Sudden Fiction

Don't ignore these guys and this genre.

I'm reminded of it as I slog through the boring, smug life of Frankie Bascombe, as told by Richard Ford.

What the hell was Ford up to, trying to out Updike Updike?

I got more out of this opening story by Dino Buzzati in Sudden Fiction International than I've gotten in two evening of dealing with poor Frankie's angst and, I guess, Ford's leavening of American emptiness.

Don't get me wrong.  I like a lot of Ford, particularly the stories in Rock Springs, but Frank Bascombe is a dolt whom I don't want to read about.

This little, meaningless diatribe is like a Sudden Book Review, ain't it?


TS