Written by Perrin Smith, Illustration by Halle Garrett
It has been 15 months since classes first went virtual, taking many of us back to our hometowns. For me, that meant I didn’t have much to do except drive down backroads. Instead of facing my new surroundings, like many others, I turned to books.
Many of us made plans to dive into the longest novels we could think of, like Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” Or we tried to finally read all those books that have been collecting dust on our bookshelves. At the time, it felt like a great plan.
As we soon found out, if we read anything, it was a miracle. Since then, when I’ve read something for fun, it was almost always a quicker read.
With that in mind, here are five short books that I fell in love with during quarantine:
1. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lahiri’s ground-breaking debut short story collection hit shelves back in 1999. It was a critical darling and even netted the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000. Each story revolves around the lives of a series of Indian and Indian American characters and their efforts to grapple with cultural identity. At times achingly sad, and at others intensely clever — it goes through a lot in 193 pages.
2. “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” by Joan Didion
It’s a staple of every creative writing student’s library for great reason. Didion’s 1960s collection of essays, journalistic reporting and other musings still feels poignant today. Didion has the gift every writer wants — she makes everything fascinating. I can’t think of any other writer who could get me to read dozens of pages on her opinion about the wind and her childhood crush on John Wayne. It’s a testament to how engaging and timeless the stories are, clocking in at 238 pages.
3. “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong
Vuong started his career as a poet but made the jump to long-form fiction with this, his debut novel, in 2019. The story is framed through a series of letters from the narrator to his mother, who cannot read. It charts their relationship by shifting between his childhood memories and the stories he’s heard about his family’s history. At only 242 pages, it’s a beautifully constructed novel, worth as many reads as you can spare.
4. “The Lichtenberg Figures” by Ben Lerner
Here’s my confession: poetry has never clicked for me. The only exception is this 2004 collection, “The Lichtenberg Figures.” Through a series of sonnets, Lerner deconstructs lofty topics like violence, memory and art. It’s both dark and comedic. I can’t do it justice in this word count, but some of the poems are available online and are worth checking out. The full collection is simply 52 pages of genius.
5. “Close Range: Wyoming Stories” by Annie Proulx
The most famous story collected here is “Brokeback Mountain,” which was put to film in 2005. There’s a reason it’s become one of the most recognizable stories in recent memory and the original prose proves its continued relevancy. Proulx’s writing is intensely sparse, perfect for the other tales in this collection about rural American life. Through her writing, it’s all captured with a deft, even hand across 285 pages.
