WHAT MAKES A short story successful? In reading The Best of Malaysian Short Fiction in English 2010-2020 (which, as an aside, has a really gorgeous cover), I found my own answer to this question shifted and challenged with every new encounter – each of the 19 stories seems to answer this particular question in its own way.
To feel like a story is successful, we must first have a sense of what it sets out to do before we are able to judge whether it accomplishes that. As such, I appreciate the thoughtful inclusion of a writer’s note at the end of each story, providing additional context (inspirations, incidences and insights) that guided its writing. In trying to formulate this review, I’ve also found it helpful to assess these stories for their insight (whether or not they managed to create an intellectual or emotional shift in me, the reader), their voice (how the narration or characters use language), and their plot (whether there was a meaningful structure of events). Naturally, these judgements are applied in retrospect – my initial reading consists only of figuring out whether I liked the story, then why or why not. Still, invariably, the best stories are the ones that ticked all three boxes in one way or another.
