Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Set in 1900 American South, its protagonist comes to terms with how to have a life of her own choosing. And then there’s Woolf’s A Room of Ones Own altho not a novel.. Particularly good as it can be read in little gulps. But still has a lot of big ideas.
Oh, The Awakening is one of my favourite novels, Pamela...thank you for the reminder that it is indeed a very short read! Such a classic, too. It just shows that you don't need a lot of space to pack a huge story in. A Room of One's Own inspired this newsletter, although I haven't read it for a while so might have to have a re-read...Thank you for sharing :)
I came here to comment The Awakening too! It was one of the last books I read last year and it has stayed with me ever since. Bonjour Tristesse is a great read - I think I read it in 2 days. Great recommendations!
The first novel (and the only one) I read in French was Bonjour, Tristesse and loved It. Who didn't? The thing with Sagan was that her each next novel was worse than preceding. Her fafe was terrible, you evidently know. I loved M. Spark's, V. Woolf's novels, and now I found incredibly interesting French Black novelist Marie Ndiaye' novel "Three Strong Women", which are ,actually, three stories, not connected to each other by any characters. Thank you for reminding us our forgotten favorite writers.
Poor girl. She was heavily in drugs. That's the reason, I think. Spent time in prison for selling drugs and died soon after prison, if I remember correctly. Love your A Narrative of Their Own. Larisa
Yes, I was just thinking about this topic today as I’ve written about it briefly in my own newsletter.
“Wide Sargasso Sea”, by Jean Rhys, whom you mentioned last week. It’s a fairly short novel but it has so many layers to it. I have to cross-reference it with Jane Eyre as I read it, so it always feels much longer than it is.
Thanks for mentioning the others, I have read 84, Charing Cross Road but am well overdue a re-read. I will certainly add the others to my very long must-read list.
Thank you for reading! You are right, I had forgotten how short WSS is until I re-read it recently, I think because as you say it has so many layers to it. I think short classics are a great idea as they are more accessible than some of the longer tomes.
Thanks, Laura! Oh, you’re right about The Driver’s Seat…I think I wrote about that way back on here somewhere…such an odd story but I flew through it! Actually, a lot of Muriel’s novels would probably fit this category- I almost put The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in, which is a lovely slim volume :)
I couldn’t find it earlier! But then I realised it’s because I actually wrote about Brodie, but combined the essay with The Driver’s Seat as a reflection on Spark’s questionable feminist characters, I think…here it is anyway! https://anarrativeoftheirown.substack.com/p/reconsidering-miss-jean-brodie
This is one of my most favorite topics! Love tinies for so many reasons! Definitely a cure for a slump AND so perfect when you are just crazy busy but still want to be reading a little bit.
My favorite tinies from this year:
Foster and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - very Chekhovian (is this a word?!)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Clear by Carys Davies
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt --> SO FUNNY.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Playboy by Constance Debre
I am saving all your recommendations but SUPER interested in the Sagan novel, it sounds really provocative (which, as you know, is how I like them).
I recall you doing a post on short novels and novellas a little while back which I loved. (*Pause while Tash digs through Petya's archive...). Aha! Issue 60 - Reading tiny books. https://petya.substack.com/p/issue-60-reading-tiny-books
Thanks for all these recs (which I haven't yet read other than Convenience Store Woman- which I loved). Playboy is on my list after reading your post on it.
Definitely get hold of the Sagan! It's a funny one because I loved it (and it's so short and fits into a small bag wonderfully…) but it makes me laugh how controversial it was! It isn't very shocking at all compared to what we read now (All Fours, anyone?!)
Your essay is such a valuable read for me, Kate, because I appear to have always avoided shorter novels and novellas. I now aim to remedy this as quickly as possible. Thank you !
I've just read Elizabeth Taylor's The Soul of Kindness in a couple of afternoons. A new author to me, and it was good to curl up with a book that was around 200 pages in length rather than the usual 400 or so! Fewer than ten characters and such subtle, ironic writing: the title is apt, but the book is not what you'd expect!
Shorter novels and novellas I’ve read and loved recently include: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Swimming Home by Deborah Levy and Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill.
And I loved Bonjour Tristesse too - how on earth was it written by a teenager?!
Thanks, Tash! Omg I forgot about Swimming Home! That would definitely be in my top 10, Levy is such an original writer. Don't know if you've also read Hot Milk by her (not as short) but definitely recommend. Dept of Spec is also a great choice.
