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Reverse Engineering
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 brings together contemporary classic stories with their authors’ discussion of how they wrote it.
An essential book for everyone interested in how fiction works...
Imagine being able to ask some of the short story's top practitioners why they did this, what made them do that, and what on earth was going on here? If, like me, you think the short story is the greatest literary form, you will welcome this book, which subjects it to the level of scrutiny it deserves.
Nicholas Royle, editor of 'The Best British Short Stories' series
With short stories and interviews from Jon McGregor, Irenosen Okojie, Jessie Greengrass, Sarah Hall, Mahreen Sohail, Chris Power and Joseph O'Neill.
This innovative anthology reveals the inspiration, the ideals and the work involved in a great short story. Reverse Engineering brings together contemporary classic stories with their authors’ discussion of how they wrote it.
An essential book for everyone interested in how fiction works...
Imagine being able to ask some of the short story's top practitioners why they did this, what made them do that, and what on earth was going on here? If, like me, you think the short story is the greatest literary form, you will welcome this book, which subjects it to the level of scrutiny it deserves.
Nicholas Royle, editor of 'The Best British Short Stories' series
With short stories and interviews from Jon McGregor, Irenosen Okojie, Jessie Greengrass, Sarah Hall, Mahreen Sohail, Chris Power and Joseph O'Neill.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 28, 2022
Reverse Engineering is the first book 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):
My own love affair with the short story was rekindled in 2017-18 when I was a judge for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, which judged story collections alongside novels, and was won by the outstanding Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams.
Reverse Engineering is an anthology of seven previously published short stories from similar masters of the craft, each a gem and with a wonderful variety from Chris Power's carefully constructed tale, to Irenosen Okojie's surreal piece.
That alone would be more than worth the cover price, but the collection's real value comes from Conaghan's Q&A with each of the authors, as he invites them to look back at their piece to critique and deconstruct it, hence the name of the book.
As Nicholas Royle, editor of the annual Best British Short Stories anthology puts it:
Chris Powers is, as Conaghan says, a gamekeeper turned poacher, known for years before he published his own collection for his series A Brief Survey of the Short Story in the Guardian (which has run since 2007 and has covered over 70 authors), and so not surprisingly his dissection of his own story is forensic, including how he polished in to perfection. For example:
Q: Your story touches very primal 'collective unconscious' archetypes such as the river, the crossing, light and dark, sex and death, spirit and redundancy. Was this an intentional decision of yours?
A: It was a much more allegorical story to begin with. In early drafts, the story definitely was very explicitly allegorical towards the end — when Jim falls asleep in the hotel and Ann dreams about going back to the stepping stones.
But I found this explicit allegorical style an uncomfortable fit — I wanted it to have that quality but when it was explicit, the story didn't work as well. It lived in that state for a while. I submitted it to a great editor, Brendan Barrington at the Dublin Review of Books and he identified this point of fracture within it.
So I spent a lot more time with it and rewrote it many times. I found that it really generated more of the kind of power or energy I wanted when I moved it towards realism: I found that with realistic writing the metaphorical elements were still there, and detectable, but without being at the forefront of the story.
This way it was possible to experience the story both as a concrete thing — a journey through a rural landscape — and a metaphor. They weren't fighting each other; in fact they were abetting one another. It taught me how to allow the metaphor in without it needing to become allegorical.
In contrast others rely more on the "feel" of the story, and Jon McGregor, looking back some 20 years later, is quite harsh in places on his younger self.
A fascinating anthology, one to savour alongside Royle's annual anthology, and I understand the editor is interviewing more award-winning authors for a follow up collection.
The stories:
The Crossing by Chris Power from his Edge Hill Short Story Prize shortlisted collection Mothers: Stories
Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall, which won the BBC National Short Story Award
The First Punch by Jon McGregor, a 2003 story from Granta published in the author's 20s, but after his debut novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
Hair by Mahreen Sohail, published in Granta in 2020
Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague by Jessie Greengrass from the Edge Hill Short Story Prize winning collection An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It
Filamo by Irenosen Okojie from the striking collection Nudibranch
The Flier by Joseph O'Neill, published in the New Yorker
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...
My own love affair with the short story was rekindled in 2017-18 when I was a judge for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, which judged story collections alongside novels, and was won by the outstanding Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams.
Reverse Engineering is an anthology of seven previously published short stories from similar masters of the craft, each a gem and with a wonderful variety from Chris Power's carefully constructed tale, to Irenosen Okojie's surreal piece.
That alone would be more than worth the cover price, but the collection's real value comes from Conaghan's Q&A with each of the authors, as he invites them to look back at their piece to critique and deconstruct it, hence the name of the book.
As Nicholas Royle, editor of the annual Best British Short Stories anthology puts it:
“Imagine being able to ask some of the short story’s top practitioners why they did this, what made them do that, and what on earth was going on here? If, like me, you think the short story is the greatest literary form, you will welcome this book, which subjects it to the level of scrutiny it deserves”
Chris Powers is, as Conaghan says, a gamekeeper turned poacher, known for years before he published his own collection for his series A Brief Survey of the Short Story in the Guardian (which has run since 2007 and has covered over 70 authors), and so not surprisingly his dissection of his own story is forensic, including how he polished in to perfection. For example:
Q: Your story touches very primal 'collective unconscious' archetypes such as the river, the crossing, light and dark, sex and death, spirit and redundancy. Was this an intentional decision of yours?
