Customer Reviews

Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

You will run out of highlighter ink reading this one, because there are so many passages you will surely want to reread and savor later.

This grand matriarch of Southern Writer Tradition was first discovered, praised and published by luminaries such as Robert Penn Warren when he was coeditor of The Southern Review, Edward Weeks when he was editor of The Atlantic Monthly, and Mary Louise Aswell, when she was fiction editor of Harper's Bazaar.

This collection of stories is truly worthy to be called a classic. It is sometimes tedious reading, because the stories and characters are complex. After a number of false starts over a period of years, I finally resolved to give this scholarly work the focused time and attention it deserves, and feel richly rewarded for the effort.

Ms. Welty joins the ranks of great writers who prove to us that a great writer does not have to live the experience to effectively write about it. She leaps with ease between characters as diverse as Aaron Burr, a deaf black servant boy, a traveling salesmen, eccentric Southern matrons, and countless others. She portrays them in all of their complexities as if she had lived the experiences of each. Her descriptions of scenes and settings are equally as lucid and believable as if she had first hand knowledge of each. This rare and precious gift is best described in her own words, "I have been told, both in approval and accusation, that I seem to love all of my characters. What I do in writing of any character is to try to enter into the mind, heart, and skin of a human being who is not myself. Whether this happens to be a man or a woman, old or young, with skin black or white, the primary challenge lies in making the jump itself. It is the act of a writer's imagination that I set most high."

If Flannery O'Connor is the Empress of Southern gothic writing, than Welty is for sure the Queen. Her stories perplex, confuse, amaze and just plain make you happy that people can write like this.

Her short stories are a given on any English professor's syllabus, and with good reason. Not only are they well written and chock full of metaphors and symbolism, but they speak a multi-generational and multi-regional dialect all their own.

Personal fave: Why I Live at the P.O.

For those who want to jump-start their introduction to southern literature, this is as fine a beginning point as you will find anywhere. The prose is so richly drawn that it feels like poetry, and the images in "A Curtain of Green" and "A Still Moment" will take your breath away. You have to slow down to savor every carefully crafted sentence. Very highly recommended.

As a short story writer, as a Southern writer, Eudora Welty is simply the best. Her writing is beautiful, but also complex--as are her characters. In a story of just a few pages, she can create a whole world and make a character come so alive that that character remains with you for days or even a lifetime. You feel as if you have known and lived with these people forever, and yet the short story form leaves you feeling that there is so much more to know. I love the stories about the South, but one of my favorites is the offbeat "Circe" based on the Greek legend about the sorceress who could turn men into swine. The harassed Circe notes that this is not a very great feat since men are pigs anyway and the legend develops an entirely different perspective. These stories are humorous, touching, and inspire awe for the talent that created them.

This National Book Award winner and treasure trove contain all 41 of Eudora Welty's short stories, including: "A Curtain of Green and Other Stories," (1941); "The Wide Net and Other Stories ,"(1943); the seven interlocking narratives of "The Golden Apples," (1949), "The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories," 1955, as well as two previously uncollected works, "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" (1963), and "The Demonstrators" (1966). Miss Welty also wrote a Preface especially for this edition, in which she says: "I have been told, both in approval and in accusation, that I seem to love all my characters. What I do in writing of any character is to try to enter into the mind, heart and skin of a human being who is not myself."

The intricacies of human relationships is the primary theme in this collection of short fiction. Eudora Welty's works combine wonderful humor and an astute perception of human psychology. Her ear for dialogue is superb and her prose lyrical and nuanced.

Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi where she spent most of her life. From the moment of publication, her collections of stories won wide critical acclaim, as did her novels, "The Robber Bridegroom," "Delta Wedding," "The Ponder Heart," "Losing Battles," and "The Optimist's Daughter," which won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize. Her autobiography, One Writer's Beginnings, won both the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984. In 1996, Welty was given France's highest civilian honor, the French Legion of Honor Award.

This is a remarkable compilation of short fiction by one of the most gifted writers of our time. This volume enriches any library it graces. Highly recommended.
JANA

Maybe it is because I was denied reading "The City and the Pillar" for fifteen years, but I really enjoyed this. I fully appeciated the era in which the book was written and the consequences suffered by Vidal, who had to give up novel-writing for a decade after the publication of novel, which portrayed The Love That Dares Not Speak Its Name. This was considered rank heresy at the time.

After discovering Gore Vidal's books in college (on my own, without the recommendation of professors), I learned that he wrote "The City and the Pillar." Having no idea then what it was about, I asked an English professor, who remembered it being about homosexuals, and advised against my bothering with it, since it would be a bad influence. Of course, this whet my appetite.

Next, I searched for this book in the campus library, unsuccessfully. Then I visited the local city library--nada. Then I searched in other college libraries...in bookstores...other city libraries... you get the drift. It became clear to me this book was Entirely Disapproved Of and Censored.