Can you take a reader request and write us a primer on Levy? I read The Cost of LIving earlier this year and thought it was good, but I had expected to be OBSESSED.. and felt kind of deflating. I think at the time Tash told me to try some of her fiction and see if that brings me closer in.
That sounds like a challenge!! I shall put it on my list. I know what you mean though...I find her brilliant in some cases and then the next encounter, less so.
Oh good - I'll definitely seek out Hot Milk in that case. Levy is a new discovery for me but so far the other books of hers that I've read haven't been quite as amazing as Swimming Home (which knocked my flipping socks off!).
Yes, I know what you mean! I think I csme to her first with Swimming Home and so thought I wanted to read everything by her. But her books are all quite different and I've had more success with some than others. Hot Milk was a close second to Swimming Home, and The Cost of Living (part of her memoirs) I also enjoyed.
I love the idea of reading a short novel as a 'palette cleanser.' I really enjoyed The Red Notebook and the film version of 84 Charring Cross Road. I like how you have given credit to the shorter novel, as I think that these can often be overlooked in our reading diet. Great piece.
I'm a huge proponent of tiny books (pun intended), so this is really right up my alley! I'll make a short list of short ones in translation with something of a fragmented or unresolved narrative because that is often what I gravitate towards!
So, to name a few: Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation, Adania Shibli's Minor Detail, Olga Ravn's The Employees, Samantha Schweblin's Fever Dream, Nona Fernandéz's Space Invaders, Natalia Ginzburg's The Dry Heart.
Omg I just put a hold on Natalia Ginzburg's The Road to the City after seeing a collection of her books in a bookstore yesterday!! She has writtrn lots of small novels and I have yet to try them! Will add The Dry Heart and these others to my list- thank you! 😊 I often find that translated novels I've enjoyed fall into the short novel category.
I haven't read this one yet but I want to! I absolutely love short novels, so I'm eagerly taking recommendations from your post and from other comments!
OMG. I’m not trying to promote my own Substack but if you scroll through this you’ll get tidbits about why the book is so amazing. I actually can’t stop recommending it. And the best part is, I hear from so many people who read it and love it!
Thanks for these great recommendations, Kate. The cover of The Red Notebook has me sold, and I’ll definitely get a copy. I recently pulled 84 Charing Cross Road off the shelf and it’s on the TBR again pile. I love your suggestion to watch the film with a hot beverage and a blanket… but might I also suggest a large box of tissues…
I think you will enjoy The Red Notebook and I would definitely suggest The Readers’ Room by him for you as it is a literary mystery centred around a manuscript and lit agency. Brilliant!
I've loved the two most recent Claire Keegan novellas, along with half the world, and I'm looking forward to seeing Cillian Murphy in the film of So Late.. but I recently came across her earlier work, Foster, and loved that too. As I have just ploughed my way through Miss Yonge's The Daisy Chain, 667 pages of very small type, this is a very timely Substack from you. Sometimes you want to fall into a massive family saga, like a winter stew with dumplings, sometimes you just want a little novelle cuisine!
Thanks, Sarah. Claire K is getting a lot of love so must read hers! I love your analogy of a winter stew and dumpling versus anlittle novelle cuisine! And now I'm craving my mother's stew and dumplings...
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Set in 1900 American South, its protagonist comes to terms with how to have a life of her own choosing. And then there’s Woolf’s A Room of Ones Own altho not a novel.. Particularly good as it can be read in little gulps. But still has a lot of big ideas.
Oh, The Awakening is one of my favourite novels, Pamela...thank you for the reminder that it is indeed a very short read! Such a classic, too. It just shows that you don't need a lot of space to pack a huge story in. A Room of One's Own inspired this newsletter, although I haven't read it for a while so might have to have a re-read...Thank you for sharing :)
I came here to comment The Awakening too! It was one of the last books I read last year and it has stayed with me ever since. Bonjour Tristesse is a great read - I think I read it in 2 days. Great recommendations!
The Awakening and Bonjour T are 2 of my very favourites! There are so many great recommendations here, I feel so inspired to try them all!
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr is one of my all time favourite books.
Thanks, Shelly! Not read that one!
Oh you must! It's lovely. Great film with Branagh and Firth as well
I read this recently! A beautiful book.
Foster by Claire Keegan. Just 90 pages, I loved every one of them.
