lanipujiastuti

Winesburg, Ohio is a collection of short stories that functions, more or less, as a novel. For cohesiveness it's a lot closer to The Country of Pointed Firs than it is to Slaves of New York; for content its the other way around. Anderson was a lot more of a, uh, euphemist, than Janowitz of course, but there's plenty of sordid, torrid, seamy, and other-word-most-often-found-on-the back-of-a-cheap-paperback going on in this quiet town. And I should add that Winesburg, Ohio blows both of those books out of the water for quality, craft and insight. I remember reading "Sophistication" as a part of my ill-fated high school American Lit. course and not thinking too much about it, which not only illustrates how much I hated high school American Lit. courses, but also how much these stories depend upon one another to really get to you. Hmm. I don't understand it, sometimes a book will inspire an endless stream of questions and commentary from me while others...won't. This has little to do with how much I loved or hated the book, or even if it was just 'OK;' sometimes I'll just finish a book and a reach for the next one. I enjoyed this book. A lot. James Joyce was a big deal influence writing at the same time, sure, but Anderson actually influenced those books that we actually read.

2023-01-17 06:44