Miniatures by Susan Midalia
“I keep talking to myself in my head, which I guess is what people do when they’re lonely. Like a monologue no one is listening to. I was in a play once at school, and the teacher told me I was wrong to call it a monologue. Mono means one, he said, and there are two characters, Janine. Get it? I said one of them was talking, and the second one wasn’t listening, so it was kind of like a monologue, but the teacher said there was no kind of in his class.”
~ Excerpt from Mind Full
The appropriately titled Miniatures (2022) is Susan Midalia’s first foray into “short short stories.” The Western Australian author has two short story collections to her name already, along with two novels, and this hearty collection of micro-work is her latest literary offering.
In her review of the collection, Jen Bowden refers to the stories as a “pick ‘n’ mix of tales”, which is very apt. Midalia covers a broad range of topics on almost every facet of life, dipping her toe in but never quite wading deep enough to tell us something new.
Midlia starts us off with a short story aimed at explaining flash, asserting: “It’s called flash fiction… because it offers a flash of knowledge.” Not a sentiment I entirely agree with, but it does set us up well for what she is going to deliver throughout the collection.
Themes covered include politics, gender, sexuality, authorship, relationships, dating, families, language - and many more. In one of my favourites, “How many conservative Australian politicians does it take to change a light bulb?” Midalia points a finger at the ludicrousness of government to achieve anything simply and ethically:
“Seven cabinet ministers fly to New York to discuss the latest developments in light bulb changing with a team of light bulb changing experts. (Business class flights to be booked by a company owned by one of the cabinet minister’s sons, and hotel bookings to be made by a company owned by one of the cabinet minister’s nieces.)”
Midalia presents a preoccupation with language, grammar and form, with a significant number of these stories drawing their crux from various grammatical rules or anecdotes. The opening story, “Writing Woman,” is an example of this being used well, with the female narrator calling out a male novelist who seeks to undermine her writing choices:
“I just had a flash of knowledge, she said, you placed the word then at the end of two consecutive sentences in a feeble attempt to stamp me into submission.”
In “Contractions,” the premise of an older man dating a woman more than half is age is dominated by the two discussing how to use language as a replacement for the expected concerns one might expect them to focus on:
“I promise to do my best, I said, I promise to eliminate contractions when conversing with you, and should I ever have cause to correspond with you, I will ensure that my use of the apostrophe is confined to the harmless possessive case.”
Admittedly, there were many times this didn’t quite work for me as a reader. A compilation of these stories on their own would make a great addition to any writing course’s reading list, but compiled here amongst such diverse topics, I found they drew me out of the collection, and left me feeling like I was sitting in a high school English lesson, rather than enjoying a fiction read.
At just under 200 pages and 110 stories, I did find this a little dense and, at times, repetitive. I think one of the hardest parts of pulling together a collection of flash fiction (much like writing it) is finding the perfect cut-off point to leave readers satisfied enough, but with the promise of more to come.
Miniatures will delight and entertain many readers and is an example of how to write precisely, with brevity, and obey all the golden writing rules - anyone new to flash will get a lot out of this as an introduction to the form. But it is always worth remembering - especially with micro and flash fiction - that rules are made to be broken.
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in nipaluna (Hobart), Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under www.wordswithelaine.com.
