Life Is Short - Art Is Shorter: In Praise of Brevity

by David Shields, Elizabeth Cooperman

Life Is Short—Art Is Shorter is not just the first anthology to gather both mini-essays and short-short stories; readers, writers, and teachers will get will get an anthology; a course’s worth of writing exercises; a rally for compression, concision, and velocity in an increasingly digital, post-religious age; and a meditation on the brevity of human existence.

1. We are mortal beings.
2. There is no god.
3. We live in a digital culture.
4. Art is related to the body and to the culture.
5. Art should reflect these things.
6. Brevity rules.

The book’s 40 contributors include Donald Barthelme, Kate Chopin, Lydia Davis, Annie Dillard, Jonathan Safran Foer, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Jamaica Kincaid, Wayne Koestenbaum, Anne Lamott, Daphne Merkin, Rick Moody, Dinty W. Moore, George Orwell, Jayne Anne Phillips, George Saunders, Lauren Slater, James Tate, and Paul Theroux.

Genres: Essays, Writing, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Short Stories

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2015

About the author

David Shields is the author of fourteen books, including Reality Hunger (Knopf, 2010), which was named one of the best books of 2010 by more than thirty publications. GQ called it "the most provocative, brain-rewiring book of 2010"; the New York Times called it "a mind-bending manifesto." His previous book, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Knopf, 2008), was a New York Times bestseller. His other books include Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity, winner of the PEN/Revson Award; and Dead Languages: A Novel, winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. His essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Yale Review, Believer, Village Voice, Salon, Slate, McSweeney's, and Utne Reader; he's written reviews for the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Boston Globe, and Philadelphia Inquirer. His work has been translated into fifteen languages.

Reviews

[Julie Sommer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories definitely has hits and misses, but it is truly amazing how few words a story truly can take. Some of the stories could cross over into the realm of poetry in some ways and are told beautifully.

[Jessica Knauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishingly effective in their brevity, the pieces here inspire you to experiment in this age of short attention spans.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This anthology is broken up into small sections of different types of short pieces. The pieces are well chosen, and the introductions of each section offer good challenges for writing students, so overall a worthwhile read.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the '90s I was talking with a writer friend of mine about music subcultures of the '80s, how they swept up the young and then disappeared. He said that when he was in college, or grad school, in the '80s the same thing happened with short stories: there was going to be a short story movement that would change everything, & the forward-thinking should get ready for it.

Recently I was reading about some cool music bar that -- I think this was back in the '90s -- had a library that consisted of nothing but short story anthologies.

When I was a kid I really liked a book called, as I remember it, 100 Short Short Science Fiction Stories. I just googled this title and it looks like maybe I remembered it wrong and it was actually titled 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories, published 1978.

Life Is Short is a collection of short written works, fiction and nonfiction, with commentary and quickie "write something similar" assignments by David Shields. I haven't read any other Shieldswork but there seems to be a brevity manifesto in there somewhere. These short pieces vary in time from the late-19th Century "Story of an Hour" to that Orwell killing-an-elephant story to, of course, recent stuff. And they vary in quality, though none are terrible.

[Jonathan Hiskes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid mixed-genre anthology of taut, compact writing--a case for brevity.

[Delta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously, I don't read short stories often enough, because some of these blew my mind. All of them were excellent examples at how to express an idea or a story in a dozen or fewer pages. And while the short stories were amazing, I can't honestly say the same about the introductions to each section. I understand that the editors are trying to enhance the stories and highlight what makes each story great, but they are far too long and tend to spoil the stories for me.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

[J.Istsfor Manity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over three dozen micro fictions, micro nonfictions, and hybrids in between.

Varying qualities: some old, some new, and without doubt every section annoyingly preceded by the editors providing a synopsis and “writing assignment” on what you’re about to read.

This was so intrusive that I read the book sections from back to front after the midway point. So instead of being told what I was to read, it became a recap.

Some gems here, and some duds.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of short pieces that generate conversation and thought.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent antidote to Covid 19 events! When you can no longer take another Trump news conference, read something short like this.

Purchased at NP library used book sale.
4.5

[Jasminum Mcmullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read. My only issue is with the spoilers.

[Angela Palm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the uses of and need for brevity in prose. Highly teachable. Utilitarian for writers. It's a joy and journey to read it start to finish (the introduction alone is worth a look), but you could also dip in and out as needed. I say comprehensive but maybe it is more accurate to say it is comprehensive enough to inspire your own ideas and methods of brevity and turn you immediately to the page to try some things. Exactly what a book like this ought to do.

[Jenna Hazzard]

This was a good collection of short short stories, but I ended up skipping over the introductions to each section because it seemed pointless to read without having read the stories first. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with this book, but I got busy with other books. I might return to it later, if I want to read more of the short stories.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great collection of essays, but if you have them separately it's a moot point. Still, a useful assemblage of short stories and essays if you don't posses 'em. SHORT short essays! That was a silly exclamation point.

[Mac · Rating 1 out of 5]

ass

[Kent Winward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes.