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Reverse Engineering II
Seven of the greatest modern short stories - disassembled by their authors.
This innovative anthology reveals the inspiration, the ideals and the work involved in a great short story. Reverse Engineering II brings together contemporary classic stories with their authors’ discussion of how they wrote it.
Reverse Engineering II features stories and interviews from Eley Williams, Ben Okri, Yiyun Li, Tessa Hadley, Wendy Erskine, Tom Drury and Sussie Anie.
Find out how the best stories are written...
This innovative anthology reveals the inspiration, the ideals and the work involved in a great short story. Reverse Engineering II brings together contemporary classic stories with their authors’ discussion of how they wrote it.
Reverse Engineering II features stories and interviews from Eley Williams, Ben Okri, Yiyun Li, Tessa Hadley, Wendy Erskine, Tom Drury and Sussie Anie.
Find out how the best stories are written...
176 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 3, 2022
Reverse Engineering II is the second volume from an exciting new small press, dedicated to the art of the short-story and set up by Tom Conaghan (who also works as an Editor for another wonderful press, Lolli Editions):
Reverse Engineering II, like the first volume Reverse Engineering, is an anthology of seven previously published short stories from masters of the craft, itself a treat, but the collection's unique value comes from Conaghan's Q&A with each of the authors, as he invites them to look back at their work to critique and deconstruct it, hence the name of the book.
As Tom Conaghan explains in his preface there is a subtle change to the nature of this questioning from the first volume: "Whereas the first volume of Reverse Engineering asked writers about the choices they made, this edition asks them about writing that doesn't come from choices. The distinction is small, the difference between explaining how they wrote their stories, and how they wrote their stories," and this is evident in the Q&A which often focuses on the personal stories behind the stories as well as the craft involved.
The stories selected here:
Path Lights by Tom Drury, published in the New Yorker.
Maintenance by Sussie Anie, which was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize.
Bad Dreams by Tessa Hadley from the collection Bad Dreams and Other Stories; the story was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award and the collection won the Edge Hill Prize.
Ancient Times of Karma by Ben Okri from the collection Prayer for the Living, Okri a Booker Prize winning author.
All Will Be Well by Yiyun Li, published in the New Yorker.
Bulk by Eley Williams from the collection Attrib. and other stories which won the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2018, the year I was on the jury, as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (one of the UK's oldest literary prizes).
To All Their Dues by Wendy Erskine from the collection Sweet Home, which was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and Edge Hill Prize and won the Butler Literary Prize.
The last two stories, which I'd read previously due to my involvement in the Republic of Consciousness Prize, were a delight to read again with the author's commentary. Interestingly Williams seemed to have retained less direct memory of the processes involved than some of the other authors, so her comments were often more retrospective but no less illuminating.
My highlight of the collection, as the author as well as story were new for me, was the opening story by Tom Drury, which achieves a lot of complexity in a handful of pages, accompanied by a fascinating discussion.
The one disappointment for me was the story by perhaps the highest profile author, Ben Okri, although more known for his Booker winning novel than his mastery of the shorter form. The 2-page story is one of a form he calls a stoku. A stoku, is an amalgam of the short story and the haiku. It follows the other conventions of the haiku except the 17 syllable and three-line requirement. This means that it is always a work of brevity. It has one fundamental difference from the traditional short-story: it follows dream logic.. The interview that follows seems, I suspect deliberately, to follow a similar approach, which makes Okri's responses to the questions not terribly engaging and rather gnomic.
4.5 stars - I awarded the first collection 5, and this perhaps had less impact on me as I'd seen the form before but either or both volumes are strongly recommended.
Also recommended:
The weekly newsletter from the publisher featuring classic short stories: https://www.scratch-books.co.uk/scrat...
The Personal Anthologies of short-stories curated by Jonathan Gibbs from different contributors. E.g. this from Conaghan: https://apersonalanthology.com/catego...
Nicholas Royle's annual Best British Short Stories - the 2022 edition due soon: https://www.saltpublishing.com/produc...
We are Scratch Books.
We are named after a strange sensation - the feeling of stroking the soft fur of a cat, to discover later as you walk away, that it scratched you.
Which, for us, is what a short story is like...
At Scratch Books, we are dedicated to the craft of short stories.
Our first books - the Reverse Engineering series - bring together the best modern short stories with a discussion by each writer on their instincts, processes and ideas behind it.
