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A review by haramis
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
4.0
I feel like weeping tears of relief that I am I finally on the other side of this. I don't think this is the intended reaction to this tome. I don't think that Eudora Welty should ever be jammed in a single book, suggesting that it's a single serving. Each book should be taken on its own with years between. As it is, I've spent seven months listening to it in bits and pieces.
I do still think that [b:The Green Curtain|12599|Selected Stories of Eudora Welty A Curtain of Green And Other Stories / The Wide Net and Other Stories|Eudora Welty|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166505053s/12599.jpg|14884] benefits wonderfully from being read aloud. The humor shines with the performance. [b:The Wide Net and Other Stories|12593|The Wide Net and Other Stories|Eudora Welty|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348459411s/12593.jpg|14878] is about half and half. Basically, Welty sometimes gets into these long wandering passages, and they are clearly not meant to be heard. I so often found myself buried in what I thought was the middle of the story only to tumble into the last lines without warning. I have to think this would work better on the page, which is why I'm willing to argue that The Golden Apples should never be listened to. Someday, when I can stuff back down my gorge at the thought of going through it again, I truly intend to read rather than listen to it, and you know, maybe chart out all those families and relations. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy "The Wanderers," which brings everything in together, but that I think I would have appreciated it more if I didn't feel that I'd spent the entire book in some kind of half-hazed, drone-induced dream state.
[b:The Bride of Innisfallen] swings back into being mostly being listenable, and I think both "Bride of Innisfallen" and "Circe" shine in the audiobook format.
How do I rate this book? An average of its parts? By the best bits? Do I measure it in pain? I'll go with this--3.5 rounded up to 4, assuming that one skips The Golden Apples. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE GOLDEN APPLES.
---
It occurred to me recently while I was debating whether or not to renew my 4-year-old daughter's subscription to High Five that my love of short stories probably began with my childhood copies of Highlights for Children. I can remember longing for the new issue to arrive and then skipping the other features to read the stories first. My love of being read short stories happened much more recently and has everything to do with Selected Shorts. While I had dutifully read the Eudora Welty I was assigned in class, it was Selected Shorts that taught me to enjoy her as an adult, particularly performance of Marian Seldes reading "Lily Daw and The Three Ladies," which has a delicious comic tension.
This was my first time hearing "Why I Live at the P.O" read aloud, and it was utterly delightful. I'm afraid that I have to admit that perhaps I'm shallow, but I really do prefer the lighter stories to the darker ones. I have every intention of finishing the collection, but now them I'm into some of the longer, heavier stories, I'm enjoying it much less.
I do still think that [b:The Green Curtain|12599|Selected Stories of Eudora Welty A Curtain of Green And Other Stories / The Wide Net and Other Stories|Eudora Welty|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166505053s/12599.jpg|14884] benefits wonderfully from being read aloud. The humor shines with the performance. [b:The Wide Net and Other Stories|12593|The Wide Net and Other Stories|Eudora Welty|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348459411s/12593.jpg|14878] is about half and half. Basically, Welty sometimes gets into these long wandering passages, and they are clearly not meant to be heard. I so often found myself buried in what I thought was the middle of the story only to tumble into the last lines without warning. I have to think this would work better on the page, which is why I'm willing to argue that The Golden Apples should never be listened to. Someday, when I can stuff back down my gorge at the thought of going through it again, I truly intend to read rather than listen to it, and you know, maybe chart out all those families and relations. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy "The Wanderers," which brings everything in together, but that I think I would have appreciated it more if I didn't feel that I'd spent the entire book in some kind of half-hazed, drone-induced dream state.
[b:The Bride of Innisfallen] swings back into being mostly being listenable, and I think both "Bride of Innisfallen" and "Circe" shine in the audiobook format.
How do I rate this book? An average of its parts? By the best bits? Do I measure it in pain? I'll go with this--3.5 rounded up to 4, assuming that one skips The Golden Apples. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE GOLDEN APPLES.
---
It occurred to me recently while I was debating whether or not to renew my 4-year-old daughter's subscription to High Five that my love of short stories probably began with my childhood copies of Highlights for Children. I can remember longing for the new issue to arrive and then skipping the other features to read the stories first. My love of being read short stories happened much more recently and has everything to do with Selected Shorts. While I had dutifully read the Eudora Welty I was assigned in class, it was Selected Shorts that taught me to enjoy her as an adult, particularly performance of Marian Seldes reading "Lily Daw and The Three Ladies," which has a delicious comic tension.
This was my first time hearing "Why I Live at the P.O" read aloud, and it was utterly delightful. I'm afraid that I have to admit that perhaps I'm shallow, but I really do prefer the lighter stories to the darker ones. I have every intention of finishing the collection, but now them I'm into some of the longer, heavier stories, I'm enjoying it much less.