Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

Novella versus Novel?
July 28, 2008

Sometimes you want to read something short. Something with a plot that resolves itself sooner than later. Something more symbolic, more chilling for its ability to enter and then leave you in a few short encounters. And well, something that’s not so heavy in your backpack. Why not try a novella instead of your standard 200 page plus novel to read next time? Novellas tend to run anywhere from 100-199 pages in length but are hard to define, with one foot in short story territory and the other in the novel's.  Stephen King once called the novella: "an ill-defined and disreputable literary banana republic.” Harsh. But it brings me to my next point. The novella is a much more popular genre in Europe. It’s still hard to sell a novella to a publishing house in the States. Regardless, of sales potential, a good novella is great example of the elegance of simplicity. And why writers like John Steinbeck were so effective in their storytelling. El Pais ran a great essay by Rosa Montero on the pleasure of reading novellas over the standard long ones. Entitled “La magia de las miniatures” (The Magic of Miniatures), Montero names classic novellas like Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Metamorphosis. And then lists three of her modern favorites such as:

El cartero de Neruda by Antonio Skármeta (Its original title: Ardiente paciencia)

Sostiene Pereira by Antonio Tabucchi

Una lectora nada común by Alan Bennett

Novellas keep it simple. Tolstoy, though not the simplest of men, once said: "There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth."

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on July 28, 2008 | Comments (0)