Ten Favorite Fragmentary or Cloudburst Stories
(This list is by request, to accompany my list of favorite fragmentary novels. That seems to be the settled term for such stories, “fragmentary,” but I also think of them as cloudburst stories—stories that have been discharged so forcefully into being that they’ve left behind a scattered corona of facts, images, observations, and narrative gestures. I’ve arranged my selections alphabetically by author.)
“A Manual for Sons” by Donald Barthelme
“The View from the Seventh Layer” by Kevin Brockmeier *
"The Prophet from Jupiter” by Tony Earley
“The Torturer’s Wife” by Thomas Glave
“Cloudland” by Amy Hempel
“The Abandoned House” by Mario Levrero
“Watchmaker” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons [issue four of their comic Watchmen]
“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien
“Bonsai” by Alejandro Zambra
“The Heat Death of the Universe” by Pamela Zoline
* I hate doing this and (with one exception) have never included my own work in these lists. This story is such a clear example of the kind of narrative I’m indicating, though, that I’m going to include it.
— October 18, 2025