story cycle can be described as "...the collection of a group of independent stories that contain continuing elements of character, setting, action, imagery, or theme that enrich each other in intertextual context." (Nagel, p. 15) To put it a bit more simply, a short story cycle is a collection of short stories which have common characters, settings, or other elements such as a common conflict, plot, or theme which is discussed in multiple stories by a single author. Some of the best known examples of short story cycles which my not have been previously billed as such would include "The Nick Adams Stories" by Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck's "The Pastures Of Heaven" or "Tortilla Flat", Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge", or Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg Ohio". I have to confess that I have not read all these books although I have long been in love with "The Nick Adams Stories" and wrote about them at the link above. I have also been a devoted fan of the work of Flannery O'Connor and John Steinbeck since I was in my early teens and have read nearly everything both of these wonderful authors have published. But the short story cycles which James Nagel so ably writes about in this book which we are discussing here are more recent and, perhaps, more popular among modern American readers.
In his book, Nagel devotes lengthy and scholarly chapters to each of the works he has chosen. Those works are: Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine"; "Monkeys" by Susan Minot; Sandra Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street"; "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brian; Julia Alvarez's "How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents"; "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan; and a second collection about Viet Nam and the Vietnamese people, "A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain" by Robert Olen Butler. I suspect that "The Joy Luck Club" is the best known of the collections discussed in the book. I must confess, as I did about a few of the books listed above, that I have not read any of the works studied in Nagel's excellent work. When I bought the book and read it, my interest was in the genre and not the work of any specific author. I am writing and have already completed several short stories in my own version of a short story cycle. At the bottom of the front page of this blog, I have a section or list entitled "Links To Other Sites About Appalachia". At the top of that list are several links to some of my short stories which fall into my own short story cycle which I have tentatively entitled "Tales From Widespot". I read Nagel's book to further inform myself about the short story cycle and to hopefully improve my own work. Like many of the writers and readers which Nagel discusses, I had read quite a few short story cycles without even knowing what a short story cycle was. In a few places in the book, Nagel writes about other reviewers who have reviewed various of the books he discusses without knowing the term short story cycle, or at least without having made it known to their readers if they did know.
I realize that for many readers the concept of the short story cycle and Nagel's book might seem a bit arcane and not worth the time or bother. But I can assure you, if you are a lover of literature, that Nagle's book is well worth reading and so are many of the short story cycles he discusses at length or only mentions in passing such as the works of O'Connor, Hemingway, and Steinbeck. At times, short story cycles come so close to being a novel that they are generally billed as being novels. My other favorite short story cycle which Nagel does not even mention in his book is "The Hawk's Done Gone" by the Appalachian author Mildred Haun. In a non-fiction article which was published in "The Mildred Haun Review Journal", I compared Haun's book with "The Patron Saint of Ugly" by my friend Marie Manilla. If you are a fan of Appalachian Literature and have not read Mildred Haun's book, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is a fine introduction to the concept of the short story cycle. So are "The Nick Adams Stories" and "Tortilla Flat".
But to get back to my discussion of Nagel's book, it is a wonderful way to learn about the short story cycle and to dig deeper into the histories of some of the more modern books which you might have already read such as Amy Tan's book or Louise Erdrich's. I will be doing the same over the next few weeks and months and I promise that I will be writing about them on this blog when I do. I will also be working to publish my own short story cycle collection and to add to it. For me, the short story has long been my favorite form of writing. It allows for few mistakes if the author is attempting to produce high quality work. The books which Nagel disusses are all obviously high quality work and so is his discussion of them. If you are student of literature, and particularly the short story, this is a book which you should consider reading. If you do not enjoy reading scholarly books, you might not enjoy his book or even wish to read it. I leave that choice to you but rest assured I found the book well worth reading and writing about.
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