Ah, I’ve seen that one as a favourite on a lot of reading lists and I still haven’t read it! Thank you for the reminder :)
The first novel (and the only one) I read in French was Bonjour, Tristesse and loved It. Who didn't? The thing with Sagan was that her each next novel was worse than preceding. Her fafe was terrible, you evidently know. I loved M. Spark's, V. Woolf's novels, and now I found incredibly interesting French Black novelist Marie Ndiaye' novel "Three Strong Women", which are ,actually, three stories, not connected to each other by any characters. Thank you for reminding us our forgotten favorite writers.
Thank you, Larisa. Yes, I have heard that Sagan's later novels didn't quite live up to her first. Glad to have reminded you!
Poor girl. She was heavily in drugs. That's the reason, I think. Spent time in prison for selling drugs and died soon after prison, if I remember correctly. Love your A Narrative of Their Own. Larisa
💕
Yes, I was just thinking about this topic today as I’ve written about it briefly in my own newsletter.
“Wide Sargasso Sea”, by Jean Rhys, whom you mentioned last week. It’s a fairly short novel but it has so many layers to it. I have to cross-reference it with Jane Eyre as I read it, so it always feels much longer than it is.
Thanks for mentioning the others, I have read 84, Charing Cross Road but am well overdue a re-read. I will certainly add the others to my very long must-read list.
Thank you for reading! You are right, I had forgotten how short WSS is until I re-read it recently, I think because as you say it has so many layers to it. I think short classics are a great idea as they are more accessible than some of the longer tomes.
Love this! And love Bonjour Tristesse, so so much... excellent to have more recommendations.
My favourite short book is probably The Driver's Seat, by our beloved Muriel. Not the most cheerful (!) but a thing of perfection.
Thanks, Laura! Oh, you’re right about The Driver’s Seat…I think I wrote about that way back on here somewhere…such an odd story but I flew through it! Actually, a lot of Muriel’s novels would probably fit this category- I almost put The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in, which is a lovely slim volume :)
Exactly!
I must check out what you wrote about The DS... that novel absolutely fascinates me.
I couldn’t find it earlier! But then I realised it’s because I actually wrote about Brodie, but combined the essay with The Driver’s Seat as a reflection on Spark’s questionable feminist characters, I think…here it is anyway! https://anarrativeoftheirown.substack.com/p/reconsidering-miss-jean-brodie
Tremendous essay Kate. I love the honest way you confront the unending enigma of Spark and her women - the brilliance of her mischief-making.
I hadn't known that The DS was her personal favourite. Many thanks for the link!
💕
Thanks Kate, I really look forward to this!
This is one of my most favorite topics! Love tinies for so many reasons! Definitely a cure for a slump AND so perfect when you are just crazy busy but still want to be reading a little bit.
My favorite tinies from this year:
Foster and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - very Chekhovian (is this a word?!)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Clear by Carys Davies
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt --> SO FUNNY.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Playboy by Constance Debre
I am saving all your recommendations but SUPER interested in the Sagan novel, it sounds really provocative (which, as you know, is how I like them).
Ethan Frome is one of my absolute favourites
Me too. Perfectly controlled suspense the whole way through. And completely devastating. I don't think I've read a more devastating book.
I recall you doing a post on short novels and novellas a little while back which I loved. (*Pause while Tash digs through Petya's archive...). Aha! Issue 60 - Reading tiny books. https://petya.substack.com/p/issue-60-reading-tiny-books
Ooh, thanks for sharing, Tash!
Thanks for all these recs (which I haven't yet read other than Convenience Store Woman- which I loved). Playboy is on my list after reading your post on it.
Definitely get hold of the Sagan! It's a funny one because I loved it (and it's so short and fits into a small bag wonderfully…) but it makes me laugh how controversial it was! It isn't very shocking at all compared to what we read now (All Fours, anyone?!)
Your essay is such a valuable read for me, Kate, because I appear to have always avoided shorter novels and novellas. I now aim to remedy this as quickly as possible. Thank you !
Well, you are welcome, Maureen! I have to say, I'm blown away by how many recommendations people have!
I've just read Elizabeth Taylor's The Soul of Kindness in a couple of afternoons. A new author to me, and it was good to curl up with a book that was around 200 pages in length rather than the usual 400 or so! Fewer than ten characters and such subtle, ironic writing: the title is apt, but the book is not what you'd expect!
Ooh, that sounds interesting! I'll add it to my list 😀
Shorter novels and novellas I’ve read and loved recently include: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Swimming Home by Deborah Levy and Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill.
And I loved Bonjour Tristesse too - how on earth was it written by a teenager?!