Over a decade later, with the advent of Amazon, I finally found a copy for sale and eagerly ordered it. I was not in the slightest disappointed, even though I am not unaware of its defects, as listed by reviewer "GFT", whose review I marked Helpful. Obviously, Jim, an athlete of average intelligence, is not the most interesting character to grace the pages of fiction. But Jim does not have to be. Personally, I did not care about any of the characters in the novel! Jim is merely the vehicle through which we examine, deplore, and admonish the American homosexual underground of the 1940s. This book is a time machine to another era, much like Vidal's other works.

Vidal offers faint praise for his "kindred" (for lack of a better word), but that is his way, and his attitude is the same toward almost any kind of people throughout his entire works. Vidal finds fault first; then reluctantly admits a few good points. I have grown used to his style over the years and take it in stride. He tries to be honest and frequently is.

I take exception with reviews that find this novel stupid or only for Young Adults or whatever; simply unjustified and reflective of a disappointment in finding little erotic or romantic content. Indeed, this is neither Eros' nor Aphrodite's playhouse, and do NOT purchase with such an expectation! Despite the subject matter, it is rather tame by all standards.

Well-worth reading, as well as Vidal's seven early short stories.

Welty's recent death makes this collection more important, and brings all of her best work together in one pricey volume. It contains her masterful, southern short stories lived through the eyes of charming characters. This collection also contains what some say was her best piece: "June Recital." The reissue edition contains much more interesting cover art photography.

Originally published in 1948, THE CITY AND THE PILLAR is generally considered the first mainstream American novel to place gay men and their lives and loves at dead center of the story. As such, it receives a tremendous amount of attention from critics and historians. Still, for all the stir it caused at the time (most newspapers wouldn't review or advertise it and many bookstores refused to carry it), it is more interesting for its history than for itself.

The story concerns Jim, an all-American boy from Virginia, who has a sexual encounter with classmate Bob just before Bob graduates from highschool and leaves town "to go to sea." This is Jim's first same-sex encounter, and with classic adolescent innocence he concludes that he and Bob are spiritual "twins." As soon as he graduates, Jim goes in search of Bob on the assumption that Bob feels the same--and driven by this obsession he too "goes to sea," and moves from port to port and eventually from relationship to relationship in search of his ever-elusive lost love.

In a sense, THE CITY AND THE PILLAR gives us a window on what it must have been like to have been a young gay man in this era; at first Jim has absolutely no frame of reference for his sexuality, and when he begins to discover that men who have sex with men are not uncommon he resists thinking of himself as "one of those." But the overwhelming problem with the novel is that Jim is not a greatly interesting person, nor is Bob, nor are any of the people that Jim encounters while he looks for Bob. It soon becomes difficult to care about Jim, much less about whether or not he will ever find Bob and what will happen if he does.

Vidal himself was not greatly happy with the novel as it was published in 1948, and he rewrote it for a 1960s reprint. (The original 1948 version, which has a very different ending and slightly different tone, is no longer widely available.) But in rewriting the novel, Vidal did not go far enough: the characters are just as tedious in the second version as they were in the first. While I applaud Vidal for taking on such then-hot subject matter, I can't really praise what he did with it either originally or in the rewrite. Fortunately, if you feel you must read the novel due to its historical significance, it is fairly short--and that, really, is the best thing I can say for it.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I've never read this book, but I can reccomend this author with all my heart. I've read numerous famous American short stories in high school, but Welty's make for some of my favorite. She is, indeed, hilarious, and creates profound characters which you'll never forget. Her stories are varied in subject matter as well, which always adds an excellent surprise. I highly reccomend "Why I Live at the P.O." my personal favorite, and "A Visit of Charity."

While reading this apparent classic, first published years ago, I was surprised, because it seemed so contemporary. Apparently this novelette was one of the first to deal with homosexuality in 'normal', untainted youths. In any case, I liked the spare prose, which suggested a documentary, which both suited and clarified the central character of Jim. The images that the book invokes are clean-edged, there is very little that is extravagant des- cription. The basic story is of Jim and Bob, two youths that find passion on the last day of Bob's last year of high school. Jim is changed by this experience, and the rest of the novel details his search for Bob, or for the sort of wholeness being with Bob gave him. Ultimately, the journey ends tragically, after Jim has experienced a number of relationships, but while he is still in his early 20s. I found the tone of the novel to be bleak, a numbed journey from hope and optimism into nihilism at the end. Because of the very simplicity of the story, I didn't think it made much impression on me while reading. However, I now find myself continually thinking of Jim and his life and it seems the story has indeed got to me. I can't describe what it is, but the tale has left me empty and feeling a great deal of pity and empathy for Jim and what will happen to him afterwards. There are some glorious moments in the book, and the multitude of personalities in the gay world that Vidal illustrates are varied and non-stereotypical, surprising for a book written before supposedly 'enlightened' times. I recommend this book, as it is a fascinating read, one thatcontinues to haunt the reader long after the conclusion.