Minimalist or not Minimalist

                I read the short story “In The Place Where Al Jolson is Buried” by Amy Hempel.  I had been trying to figure out what I wanted to write about this story. I finally just decided to write about minimalist. The factors that make up the qualities of the minimalistic fiction piece are fairly straightforward yet deciding if a piece of writing is minimalist is not always easy. Minimalist stick to short words, short sentences and short paragraphs; in this circumstance it leads to a short story. These stories are usually filled with simple, easy to understand vocabulary, with equally simple sentence structures. There is little figurative language, meaning very small amounts of symbolism and allegories. More often than not, there is minimal description of the characters, major and minor, and minimal setting description. The imagery used is short and to the point and any background information is sparse. Only the absolutely necessary background information is shared. Brand names are usually used to quickly describe objects or characterize a person. In most minimalist stories, there is very little action and the stories are often written in the present tense. Most progress with a nihilistic tone and the stories often end with no resolution.

                “In The Place Where Al Jolson is Buried” by Amy Hempel is difficult to place in one category of writing; however , there are many qualities that her story contains that match the style of a minimalist.  For example, the first paragraph of the second section contains both short sentences with simple structures and easy vocabulary. This trend continues throughout the story. The story also provides very little background information. How did the friends meet? What is causing Al to die? Another clue that this story is minimalist is that there is very, very, very little action. The narrator is mostly sitting with Al and talking, she has some minor flashbacks but that’s about all the action seen. The story does have a nihilistic tone throughout the entire piece. The final hint that this is a minimalist story is that fact that there is no resolution.

                There are many different types of minimalist writers. Another minimalist writer is Ann Beattie. I have had a few people tell me she should be on my “to read list”. Her most recent work is titled Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life. Critics called it “narcissistic”, “self-indulgent” and “splendidly tricky”. An excerpt from this story showed short sentences with simple structure and vocabulary. It contained almost no figurative language and only small pieces of character description. Another critic said that "Nothing in Mrs. Nixon is perfectly clear, and that is the source of its power."