Thanks, Tash! Omg I forgot about Swimming Home! That would definitely be in my top 10, Levy is such an original writer. Don't know if you've also read Hot Milk by her (not as short) but definitely recommend. Dept of Spec is also a great choice.
Sagan must have been a genius!
Can you take a reader request and write us a primer on Levy? I read The Cost of LIving earlier this year and thought it was good, but I had expected to be OBSESSED.. and felt kind of deflating. I think at the time Tash told me to try some of her fiction and see if that brings me closer in.
Also, I'd definitely go with Tash and try Swimming Home first. Really interesting characters. Maybe then Hot Milk, again, fascinating character study.
That sounds like a challenge!! I shall put it on my list. I know what you mean though...I find her brilliant in some cases and then the next encounter, less so.
Oh yes please. I second this.
Oh good - I'll definitely seek out Hot Milk in that case. Levy is a new discovery for me but so far the other books of hers that I've read haven't been quite as amazing as Swimming Home (which knocked my flipping socks off!).
Yes, I know what you mean! I think I csme to her first with Swimming Home and so thought I wanted to read everything by her. But her books are all quite different and I've had more success with some than others. Hot Milk was a close second to Swimming Home, and The Cost of Living (part of her memoirs) I also enjoyed.
I love the idea of reading a short novel as a 'palette cleanser.' I really enjoyed The Red Notebook and the film version of 84 Charring Cross Road. I like how you have given credit to the shorter novel, as I think that these can often be overlooked in our reading diet. Great piece.
Thank you! 😀
I'm a huge proponent of tiny books (pun intended), so this is really right up my alley! I'll make a short list of short ones in translation with something of a fragmented or unresolved narrative because that is often what I gravitate towards!
So, to name a few: Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation, Adania Shibli's Minor Detail, Olga Ravn's The Employees, Samantha Schweblin's Fever Dream, Nona Fernandéz's Space Invaders, Natalia Ginzburg's The Dry Heart.
Omg I just put a hold on Natalia Ginzburg's The Road to the City after seeing a collection of her books in a bookstore yesterday!! She has writtrn lots of small novels and I have yet to try them! Will add The Dry Heart and these others to my list- thank you! 😊 I often find that translated novels I've enjoyed fall into the short novel category.
I haven't read this one yet but I want to! I absolutely love short novels, so I'm eagerly taking recommendations from your post and from other comments!
There are SO many great recs on there! So glad I asked for readers’ help on finding more 😀
Great suggestions here and in comments. I would add 'The Girls of Slender Means' by Muriel Spark.
Thanks, June! Excellent suggestion, I loved that book when I read it many years ago.
Yes to the tinies! I would be remiss if I didn't suggest the book I'm always raving about: Open Throat by Henry Hoke. So, so brilliant.
Ooh, not heard of that one! Thanks, Kolina :)
OMG. I’m not trying to promote my own Substack but if you scroll through this you’ll get tidbits about why the book is so amazing. I actually can’t stop recommending it. And the best part is, I hear from so many people who read it and love it!
https://kolinacicero.substack.com/p/open-throat-by-henry-hoke?utm_source=publication-search
Thanks, I will take a look, I'm intrigued…
🥹🥹🥹
Thanks for these great recommendations, Kate. The cover of The Red Notebook has me sold, and I’ll definitely get a copy. I recently pulled 84 Charing Cross Road off the shelf and it’s on the TBR again pile. I love your suggestion to watch the film with a hot beverage and a blanket… but might I also suggest a large box of tissues…
Ah, yes…definitely tissues!
I think you will enjoy The Red Notebook and I would definitely suggest The Readers’ Room by him for you as it is a literary mystery centred around a manuscript and lit agency. Brilliant!
Ooh, that definitely sounds interesting! Thank you :)
I've loved the two most recent Claire Keegan novellas, along with half the world, and I'm looking forward to seeing Cillian Murphy in the film of So Late.. but I recently came across her earlier work, Foster, and loved that too. As I have just ploughed my way through Miss Yonge's The Daisy Chain, 667 pages of very small type, this is a very timely Substack from you. Sometimes you want to fall into a massive family saga, like a winter stew with dumplings, sometimes you just want a little novelle cuisine!
Thanks, Sarah. Claire K is getting a lot of love so must read hers! I love your analogy of a winter stew and dumpling versus anlittle novelle cuisine! And now I'm craving my mother's stew and dumplings...
well there are an awful lot of dumplings in The Daisy Chain...I'm considering writing about it, need to let it settle first (like any heavy meal!)...