Ten Thousand Words and so much more

 

Ten Thousand Words, by Rebecca Calderon

I love a well-crafted short story, and so treating myself to a re-read of Ten Thousand Words by Rebecca Calderon, a collection of ten short stories, each a thousand words long, was a bit like being given a box of chocolates - utter self indulgence and 'which shall I treat myself to first?'

This was my April Gibraltarian read, and I sat and absorbed it in one glorious afternoon late in the month. It was a real treat even though it was a second read and the stories weren't actually new to me. However, it had been some time since I first read them and good stories are those that can be read over and over and enjoyed once and again, which is exactly what Rebecca's collection does. It was originally published in 2021, but these are the sorts of stories where you find something new every time you read them, as if you are plumbing the depths of the collection little by little. I love that; this is exactly what makes me want to hang on to a book and afford it space on my overflowing bookshelves.

Just because a story is short and takes just a few minutes to read, does not mean that it has been easy to draft. Totally the contrary, and check out my choice of words: to draft is a far more meticulous exercise than to write. Drafting implies design, planning, detailed execution, moulding, polishing to perfection. Writing is just the act of throwing words down on paper. It is the act of drafting that turns a collection of scribbles into a literary work. To then create characters, a story line, a setting, a tone, an atmosphere, a plot with beginning, middle and end in just a thousand words is a detailed, skilful task of story construction. I find it difficult, so I admire Rebecca very much for her achievement in this collection. Here is Rebecca talking about the book in an interview on GBC:

Rebecca Calderon talking to GBC

As with most successful stories, it is the characters that are stand out and here Rebecca has created a set of memorable characters. Nana, the immigrant widow, who worked so hard, submitted to her colonial masters and never went back home, or the uncomplaining Jean, Carol who has a Hockney on her wall, Jalil the perfumier, Michael, who is actually dead but manages to populate the story of the scattering of his ashes, to name just a few.

Each story is carefully constructed around a theme such as the consequences of war in The Warsaw Museum or the consequences of the Partition of India in The Immigrant Widow. And yet there is much more depth in each of them, a singe short sentence will suddenly open a window onto a sub-theme that as a reader, you are invited to explore further, which is part of the draw to re-read these stories. In La Charlotte de L'Isle, the three women go about their business "never once mentioning men". As a reader you thirst to know why, but the art of the story is in leaving you to speculate while its path takes a different course to the end.

The way Rebecca uses language is just right for such short stories. Sparse descriptions that refuse to wallow in unnecessary lyricism because there is no space in the word count challenge for rambling details are drawn up with expertly chosen vocabulary. One perfect word can be far more effective than a long, winding sentence and Rebecca applies this with a deceptive ease. She also engages the senses relentlessly, another adroit technique to bring the characters and places to life: Jalil's Quest is full of scents and sprinkled with colours; Carl resounds with music; The Warsaw Museum is a treat of visual images; 

"Dust and powder, ashes and snow. The clear bright light the white stuff brings."

I can't do justice to this collection in just a short blog, but I hope that you're tempted to get a copy. If you have any thoughts of writing short stories, and in particular in entering the local short story competition, you'd do well to read these and analyse these, their structure, language, thematic content, characterisation. The short stories that make up Ten Thousand Words are exemplary of their form.

Ten Thousand Words by Rebecca Calderon