poetically challenged

I’ve been reading an excerpt from the newly released Hunger and Other Stories by Ian Randall Wilson. The excerpt that is available online, “The Wire Man,” is a very moving story about fathers and sons.

The storie surprised me in how moving it was. At first, as I was reading, it seemed like a lot of other short stories that I read in literary magazines (and I read some of the best literary magazines on a pretty regular basis).

The story is available for reading on the website linked above. If it is an accurate indicator of the quality of the stories in the volume, then I think Mr. Wilson has come up with a really fine collection.

I read a lot of short stories, but they aren’t usually my choice of genre. I generally prefer novels or poetry. The reason I am not a big short story fan is that I tend to prefer the character development we can get in a novel but that is virtually impossible in a shorter story. In “The Wire Man,” though, I found that the characters are the driving force behind the story, and for me that makes it a good story. I know, having read this one, I’d be happy to pick up any short story of Ian Randall Wilson’s that I find and read it. That’s another sign that a story is working for me.

If you are a short story reader, or if you are a fan of father/son stories, then I think you might like Hunger and Other Stories. You can visit the website linked above and read more about it, and read the excerpt “The Wire Man” there.