Worlds in Small

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia in Prince
George.

I am perplexed by this book; I feel that I’ve been given the results
of someone’s labor of love, a project that has required an enormous
amount of work, but one that had yielded, at best, an indifferent
result. Colombo, our master gleaner, has assembled what he refers to as
“an anthology of miniature literary compositions.” No piece
anthologized here is more than 50 words long and most, alas, are merely
witty or cute or clever. They lack impact. Furthermore, I wonder if it
is accurate to refer to sentences that he has pulled from longer works
as “literary compositions.”

Colombo’s preface takes up approximately one quarter of the book’s
length. It seems inordinately long (as do the notes after each
selection), especially considering the material. As a matter of fact,
the notes are truly irritating. The editor is too intrusive. Colombo
should heed the advice contained in this selection: “Someone said to
Bahaudin Naqshband: ‘You relate stories, but you do not tell us how to
understand them.’ He said: ‘How would you like it if the man from
whom you bought fruit consumed it before your eyes, leaving you only the
skin?’”

Colombo’s enthusiastic comments on some of the bits are tough to
justify: Here is “Knock” by Frederick Brown: “The last man on
Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door. . . .”
Colombo’s commentary begins, “‘Knock’ must be the most memorable
of all mini-tales. Once heard or read it is hard to forget.” For some,
perhaps, but not for me. This book presents literature that has been
reduced to the level of a sound bite; it doesn’t work.