I love short stories, after verse, the short story form is the most deft, requiring skills that are not necessarily needed in prose. This is for a couple of reasons, for a short story to be effective, precision and direction is fundamental and not everyone can write an effective short story. It employs an economy of words, most would go as far as saying that each and every word used has to have a purpose for being, every word is a key. And the purpose of a short story, as Julio Cortázar expresses in his essay "Algunos aspectos sobre el cuento", is to reveal to the reader a greater truth hidden within the finite world created in the story. It functions much as a photograph does, the story opens the readers' mind to see what isn't automatically seen. Having said this, I find that the short stories created in Latin America most embody this essence, and it employs it to perfection.
So here are my five favorite short stories so far (which I think everyone should read):
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Las Babas del Diablo/ Blow Up by Julio Cortázar
La Muerte y La Brújula by Jorge Luis Borges ***
Aura by Carlos Fuentes
Cathedral by Raymond Carver
I have added the links where the stories can be found, read and enjoyed.
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