A: It was a much more allegorical story to begin with. In early drafts, the story definitely was very explicitly allegorical towards the end — when Jim falls asleep in the hotel and Ann dreams about going back to the stepping stones.
But I found this explicit allegorical style an uncomfortable fit — I wanted it to have that quality but when it was explicit, the story didn't work as well. It lived in that state for a while. I submitted it to a great editor, Brendan Barrington at the Dublin Review of Books and he identified this point of fracture within it.
So I spent a lot more time with it and rewrote it many times. I found that it really generated more of the kind of power or energy I wanted when I moved it towards realism: I found that with realistic writing the metaphorical elements were still there, and detectable, but without being at the forefront of the story.
This way it was possible to experience the story both as a concrete thing — a journey through a rural landscape — and a metaphor. They weren't fighting each other; in fact they were abetting one another. It taught me how to allow the metaphor in without it needing to become allegorical.
In contrast others rely more on the "feel" of the story, and Jon McGregor, looking back some 20 years later, is quite harsh in places on his younger self.
A fascinating anthology, one to savour alongside Royle's annual anthology, and I understand the editor is interviewing more award-winning authors for a follow up collection.
The stories:
The Crossing by Chris Power from his Edge Hill Short Story Prize shortlisted collection Mothers: Stories
Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall, which won the BBC National Short Story Award
The First Punch by Jon McGregor, a 2003 story from Granta published in the author's 20s, but after his debut novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
Hair by Mahreen Sohail, published in Granta in 2020
Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague by Jessie Greengrass from the Edge Hill Short Story Prize winning collection An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It
Filamo by Irenosen Okojie from the striking collection Nudibranch
The Flier by Joseph O'Neill, published in the New Yorker
July 29, 2022
4.5
This is a great group of stories from writers I’d mostly never heard of, much less read, (excepting Jon McGregor and one novel by Sarah Hall). After each story is an interview with the author that focuses on the crafting of their story. Particularly interesting was McGregor discounting his early story, “The First Punch”; he then helpfully points out elements he finds lacking and would develop differently if he were writing it today.
I was wowed by the first two stories: “The Crossing” by Chris Power and, especially, Hall’s “Mrs. Fox.” I’ll be on the lookout for more of their short stories and will return to their elucidating comments here. The only conversation I was even slightly disappointed in was the last with Joseph O'Neill. His story, “The Flier,” is intriguing and leaves much for the reader to mull over. Perhaps that’s how he feels about giving craft information too.
This is a great group of stories from writers I’d mostly never heard of, much less read, (excepting Jon McGregor and one novel by Sarah Hall). After each story is an interview with the author that focuses on the crafting of their story. Particularly interesting was McGregor discounting his early story, “The First Punch”; he then helpfully points out elements he finds lacking and would develop differently if he were writing it today.
I was wowed by the first two stories: “The Crossing” by Chris Power and, especially, Hall’s “Mrs. Fox.” I’ll be on the lookout for more of their short stories and will return to their elucidating comments here. The only conversation I was even slightly disappointed in was the last with Joseph O'Neill. His story, “The Flier,” is intriguing and leaves much for the reader to mull over. Perhaps that’s how he feels about giving craft information too.
July 28, 2022
Only one miss for me - Irenosen Okojie's 'Filamo', which I'd read before so I knew I wouldn't like it. Otherwise, a set of exceptional short stories with illuminating commentary. To be read alongside George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. 4.5 stars.
April 1, 2022
Sometimes it's hard to find the right words to review a book, which is perhaps why the reviews are never as good as the book under discussion. This is, quite simply, a wonderful book. Taken as a short-story anthology, it contains wonders. There are no weak stories here, although some are more breath-taking than others. The real stand-outs for me (these things are always subjective) are Mahreen Sohail's "Hair" (sublime, beautiful story-telling), Jessie Greengrass' "Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague" (such wonderful, erudite, numinous writing) and "Filamo" by Irenosen Okojie, which contains some wild, stunning visual flourishes, and the intricately-wrought surrealism of a Marquez novel.
But the book also features Q&A sections with each contributor which delve into the mechanics, the inspirations and the practicalities of the short-story form, as practised by each of the seven featured writers. While the level of insight, self-awareness and revelation differs from writer to writer, you're left with a world-class primer on the form, an encouraging how-to manual for those attempting to work in the genre, and coincidentally one of the finest collections of short stories I have read.
I'm going up onto the roof, from where I hope to be able to recommend this highly enough.
But the book also features Q&A sections with each contributor which delve into the mechanics, the inspirations and the practicalities of the short-story form, as practised by each of the seven featured writers. While the level of insight, self-awareness and revelation differs from writer to writer, you're left with a world-class primer on the form, an encouraging how-to manual for those attempting to work in the genre, and coincidentally one of the finest collections of short stories I have read.
