Stephen King has a beautiful essay in The Times today, titled “What Ails the Short Story” and he makes a reference to Dorothy Parker: “And this kind of reading isn’t real reading, the kind where you just can’t wait to find out what happens next (think “Youth,” by Joseph Conrad, or “Big Blonde,” by Dorothy Parker). It’s more like copping-a-feel reading. There’s something yucky about it.”
King is the editor of “The Best American Short Stories 2007,” and makes a case for why the art of short fiction is dying. He says, “What I want to start with is something that comes at me full-bore, like a big, hot meteor screaming down from the Kansas sky.”
Both King and Parker share something in common: both won the O. Henry award, which is for the best short story of the year.