Volume 51, Number 16 · October 21, 2004
Stiff Upper Lip
By Diane Johnson
The Lemon Table
by Julian Barnes
Knopf, 241 pp., $22.95
Recently Charles McGrath, writing in The New York Times, proposed that there is some hope for the short story, now that it seems to be breaking out of its refuge in academe, where it is turned out at a certain uniform level of uninspired proficiency, mostly to sustain academic writing programs. The MFA short story factories still exist, but, he noted, frisky innovation is appearing in the pages of The New Yorker and, as ever, from the pens of the few masters of this orphan little form to whom it is natural, rather than just a quick substitute for writing a novel. Nonetheless, he acknowledges the dwindling audience for stories.
Review, 1506 words
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