Customer Reviews

I Know Some Things: Stories about Childhood by Contemporary Writers

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I Know Some Things: Stories About Childhood By Contemporary Writers is a compilation of engaging, individual literary tales about childhood that cut across gender, age, class, ethnicity, and geography. Here to be found memorable stories of heartache and joy, growing up, and viewing the world in new and different ways. The authors include Glenda Adams, Margaret Atwood, Toni Cade Bambara, Charles Baxter, Catherine Brady, Harold Brodkey, Charles D'Ambrosio Jr., D.J. Durnam, Max Garland, Spalding Grey, Jamaica Kincaid, Richard McCann, Peter Meinke, Leonard Michaels, Susan Minot, Alice Munro, Catherine Petroski, Sheila Schwartz, Amy Tan, and Stephanie Vaughan. I Know Some Things is highly recommended, rewarding reading.

Even a glance through the table of contents in Lorrie Moore's newly reprinted "I Know Some Things" demontrates its utility for the teacher of creative writing. We tell our students to write about what they know, and what they know at least is their own lives. The stories in this collection, representing a range of today's talented writers, also represent the range of experience the writers had between their early childhood and their middle teenage years. The volume thereby would come in handy as a set of models for young writers in a secondary or college creative writing class. I also see the book's potential for use in a psychology course.

At a glance, you might think this is a collection of stories by Lorrie Moore, but beware, it is not. This is a collection of wildly differing and unrelated stories on the topic of childhood. While I love Lorrie Moore's work, both short fiction and novels, none of the authors included appeal to me the way she does. ( Not one story compares favorably to Moore's near- masterpiece " People Like That Are the Only People Here" ) But, if you are looking specifically for a book of short stories by contemporary authors on the general topic of childhood, this might appeal to you.