The Short Story Quest Begins: The Book List

There is a new biography of Flannery O’Connor out this week: Brad Gooch’s Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor. This coincides nicely with my first book list of 2009; I just finished The Complete Stories and have been toting around the tome in order to write the book list in my off time.

First know that I began the year by reading books about either writing or about reading like a writer. I’ve made it a kind of secret goal to write a few short stories this year; the form is delicate, difficult and terrifying, but the stories that I think I have to tell best fit into this form (one or another could grow larger, but I suppose I won’t know that until I start writing). Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer praises O’Connor’s short stories and, it being at hand in the apartment and the short story a genre I want to study in greater detail, I decided to begin reading through O’Connor’s works. Like all college students who have taken a short story class or who found themselves in a creative writing course from time to time, I have of course read “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” several times. I wasn’t surprised to find myself shivering a bit when reaching the end of the story this time around; the story is still as powerful and as senseless as it was when I first read it as a college student. Many of O’Connor’s other stories also had the same effect on me.

I would caution the reader to not dive into O’Connor’s complete short stories; it’s best to digest these slowly, one by careful one, giving each a close read and not treating the collection like you would a novel. I give this caution because I did not follow it myself; what I should have done was read the stories as I read other works (fiction or nonfiction), but I should not have treated it as the whole that I did. Because of this mistake, some stories are lost and will need to be re-read at some point. However, there’s no mistaking the power of O’Connor’s writing; there are stories that, even consumed as I consumed them, stay with you and send that shiver down your spine. Weeks later (and yes, it took me weeks to read the stories), I still remember some early stories and pause a moment, wondering over the power of the tale.

Southern gothic is how O’Connor’s work is typically described, and I believe it’s a fair if not incomplete descriptor. There is a haunting magic to her stories, characters, and plots that have me clinging happily to my metropolitan world. I have never felt more uncomfortable on the Metro than when trying to read O’Connor’s stories, cringing whenever the “n” word came up (and come up it did, frequently—her race and class beliefs were apparently often reflected in her writing, which quickly made this book an “at home” read). I have never seen so many dead children, domineering mothers, domineered children, absent mothers, foolish fathers, and self-righteous protagonists gathered in one place. Some of the attitudes, beliefs, and characters are absolutely stomach-churning; you marvel at the idea that there really might be people so selfish, narrow, and inconsiderate. In many stories, though, there is an attempt to grow by the characters; it often comes too late or at the expense of someone else’s misfortune.

Did O’Connor’s works give me insight into the short story form? Definitely; as a close read, I found myself delighted by her metaphors, turn of phrases, her imagery. In terms of building a short story, I found myself trying to figure out precisely why certain details were in the story, how the story held together as a cohesive whole with those elements, and how the language guided the story along to its climax. Trying to examine O’Connor’s work doesn’t make beginning my own any less frightening, but it does encourage me to iron out the thoughts floating around in my head and get them onto paper already.

I would recommend all short stories, but here are a few striking ones in particular:

• “The River” (this one almost made me burst into tears)
• “The Displaced Person”
• “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
• “The Enduring Chill”
• “Everything That Rises Must Converge”
• “The Lame Shall Enter First” (oh man, is this one stuck in my head!)
• “Revelation”
• “A View of the Woods”

I will probably read a few other short story collections throughout the year (which could lead to a new category in the 2009 awards).  However, my following reads will be novels until I figure out which collection to tackle next (and even then I’ll read the stories as I read the novels or the nonfiction that I have).

Onto the first (and very short) 2009 book list:

Finished:

1) On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
2) Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
3) The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor

Re-read:

Empty

Currently Reading:

1) The Aeneid by Virgil (Translation by Robert Fagles)

Waiting To Be Read (Already Purchased, Got as Gifts, Borrowed from My Fiancé or Otherwise Accessible without the Use of Funds, But Not an Assurance That I Will Read These Before I Buy More Books):

1) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2) Fool by Christopher Moore
3) Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn by William J. Mann