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A review by justjoel
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
Did not finish book.
So, this is where I simultaneously break with tradition and reveal my shallow nature.
For the first time since the mid 1990s, I did not finish a book I started reading. I’ve been stubborn about not only finishing what I started, but about giving books and authors a chance. To see if maybe although I don’t completely enjoy the story, the author still has something important to say.
I decided going into this year that I was going to change my ways. No longer would I force myself to read something I wasn’t enjoying. After all, I’m not going to keep eating a meal that I find repulsive: I’m going to toss it and find something more suitable for my tastes.
I am not a big fan of short stories. There are exceptions. Poe and Henry (and to a lesser extent, Stephen King) immediately come to mind. But I went into this knowing Welty was an award-winning author and highly regarded, so my mind was completely open.
There are things I think some people will find problematic. As many of these stories are set in the south during a time when African-Americans were deemed less than whites (sadly, still true in some areas today), there was not-infrequent usage of the “n-word” and variations thereof.
Personally, I don’t like the word and don’t use it in my vocabulary, but I can accept it in literature if it is relevant, such as used in a time period where it would not have been uncommon, or demonstrating a trait of a racist character.
What I absolutely could not stand was the repeated use of “could of,” and its friends “should of” and “would of.”
See. Told you I was shallow.
But I absolutely wanted to throw my Kindle across the room when those started appearing. Okay, once might just be an editing mishap, but when it is prevalent, that is not an editing slip: it’s either an editor who is incompetent, or is afraid to correct a writer. Either way, I made it through less than half of this book before I had been worn down by the repeated lack of contractions. Out of the stories I made it through, there was only one I actually found engaging and interesting, but I can’t even remember its title and don’t feel like searching through this waste of storage space to find it.
Did not finish.
For the first time since the mid 1990s, I did not finish a book I started reading. I’ve been stubborn about not only finishing what I started, but about giving books and authors a chance. To see if maybe although I don’t completely enjoy the story, the author still has something important to say.
I decided going into this year that I was going to change my ways. No longer would I force myself to read something I wasn’t enjoying. After all, I’m not going to keep eating a meal that I find repulsive: I’m going to toss it and find something more suitable for my tastes.
I am not a big fan of short stories. There are exceptions. Poe and Henry (and to a lesser extent, Stephen King) immediately come to mind. But I went into this knowing Welty was an award-winning author and highly regarded, so my mind was completely open.
There are things I think some people will find problematic. As many of these stories are set in the south during a time when African-Americans were deemed less than whites (sadly, still true in some areas today), there was not-infrequent usage of the “n-word” and variations thereof.
Personally, I don’t like the word and don’t use it in my vocabulary, but I can accept it in literature if it is relevant, such as used in a time period where it would not have been uncommon, or demonstrating a trait of a racist character.
What I absolutely could not stand was the repeated use of “could of,” and its friends “should of” and “would of.”
See. Told you I was shallow.
But I absolutely wanted to throw my Kindle across the room when those started appearing. Okay, once might just be an editing mishap, but when it is prevalent, that is not an editing slip: it’s either an editor who is incompetent, or is afraid to correct a writer. Either way, I made it through less than half of this book before I had been worn down by the repeated lack of contractions. Out of the stories I made it through, there was only one I actually found engaging and interesting, but I can’t even remember its title and don’t feel like searching through this waste of storage space to find it.
Did not finish.