Short Stories Are Not Real Life: Short Fiction by David R. Slavitt

Literature is what you can make up, while life is the correction, what actually happened.

I bought this book because of the title. It was almost a challenge, a gentle, self-depracating admonishment--as if to say, why would you read fiction? It's not real life, you know. As perhaps expected, David Slavitt's set of 14 stories are snapshots of everday life from the perspective of reserved and proud, 50 or 60-something year old men. Set mostly in NYC, to an extended Jewish family; the stories unravel like good, family gossip. This is an incredibly slim book, that's a quick week's worth of metro reading. Nicely put together, with witty little gems thrown into each story, that is never quite moralistic and preachy, but tries to teach the reader something nonetheless. For example, one of my favorite moments in the book is from the story, The Long Island Train. I am about to reveal some nugget of information that you probably don't want to know if you plan to enjoy this particular story maximally...be warned. Anyway, my favorite moment, is a bit about this little old immigrant lady who speaks no English. However, as for traveling on the New York subway, she does know how to get to her sisters house in Long Island....Here's an excerpt...She got on a certain train with lights disposed a certain way, rode for a certain number of stops, got out walked a few blocks, made a turn at a the corset maker's shop, walked one more block and there was her sister's building. But one day she got lost....The damned corset maker had closed up. Out of buisness, maybe. (Making too much money?) Or dead. But my father's aunt couldn't understand that and kept asking, "How could he do such a thing to people who were depending on him?"

Nice.