Favorite novellas written in my lifetime ...
Inspired by THE ALL OF IT (2011)
In the fabulous Community Library in Ketchum, Idaho, while looking for another writer whose last name begins with “H”, I stumbled across The All of It, a first novel by Jeannette Haien. I first read it when it was published in 2011 and I remember thinking it was one of the most remarkable stories I have ever read. I also remember that I read it in one seating. The book and the reading experience were equally unforgettable. Welcome to the too often overlooked gem of literature, the novella.
What is a novella? The lists one finds on-line are clear indications that this definition is up for grabs. The traditional metric is a book no more than 40-50,000 words or 100 to 200 pages in length. Most every respectable list included many well over that limit – as does MINE. My cutoff includes length as a parameter but there is no clear ridge line until close to 300 pages. Rather, a novella is a reading experience. It is of a single piece, compact and focused, and lends itself to a rare one sitting read. The Heart of Darkness and Animal Farm were on all lists; however, I dare you to read them in one sitting. They have the shifting structural deliberation of a much longer novel.
The All of It soared in the reread (though it took two sittings the second time around). It inspired me to collect a LIST of favorite novellas written in my lifetime. It was hard to put together and like the on-line lists I visited, I violated my own rules from the start. 10 of the 13 were read for the first time in a single seating 9 of the 13 are under 200 pages giving the list an average close to 175 pages. Of the five longer books, two (On Chesil Beach & Mothering Sunday) I read in one sitting. Both Ian McEwan and Graham Swift have a gift for the shorter novel and for just that reason, I included both William Trevor’s The Story of Lucy Gault and Julian Barnes’ Sense of an Ending. I wanted to include a single seating list, but my memory is too unreliable for it to be credible. Also, sometimes a fast read is nothing more than that.
Anyway, here’s the very imperfect and deeply subjective LIST:
The Irish:
Foster by Claire Keegan … hard to imagine a better story anywhere.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan … to be read at every Christmas
The All of It by Jeannette Haien … this might make an equally perfect film
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor … only one of many extraordinary short novels
The Brits:
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift … WWI on a bed sheet … breathless stuff
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan … overlooked … taught it several times
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie … Muriel Sparks gift to Maggie Smith
Sense of an Ending … Julian Barnes not showing off – a brilliantly opaque story
Uncommon Reader by Arnold Bennett … simply too much fun
The Yanks:
Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth … title novella of Roth’s best writing
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx … better than a very good movie
A River Runs Through It … perfect in its time … still pretty close
Train Dreams by Dennis Johnson … a strange original dream itself
