The Joy of Short Stories

Writing short stories these days is a bit of a lost art amongst writers. You really can't make a lot of money writing short stories and the places where you can have them published seems to have diminished over the years. Whereas one time there were magazines devoted to short stories published weekly and monthly these days they seem few and far between. It is nice to know, however, that the art of writing a compact but very powerful story is not quite dead.

I just read a collection of short stories from a writer I think you should get yourself familiar with: Tod Goldberg. The collection of stories is called "Simplify" and it was released in late 2006. Goldberg wrote the novel "Living Dead Girl" and writes a regular column for the Las Vegas Mercury. I have not read his column and I have not read his novel but I think I might be tempted to do so after reading this collection of stories.

Each of these stories is profoundly disturbing in some way. Each story has a protagonist who may or may not be dealing with utter insanity. Whether it is the man whose wife has left him but his Elvis picture starts bleeding real blood or it is the genius young man in the story that gives the collection its title these are very disturbing tales. In each case there is a protagonist who might be on the brink of profound insanity. In some cases they are saved, in some cases they are not, regardless of which happens each story is compelling, readable, memorable and powerful.

The collection starts off with "The Jesus of Cathedral City" and poses the question of whether or not seeing Jesus regularly would actually be a good thing in someone's life. The question is raised, if you get the attention of Jesus, might that not also get the attention of a certain other entity known for his evil? What if you life became the battle ground between good and evil?