The Washington Post, November 18th, 2000
In the heyday of punk rock, it was often said in favor of bands like the Ramones that the great thing about a three-minute song is that even if you don't like it, it'll be over shortly. But while brevity seems to bring vitality to pop music, it has an enervating effect on fiction. Even the acknowledged masterpieces of short fiction, like Chekhov's "The Kiss," are about events that don't happen, connections missed, revelations come too late. Wistful, transparent, allusive--short fiction paints in watercolors while the full-length novel works in oils. The three stories in Banana Yoshimoto's Asle...
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