# Let's talk about great short stories (spoilers likely)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-great-short-stories-spoilers-likely/449042>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 12, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-great-short-stories-spoilers-likely/449042 "2008-05-12T16:27:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-great-short-stories-spoilers-likely/449042/41 "2008-05-14T16:56:35Z")

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$1.98 - Arthur Porges

The best 4 or 5 page story I’ve ever read.

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**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-great-short-stories-spoilers-likely/449042/42 "2008-05-14T17:59:34Z")

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_Where Are You Going And Where Have You Been?_ by Joyce Carol Oates. I first read it in middle school and it’s stuck with me over the years.

Other favorites:

_The Elephant’s Child_ by Rudyard Kipling. All of the Just So stories are fun, but this one just sings.

Any of the single episodes from James Herriot’s _All Creatures Great and Small_.

I’m also a big fan of stories with unreliable narrators:

_The Yellow Wallpaper_, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman  
_Rape Fantasies_, by Margaret Atwood  
_Why I Live at the P.O._, by Eudora Welty

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**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-great-short-stories-spoilers-likely/449042/43 "2008-05-15T01:27:41Z")

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Gene Wolfe’s “The Fifth Head of Cerebus” is a story that has stayed with me for a long time.

Every time I read about human cloning, I am reminded of the story.

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