Howard Goldblatt

An eclectic collection of stories, each under 1000 words: Loud Sparrows invites readers into Chinese lives with tales that feel as carefully selected and ordered as the well-chosen words that form them. Sometimes there’s a feeling that something was lost in translation, but for the most part, these stories recreate lives both familiar and strange, and situations that are frequently achingly real. Some tales are snippets, like seeds waiting to grow in the reader’s imagination. Others fit so much into their small frame you wonder what magic made it possible.

Each section starts with a very short, very gripping snippet –my favorite might be the choice of write-in candidates for election, which introduces the stories headed “Choices.” Section headings alone provide food for thought – “Controversy” leading to “Anticipation” to “Creatures” and more. And the story selection somehow makes the section transitions natural as well, no small achievement.

Short shorts are ideal for readers with short times to read. Make the coffee and meet a written stranger; catch a bus and smile at someone you’ll never see. Sometimes the tales keep you well in your own world of coffee and transport, and sometimes they transport you to another place of soldiers and bamboo poles. If one tale doesn’t grab you, it’s short enough to ignore. If another does, you’ll surely have to finish before putting down the book.

Fascinating, different, and an excellent read as this is: reader beware – reading one short short doesn’t take long. Reading a feast of them takes far longer than reading a novel.

Disclosure: I borrowed this from a friend.… (meer)