Hypertext Magazine asked Rob Davidson, author of What Some Would Call Lies, “What drew you to the form of the novella?”
By Rob Davidson
What drew you to the form of the novella?
I didn’t so much choose the form as it chose me. The two novellas in What Some Would Call Lies started out as short stories that weren’t behaving themselves. So I let them grow and expand. I’d written a long story in an earlier book—“Criminals” in The Farther Shore—and had sensed a different kind of power in the longer form. It took me several years of on-again, off-again labor to complete What Some Would Call Lies, but I never doubted that the novella was the correct form for the stories I was writing.
The novella is a remarkably elastic form. It carries with it some of the concision, quickness, and exactitude of the short story, while also reaching for some of the breadth and depth we associate with the novel. Or, as William Giraldi describes it, “an expert novella combines the best of a short story with the best of a novel, the dynamic thighs of a sprinter with the long-distance lungs of a mountaineer.”
Case in point: “Shoplifting” is the story of Monica Evans, an aspiring author, a young mother struggling to raise a toddler, a neglected wife juggling a long-distance marriage, and a woman grieving her sister’s death. In an attempt to come to terms with this most recent loss—and to jump-start her stalled artistic life—Monica decides to write her late sister’s autobiography in the first person. This decision angers and confuses some readers (including her mother), but it pushes Monica toward healing. It’s definitely too much for a short story, but I found it fit the novella form perfectly.
The most powerful novellas honor the old Latin phrase, festina lente, or to “hurry slowly.” The novella is quick but not shallow. It is light but not vapid. It is exact because its author is rigorously selective. It’s perhaps the perfect literary form for our information-saturated age, if only readers can pause to embrace it.
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Rob Davidson’s most recent book is What Some Would Call Lies: Novellas (Five Oaks, 2018), praised by Reader Views as “A fascinating collection… extraordinary works that are a pure treat to read.” His previous short fiction collections include Spectators: Flash Fictions (Five Oaks, 2017), which Kirkus Reviews commended as “A small but mighty collection of textual snapshots… Flash fiction at its best that’s definitely worth a look.” Davidson’s fiction, essays and interviews have appeared in Zyzzyva, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, New Delta Review, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. His honors include a Fulbright award, multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, and an AWP Intro Journals Project Award in fiction. He teaches creative writing and American literature at California State University, Chico.
Find out more at robdavidsonauthor.net
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