I'm going up onto the roof, from where I hope to be able to recommend this highly enough.
March 7, 2023
An anthology of short stories is a bit like a box of Celebrations or Roses. Some of the contents you will enjoy more than others. That said, all these stories are high calibre and throughouly enjoyable, lending the variety added surprise and delight.
The interviews accompanying each piece were a great addition and throw an engaging spotlight onto the craft and discipline of short fiction writing - I found the thoughts of Chris Power and Jon McGregor particularly insightful.
I'm looking forward to reading the second anthology in this series and hope it continues - I can see it becoming a go-to set of books for anyone interested in exploring the reading and writing of short stories more deeply.
The interviews accompanying each piece were a great addition and throw an engaging spotlight onto the craft and discipline of short fiction writing - I found the thoughts of Chris Power and Jon McGregor particularly insightful.
I'm looking forward to reading the second anthology in this series and hope it continues - I can see it becoming a go-to set of books for anyone interested in exploring the reading and writing of short stories more deeply.
June 5, 2022
What a wonderful format for a collection of short stories, to have each one followed up by an in depth question and answer session with the author. The stories themselves were all brilliant, and enjoyably diverse in style and approach, but the interviews were what made this five stars for me. A must read for anyone who loves a good literary short story and wants to reflect more on what goes into writing them.
May 4, 2022
7 great stories (had already read 2 - Chris Power and Sarah Hall - it was a pleasure to read them again), and insightful comment on the stories' development from the authors (sometimes longer than the stories themselves). A must for story writers and fans of the form.
July 23, 2022
only one story in here that i found genuinely good, the other were all…weird. but cool to have a look behind the scenes!
February 21, 2023
There were seven short stories in this collection, each accompanied by an interview with the author by Tom Conaghan about what led to the idea, how exactly the story was written, how the author started the story, etc. etc.
I very much enjoyed reading six of the seven stories and for that would give, and will give, this collection a solid 4 stars. I think perhaps other reviewers appreciated the other part of the book (the interviews of the authors) much more than I did. I could have done without that 50%. Maybe the editor of this collection was looking for commonalities in how great short stories are constructed...I have no idea. But I have a suspicion there are 1001 different ways that very good short stories are written...what led to the idea, how long it took, how many drafts were done, etc. etc. But that is my uneducated opinion.
Stories
1. The Crossing by Chris Power — 4.5 stars (I had this feeling of impending doom while reading this...the author had me roped in...good job!) 🙂
2. Mrs. Fox by Sarah Hall — 4 stars
3. The First Punch by Jon McGregor — 4.5 stars (I’m a big fan of this author....loved his ‘Reservoir 13’ and ‘The Reservoir Tapes’) 🙂
4. Hair by Mahreen Sohail —5 stars (really really good...exceptional writing) 🙂
5. Theophratus and the Dancing Plague by Jessie Greengrass — 3 stars
6. Filamo by Irenosen Okojie — 1 star... I did not like this story one iota and how it got in this collection is beyond me ☹️
7. The Flier by Joseph O’Neill — 4 stars (it was good...and you should check out another story of his if you can get it online...’The Poltroon Husband’ [The New Yorker, March 12, 2018])
Reviews:
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
• https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/f...
• http://review31.co.uk/article/view/83...
• https://beneast.com/2022/04/12/revers...
I very much enjoyed reading six of the seven stories and for that would give, and will give, this collection a solid 4 stars. I think perhaps other reviewers appreciated the other part of the book (the interviews of the authors) much more than I did. I could have done without that 50%. Maybe the editor of this collection was looking for commonalities in how great short stories are constructed...I have no idea. But I have a suspicion there are 1001 different ways that very good short stories are written...what led to the idea, how long it took, how many drafts were done, etc. etc. But that is my uneducated opinion.
Stories
1. The Crossing by Chris Power — 4.5 stars (I had this feeling of impending doom while reading this...the author had me roped in...good job!) 🙂
2. Mrs. Fox by Sarah Hall — 4 stars
3. The First Punch by Jon McGregor — 4.5 stars (I’m a big fan of this author....loved his ‘Reservoir 13’ and ‘The Reservoir Tapes’) 🙂
4. Hair by Mahreen Sohail —5 stars (really really good...exceptional writing) 🙂
5. Theophratus and the Dancing Plague by Jessie Greengrass — 3 stars
6. Filamo by Irenosen Okojie — 1 star... I did not like this story one iota and how it got in this collection is beyond me ☹️
7. The Flier by Joseph O’Neill — 4 stars (it was good...and you should check out another story of his if you can get it online...’The Poltroon Husband’ [The New Yorker, March 12, 2018])
Reviews:
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
• https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/f...
• http://review31.co.uk/article/view/83...
• https://beneast.com/2022/04/12/revers...
October 23, 2023
The story titled "Filamo" is one I won't forget because of the bizarre surrealism weaved into the tale by the writer.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews