If you want to read a wonderfully tasty, short, and elegant piece of creative fiction, go immediately to Amazon and order Stewart O'Nan's "Last Night at the Lobster." About every five years or so I read something so well done, so heart felt, that I can't put it down. This is it, I only wish it had gone on another 100 pages, it totals about 145. Sometimes the best things are fundamental, and this book proves it. A simple premise -- a restaurant manager walks through his last day at the Red Lobster, a place he manages with passion and grace. Corporate is closing him down and the book is infused with melancholy, and yet, it's hopeful as well. The co-workers and customers aren't characters, they are people you know. Creative writing can be inspirational when it's this good and therefore good for your entire creative self. Do yourself a favor and read this succulent novella and nourish yourself.
