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Then, too, one who writes short stories well knows the essential worth of placing one word after another in such a way there is a particular inevitability to the story's flow; the beginning, the middle, the end become notable as if they'd been forged of iron--sturdy, unbreakable, complete.
From the Old graybeard, Whitman: "Have you practiced so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?"
To Victor Banis: Yes, I have practiced so long to learn to read. Yes, I have felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems. Yes, your little story fulfills my hunger for more beautiful words, told shortly, but giving me something much larger to ponder: love, life, my own inevitable end. I thank you for that, Victor. I am, today, enriched.
Available at MLR Press
Thank you so much for the lovely words - I have long believed that praise from another writer - certainly from a good one - is the sweetest of all, because he knows how hard it is, how important each of those words is - the right one can make a page sing, the wrong one, or even the right one in the wrong place can undermind everything - but you already know that, of course, your writing shows it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, sir. I hope my own "economy of words" in the review sufficed.
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