David Means, Defender Of The Short Story, On His 'Instructions For A Funeral'
The author has a new collection of short fiction, his fifth. In an interview, he says that his father's death got him thinking about parenthood — and what he might want at his own memorial.
David Means is an enthusiast, and a defender, of the short story. As he once said, "We don't tell novels at the kitchen table."
"Of course, that's sort of a sales pitch for the short story form," Means says in an interview. "But I really believe that they're really usually, at the core, relatively simple. You know: This happened, and then this happened."
He says you "can't just stretch" a short story to make a novel. His new collection, his fifth, is called Instructions for a Funeral.
It includes a wide
