having come to the conclusion (helped in no small part by my thorough enjoyment of Salinger's short stories) that i had been a bit hard, or at least misguided historically in my general dislike of short stories, i've taken up the task of reading the works of other great authors known for their mastery of the short story or novella.  this has lead me at present, and for essentially the first time i might sheepishly add, to the writing of Kafka.  what i have found is quite enjoyable and very accessible writing; all the more-so given that he was virtually unpublished in his lifetime.  in its entirety below, one of his short stories:

"When I meet a pretty girl and ask her: 'Please, come with me!' and she passes me in silence, then what she means is this:

'You're not a duke with a name to conjure with, no powerfully built American Indian with square-shouldered physique, with calm impassive gaze, with skin laved by the air of the prairies and the rivers that irrigate them, you have never been to the great lakes, or sailed on them, wherever they are to be found.  So tell me, why should a pretty girl like me go with you?'

'You forget that no automobile is carrying you swaying through the streets in powerful thrusts; I don't seem to see a retinue of gentlemen pressed into livery attending you, murmuring blessings as they follow you in a pedantic semi-circle; your breasts are stowed away tidily enough in your corset, but your hips and thighs make up for their parsimony; you are wearing a taffeta dress with plissé pleats of the sort that delighted us last autumn, and - garbed in this menace as you are - still you don't scruple to throw us a smile from time to time.'

'Yes, we are both quite right, and, lest we become irrefutably persuaded of the fact, why don't we now each go to our separate homes.'"

The Rejection

Franz Kafka