karenika - books - the way people run

The Way People Run

Long ago Martin had learned that loneliness was like all other kinds of pain: endurable if you knew it would get no worse and you if you could be certain that it would someday stop. Maybe that certainty was what his failure with Amy had finally taken away, leaving him with the feeling that he had made his last attempt at marriage and had failed twenty years short of the finish line. It could get a lot worse, this hollowness; he was just standing at the edge, looking into the pit, and it was a dangerous place to be, he knew that. The liquid voices were inviting him to jump in: You'll love it! You can't imagine how good permanent self-pity can feel! What else do you have on your calendar? One of those days, perhaps tonight, perhaps even this second, he would have to make a decision; his life was in his hands like a folded shadow; he was terrified of the dark.

Short one today.

I started reading short stories only a few years ago, after getting interested in writing. I know that some people prefer them to novels. I'm just the opposite; I feel cheated when I read a short story. My favorite thing about novels is getting to know the characters and living with them hour after hour, day after day. I like the long affair of their lives and the idea that they're a part of mine for an extended period of time. This way I get attached to them and care more about their story.

A short story takes you anywhere from ten minutes to an hour (maybe longer if you're a really slow reader). Anything more than that would really be a novella. While I enjoy seeing what the writer can do with the limited word count, I just don't get into the skin of the characters as much when I read a short story. Having said that, I have read some amazingly memorable short stories. The most famous one being The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

This one is from The Way People Run by Christopher Tilghman, a collection of six short stories. This excerpt below is from the third story called "The Late Night News" which is about a break-in.