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traceythompson's review
3.0
Pray, by Caleb Azumah Nelson - An enjoyable enough story. Not of the calibre I've come to expect from shortlisted stories.
In The Car With the Rain Coming Down, by Jan Carson - My winner of 2020. A very relatable story of family in-fighting, pride, and secrets.
The Grotesques, by Sarah Hall - Sarah Hall is the absolute master, isn't she? A close second place. This was very disorientating, in a good way. I love it when things are hinted at, but never explicitly stated. Sarah Hall has perfected this.
Come Down Heavy, by Jack Houston - The audio version of this story was easier to digest, as it's written in an "experimental" way (run on sentences, stream-of-consciousness). The story itself is very moving, and the ending was really brutal. The author has clearly read Hubert Selby Jr.
Scrimshaw, by Eley Williams - This just did not interest me at all. Didn't care for the characters, nor their dull situation.
Now, I have a couple of theories at to what has happened here. My expectations of quality in a short story are higher than that of other people, or this year's contest has a particularly weak shortlist. I digress. This award is one of the highlights of my literary years, and I feel a bit let down.
In The Car With the Rain Coming Down, by Jan Carson - My winner of 2020. A very relatable story of family in-fighting, pride, and secrets.
The Grotesques, by Sarah Hall - Sarah Hall is the absolute master, isn't she? A close second place. This was very disorientating, in a good way. I love it when things are hinted at, but never explicitly stated. Sarah Hall has perfected this.
Come Down Heavy, by Jack Houston - The audio version of this story was easier to digest, as it's written in an "experimental" way (run on sentences, stream-of-consciousness). The story itself is very moving, and the ending was really brutal. The author has clearly read Hubert Selby Jr.
Scrimshaw, by Eley Williams - This just did not interest me at all. Didn't care for the characters, nor their dull situation.
Now, I have a couple of theories at to what has happened here. My expectations of quality in a short story are higher than that of other people, or this year's contest has a particularly weak shortlist. I digress. This award is one of the highlights of my literary years, and I feel a bit let down.
frenzyreads's review
4.0
This is my first year reading the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University as a Yank relocated to the UK. I was a bit worried that there might be cultural nuances that I miss and I'm sure they have but I think a lot of them come more from being white and privleged versus American with this year's crop of finalists. ⠀
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I was shocked to discover that the NSSA is only celebrating its 15th year but was developed with the aim to expand opportunities for British writers, readers and publishers to honour and celebrate the UK's finest examples of the short story. Previous winners and runner-ups included very well known names like Zadie Smith, Hilary Mantel, Naomi Alderman, and loads of other names.⠀
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The art of the short story and especially a cohesive collection is akin to writing the classic song for me. You can have very short or very long content, but the most difficult and rewarding part is pulling off that beginning, middle, and end with crisp originality and masterful technique of a composer. To fit it into a greater collection is creating that full album musical experience but that's not the focus of today's post.⠀
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Truthfully, what sold my investment in wanting to read the NSSA this year was the neon pink walrus cover. It is cute and clever and punchy. Little did I realize it truly reflects one of this year's short stories. ⠀
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The five author finalist this year write a true range of stories: Caleb Azumah Nelson's "Pray" reminds me of the tone of Lot and Real Life, two incredibly powerful survival stories of Other; Jan Carson's "In The Car With the Rain Coming Down" is the universal pattern of family hierarchy and the dark side of sibling dynamics; Sarah Hall's "The Grotesques" is a feminine magical realism horror show; Jack Houston's "Come Down Heavy" unabashedly demonstrates the addict's life and community and struggle to survive; Eley Williams' "Scrimshaw" is a puzzle piece of pedestrian mundane but written deliciously.
⠀
I was shocked to discover that the NSSA is only celebrating its 15th year but was developed with the aim to expand opportunities for British writers, readers and publishers to honour and celebrate the UK's finest examples of the short story. Previous winners and runner-ups included very well known names like Zadie Smith, Hilary Mantel, Naomi Alderman, and loads of other names.⠀
⠀
The art of the short story and especially a cohesive collection is akin to writing the classic song for me. You can have very short or very long content, but the most difficult and rewarding part is pulling off that beginning, middle, and end with crisp originality and masterful technique of a composer. To fit it into a greater collection is creating that full album musical experience but that's not the focus of today's post.⠀
⠀
Truthfully, what sold my investment in wanting to read the NSSA this year was the neon pink walrus cover. It is cute and clever and punchy. Little did I realize it truly reflects one of this year's short stories. ⠀
⠀
The five author finalist this year write a true range of stories: Caleb Azumah Nelson's "Pray" reminds me of the tone of Lot and Real Life, two incredibly powerful survival stories of Other; Jan Carson's "In The Car With the Rain Coming Down" is the universal pattern of family hierarchy and the dark side of sibling dynamics; Sarah Hall's "The Grotesques" is a feminine magical realism horror show; Jack Houston's "Come Down Heavy" unabashedly demonstrates the addict's life and community and struggle to survive; Eley Williams' "Scrimshaw" is a puzzle piece of pedestrian mundane but written deliciously.
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