Reverse Engineering II, like the first volume Reverse Engineering, is an anthology of seven previously published short stories from masters of the craft, itself a treat, but the collection's unique value comes from Conaghan's Q&A with each of the authors, as he invites them to look back at their work to critique and deconstruct it, hence the name of the book.
As Tom Conaghan explains in his preface there is a subtle change to the nature of this questioning from the first volume: "Whereas the first volume of Reverse Engineering asked writers about the choices they made, this edition asks them about writing that doesn't come from choices. The distinction is small, the difference between explaining how they wrote their stories, and how they wrote their stories," and this is evident in the Q&A which often focuses on the personal stories behind the stories as well as the craft involved.
The stories selected here:
Path Lights by Tom Drury, published in the New Yorker.
Maintenance by Sussie Anie, which was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize.
Bad Dreams by Tessa Hadley from the collection Bad Dreams and Other Stories; the story was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award and the collection won the Edge Hill Prize.
Ancient Times of Karma by Ben Okri from the collection Prayer for the Living, Okri a Booker Prize winning author.
All Will Be Well by Yiyun Li, published in the New Yorker.
Bulk by Eley Williams from the collection Attrib. and other stories which won the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2018, the year I was on the jury, as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (one of the UK's oldest literary prizes).
To All Their Dues by Wendy Erskine from the collection Sweet Home, which was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and Edge Hill Prize and won the Butler Literary Prize.
The last two stories, which I'd read previously due to my involvement in the Republic of Consciousness Prize, were a delight to read again with the author's commentary. Interestingly Williams seemed to have retained less direct memory of the processes involved than some of the other authors, so her comments were often more retrospective but no less illuminating.
My highlight of the collection, as the author as well as story were new for me, was the opening story by Tom Drury, which achieves a lot of complexity in a handful of pages, accompanied by a fascinating discussion.
The one disappointment for me was the story by perhaps the highest profile author, Ben Okri, although more known for his Booker winning novel than his mastery of the shorter form. The 2-page story is one of a form he calls a stoku. A stoku, is an amalgam of the short story and the haiku. It follows the other conventions of the haiku except the 17 syllable and three-line requirement. This means that it is always a work of brevity. It has one fundamental difference from the traditional short-story: it follows dream logic.. The interview that follows seems, I suspect deliberately, to follow a similar approach, which makes Okri's responses to the questions not terribly engaging and rather gnomic.
4.5 stars - I awarded the first collection 5, and this perhaps had less impact on me as I'd seen the form before but either or both volumes are strongly recommended.
Also recommended:
The weekly newsletter from the publisher featuring classic short stories: https://www.scratch-books.co.uk/scrat...
The Personal Anthologies of short-stories curated by Jonathan Gibbs from different contributors. E.g. this from Conaghan: https://apersonalanthology.com/catego...
Nicholas Royle's annual Best British Short Stories - the 2022 edition due soon: https://www.saltpublishing.com/produc...
August 28, 2023
I loved Reverse Engineering so this was a must-read for me - another set of seven short stories with commentary by their authors. And Reverse Engineering II hits higher highs, but also lower lows, than the previous collection, in my opinion. There are some absolutely stunning stories here - the ones that stood out to me all painstakingly and beautifully record the detail of ordinary lives, often hinging on chance encounters in hairdressers, beauty salons, under bridges. Tom Drury's 'Path Lights', Tessa Hadley's 'Bad Dreams', Yiyun Li's 'All Will Be Well' and Wendy Erskine's 'To All Their Dues' were all in this group. I was especially struck by one of Erskine's reflections on her craft, which is in tension with a lot of contemporary writing advice, but rings absolutely true to me: 'The thing that is often said about the short story form [and I'd add, about novels as well] is that every single sentence must drive the story forward - I've got to say I don't entirely agree with it... there's also the room for aspects of the story that are providing a kind of complexity or nuance or supplying a kind of texture... Also, I absolutely hate the idea of backstory. I think that's such a misnomer. It gives the impression that the past is always subservient to the present and that people's past experiences are only interesting and have validity in how they form the present.'
