I’ve been thinking a lot about why it is I’m so fascinated by the anecdote.  I think it’s because it’s the narrative construction that’s most haunting.  It makes no attempt at comprehensiveness.  It allows mystery to exist.  The book of stories I’m writing are all anecdotes, not finely crafted tales, but captured impressions and instances.  To me there is something more essentially truthful (for better or for worse) in the anecdotal story.  When I read Kafka or Calvino or Barthelme or Lydia Davis, I don’t feel compelled to relate a well-executed series of plot machinations to my friends on Friday night (like those who watch Lost do).  Something much more personal is triggered that seems inappropriate to “externalize” or “capture.” I don’t know if my anecdotes do anything like this, but this feeling is what compels me to write them.