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A review by traceythompson
The BBC National Short Story Award 2020 by
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.