For a group that likes to argue about ‘unlikable’ characters, 'Bad Behavior' by Mary Gaitskill is the ultimate test. These stories of fraught relationships and urban loneliness are psychologically brutal and refuse to judge their subjects. You’ll spend the meeting trying to decipher motives and debating the nature of consent and power.
For pure discussion potential, find a collection with an ambiguous, open-ended finale in each story. 'The Dinner Party' by Joshua Ferris has stories that often just stop at the moment of maximum tension or realization. Frustrating for some, but it means the club has to collectively imagine the ‘what happens next,’ which is always revealing of people’s own perspectives.
For something utterly unique and visual, 'The Orange Tree' by Carlos Fuentes is a set of five stories presented as a script for a play, with familial monologues. It’s a challenge, but discussing the performative nature of family history and the different narrative voices was one of our most memorable meetings. Not for every group, but rewarding.
Don’t sleep on genre-bending collections that play with form. 'The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night' by Jen Campbell is a beautiful, fairy-tale-inspired book. The stories are short and poetic, but they’re packed with symbolism about love, death, and storytelling itself. It prompted a really meta conversation about why we’re drawn to certain kinds of myths.
Lurking this discussion hard. My last book club fell apart because we tried ‘Infinite Jest’. Maybe a short story collection is the way to rebuild. Something with less commitment but still meaty. The linked collection ideas here sound perfect—gives the continuity of a novel without the 1000-page dread.
2026-07-21 12:38:26
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