Sadly, the other three stories fell short. Having read Eley Williams's Attrib., I knew in advance that I didn't click with her writing, although the way she discussed her story 'Bulk' at least helped me to understand why - her approach to dialogue ('convincingly unconvincing') and character ('I did not want the reader to be overly invested in any of the characters') doesn't vibe with mine. Similarly, I didn't like Sussie Anie's 'Maintenance', but this was further illuminated by her comments, as she had aimed to integrate 'fantasy, science fiction, magical realism and literary fiction', and I think the demands of those things are in direct tension with each other. The biggest disappointment, however, was Ben Okri's section: not only did I find his story, 'Ancient Ties of Karma', frustrating, he seemed actively unwilling to talk about it, which feels churlish if you've agreed to take part in a collection like this. Still, however, this is an essential read on the craft of fiction-writing, even if short stories are not your primary form. 4.5 stars.
Sadly, the other three stories fell short. Having read Eley Williams's Attrib., I knew in advance that I didn't click with her writing, although the way she discussed her story 'Bulk' at least helped me to understand why - her approach to dialogue ('convincingly unconvincing') and character ('I did not want the reader to be overly invested in any of the characters') doesn't vibe with mine. Similarly, I didn't like Sussie Anie's 'Maintenance', but this was further illuminated by her comments, as she had aimed to integrate 'fantasy, science fiction, magical realism and literary fiction', and I think the demands of those things are in direct tension with each other. The biggest disappointment, however, was Ben Okri's section: not only did I find his story, 'Ancient Ties of Karma', frustrating, he seemed actively unwilling to talk about it, which feels churlish if you've agreed to take part in a collection like this. Still, however, this is an essential read on the craft of fiction-writing, even if short stories are not your primary form. 4.5 stars.
January 24, 2023
4.5
Scratch Book’s second offering of their ‘reverse engineering’ of short stories is just as good as the first, if not better. As the editor explains in the foreword, the first volume asked writers about the choices they made; this one asks them about “writing that doesn’t come from choices.” This made for extensive, and intensive, conversations — except maybe for Ben Okri’s. He’s more laconic than the others, though he’s adamant about certain things, such as the telling/showing dichotomy being a false one. His story, less than two pages long, is exquisite.
A much longer story (though not the longest of the seven) is “All Will Be Well” by Yiyun Li. I’d heard it read (and discussed) on The New Yorker Fiction podcast and I was happy to have the chance to read it here. In her interview, Li couldn’t be more generous. It alone is worth the price of the book. I was reminded I loved her collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl (read in 2011!) and had been meaning to read more of her since.
Scratch Book’s second offering of their ‘reverse engineering’ of short stories is just as good as the first, if not better. As the editor explains in the foreword, the first volume asked writers about the choices they made; this one asks them about “writing that doesn’t come from choices.” This made for extensive, and intensive, conversations — except maybe for Ben Okri’s. He’s more laconic than the others, though he’s adamant about certain things, such as the telling/showing dichotomy being a false one. His story, less than two pages long, is exquisite.
A much longer story (though not the longest of the seven) is “All Will Be Well” by Yiyun Li. I’d heard it read (and discussed) on The New Yorker Fiction podcast and I was happy to have the chance to read it here. In her interview, Li couldn’t be more generous. It alone is worth the price of the book. I was reminded I loved her collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl (read in 2011!) and had been meaning to read more of her since.
August 28, 2023
I’m not a fan of short stories but got this in a subscription so thought I’d try myself out in preparation for joining a short story reading group next month. The first story met every negative preconception I had about the form, made worse by the subsequent interview which made it clear (to me) the author was throwing round some of his own experiences but without a wider plan. I enjoyed some of the others though, especially Bad Dreams and Bulk which were snippets but fairly self contained. Perhaps I’ll look back at this after a year of short story study and realise I didn’t know what I was talking about
May 1, 2023
4.0
Always interesting to hear about backstage thoughts and the ideas, goals, inspiration, mechanics, processes, even particular word choices that the authors followed to write their short stories.
Always interesting to hear about backstage thoughts and the ideas, goals, inspiration, mechanics, processes, even particular word choices that the authors followed to write their short stories.
December 21, 2024
Though I'd seen some of the stories before, I found the book useful. Having an interviewer stops authors becoming pretentious about their pieces in the way that some Best American Short Stories authors do. It was interesting to see how leit-motifs emerged during rewrites (Tom Drury's up/down, for example) and which early sentences signposted the story's "moral". I suspect that the authors removed text that inexperienced story readers might have expected to see - backstory and continuity passages. The piece that rose most in my appreciation because of this book was "Bulk" (Eley Williams).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews