Collected works novel

Sarcastro

Does anybody know of a novel told in a collection of short stories? Not just chapters, but a collection of independant vignettes or shorts that have a story unfolding in the background as you read them?

I would love to find some examples of this, but nothing comes to mind.

Sunxine

The closest I can think of is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. She's a Chinese-American author that writes from perspective of both cultures. The Joy Luck Club is basically a bunch of short stories all pressed together. In fact, the first story I read by Amy Tan was an excerpt from the Joy Luck Club in the Oxford Collection of Short Stories (not exact title). I hope that helps a bit.

ALifeCalledKarma

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. The whole idea of the novel is that a bunch of wannabe-artists have locked themselves in an old theater to help them create masterpieces, and they each tell invidivual short stories, with the greater narrative unfolding in between.

Sunxine

ALifeCalledKarma wrote: »

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. The whole idea of the novel is that a bunch of wannabe-artists have locked themselves in an old theater to help them create masterpieces, and they each tell invidivual short stories, with the greater narrative unfolding in between.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. I thought of it like a weird modern day Cantabury Tales. Oh, wait... there's another one.

Sarcastro

ALifeCalledKarma wrote: »

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. The whole idea of the novel is that a bunch of wannabe-artists have locked themselves in an old theater to help them create masterpieces, and they each tell invidivual short stories, with the greater narrative unfolding in between.

I love Chuck's work, and yet somehow I have missed this one. Luminous!

Imperfect

Ya beat me to it. And that's the only one I can think of. I thought it was a pretty novel approach, actually.

Munacra

And the earth did not devour him by Tomas Rivera.
Rain God by Arturo Islas.

These come with the Munacra stamp of approval. They are longer narratives told in a vignete form (short stories intertwined)

They're great.

Iriah

I vaguely remember someone in here doing something similar, involving an interstellar cruise... was it Mongrel Idiot? I dunno.

Munacra

spcmn is trying to do something like that for his thesis novel. But he's never on anymore. I miss him.

euol

I'm a little late to this one, but I thought I'd mention that FOUNDATION (the original trilogy) does that pretty well, if over a much longer period than I think you're looking for.