Just one sentence, but a very, very long sentence

February 6, 2021 7:50 PM

In the 1990s I read a short story that consisted of a single sentence. It was a very long sentence -- I think it spanned about 1.5 pages -- but it was just one sentence. And it was a real story, as well, with characters, unexpected turns, and a climax. I believe it ended in a driveway.

Googling "single-sentence story" brings up lots of examples of 10-15 word thought-provoking sentences. Things like, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn". That's not what I'm looking for. The thing I read was closer to a real short story (albeit very short), that had the conceit of being one super long run on sentence.

I had in my mind that it was written by Joyce Carol Oates, but googling around her name doesn't turn anything up.

Ring a bell?

posted by Winnie the Proust to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

It was Joyce Carol Oates, it was about a jogger who kept saying "on your left" and I can't find the name of it either.
posted by RainyJay at 9:06 PM on February 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Was it Hi Howya Doin?
posted by xedrik at 9:11 PM on February 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid (towards the bottom of the article) is an example of the genre.
posted by Candleman at 9:21 PM on February 6, 2021

Looks like the Joyce Carol Oates story is four sentences, not just one. This article also lists at the end where the story can be found.
posted by Night_owl at 9:53 PM on February 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Any chance it might be Barthelme's The Sentence? It's mostly about the sentence itself, but there are characters in it.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:15 AM on February 7, 2021

One-Sentence Stories: An Anthology of Stories Written in a Single Sentence, anthologized by by Val Dumond, is out there (though I can't find a table of contents, sorry).
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:12 AM on February 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Lydia Davis writes very short stories. I don't know her work thoroughly enough to know if this is one of hers, but mentioning in case it's a lead.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:31 AM on February 7, 2021

I don't suppose it could be David Foster Wallace's very long sentence in "Infinite Jest" (apparently begins on page 487 and ends on 489, according to this Google hit).
posted by forthright at 12:03 PM on February 7, 2021