For every Hamlet, there is a supporting cast; for every Mrs. Dalloway, an entire realm of subordinate portraits. Yet if literary criticism cares at all about significant detail, emergent patterns, and the subtleties in narrative, flat and minor characters are crucial to an understanding of the fictional process itself.
Beginning with E. M. Forster's landmark study of flat and round characters, this book is both a critical and writerly examination of the species: Why are certain minor characters so salient in readers' minds, and why are flat characters often so comic? Is a name enough...
For every Hamlet, there is a supporting cast; for every Mrs. Dalloway, an entire realm of subordinate portraits. Yet if literary criticism cares at...
Though David Galef may be best known for his novels Flesh and Turning Japanese, he has also published over sixty short stories in magazines ranging from the British Punch to the Czech Prague Revue, the Canadian Prism International, and the American Shenandoah. The fifteen stories selected for Laugh Track are an eclectic mix, ranging from a haunting vignette called -You, - to -Triptych, - the tale of an elementary school teacher whose men in her life include a precocious third-grader.
In the title story, a failed comedian brings a...
Though David Galef may be best known for his novels Flesh and Turning Japanese, he has also published over sixty short stories in ma...
As anyone over forty can attest, the middle of life can be complex. It means assuming authority over both the younger generation and the older set: kids and aging parents. Still, midlife fiction has gotten short shrift, if it's gotten any shrift at all.
For those who like a good story but are tired of youthful fiction, 20 over 40 offers welcome relief: a short story anthology by authors over age forty about subjects that have a lot to do with that too-often-ignored time of life. Whether the plot concerns tending to children, taking care of older parents, pursuing a love affair,...
As anyone over forty can attest, the middle of life can be complex. It means assuming authority over both the younger generation and the older set:...
In Brevity, David Galef provides a guide to writing flash fiction, from tips on technique to samples by canonical and contemporary authors to provocative prompts that inspire powerful stories in a little space. Galef traces the genre back to its varied origins, from the short-short to nanofiction, with examples that include vignettes, prose poems, character sketches, fables, lists, twist stories, surrealism, and metafiction. The authors range from the famous, such as Colette and Borges, to today's voices, like Roxane Gay and Bruce Holland Rogers. A writer and longtime creative writing...
In Brevity, David Galef provides a guide to writing flash fiction, from tips on technique to samples by canonical and contemporary authors to p...
