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Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 80
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 - 09:58 pm: | 
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Lately, I've been re-reading Edward P. Jones and I also just started Don't Erase Me by Carolyn Ferrell again. I'm really looking for literary collections by writers like these two, but my mind is drawing a blank (though I picked up Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them and Wright's Eight Men and will start those next).
Suggestions? |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 260
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 - 10:45 pm: |
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I enjoyed Edward P. Jones's collection, and also ZZ Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere." I also liked a collection by J. California Cooper; I believe it was called "The Matter is Life", but she also has other story collections that I haven't read. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 81
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 - 10:57 pm: |
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Yeah, I forgot about ZZ Packer, I have that one, and Get Down by Asali Solomon is also terrific. I've been a BIG fan of Cooper for the longest and haven't finished her most recent, Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns so I guess I can add that to the list along with the rest of In Love and Trouble by Alice Walker.
I love the economy and precision of the short story and hope to discover a ton this summer! Right now I'm catching up on Alice Munro and TC Boyle in terms of non-black authors.
I just know there are more that I need to be aware of...I've found my way to many via the anthologies like O. Henry and BASS! |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7012
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 11:56 am: |
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Try All Stories are True by John Edgar Wideman
(also his collected stories)
The Collected stories of Chester Himes
Flying Home (which I believe is the Ralph Ellison collection)
Good stuff in Black Voices I and II (with poetry)
Also Terry McMillain did a collection of stories about ten or fifteen years ago)
Dark Matter 1 and 2 if you like Speculative Fiction |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7016
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 12:05 pm: |
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Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Writers
Click to order via Amazon
Terry McMillan (Editor), John Edgar Wideman (Photographer)
ISBN: 0140116974
Format: Paperback, 683pp
Pub. Date: September 1990
Publisher: Penguin
A striking collection of works from authors both established and emerging, this is the first original anthology of African-American writing in over a decade. Featured contributors include: J. California Cooper, Marita Golden, Gloria Naylor, Darryl Pinckney, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry McMillan, and many others. |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 505
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 12:30 pm: |
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Hello All,
Oh boy, a question I can answer. I am doing this off the top of my head and my mind is a little rusty, but here it goes,
Chris already mentioned, Dark Matter 1 & 2, both edited by Sheree Thomas.
Dark Matters 1 & 2, both edited by Brandon Massey. Two very good collections.
I Got Somebody in Staunton by William Henry Lewis. This is the only published writing I heard of from Lewis, but the collection is superb and it did not get any play when it was originally published, which is now to our loss.
The First Thing Smoking by Nelson Eubanks. Another one for the "its a damn shame" pile. This collection is brilliant, but it did not grab the attention I felt it deserved.
Sap Rising by Christine Lincoln. If you can find this one, grab and hold on to it for dear life. Another superb collection.
J. California Cooper: If you look up J. California Cooper, you will find a number of short story collections. Although Cooper wrote about 4 novels, the majority of her output was short story collections, The Future Has A Past, Wild Stars Seeking Midnight, and my all time favorite Copper book (one of my favorite books PERIOD) some love, some pain, sometime. I love her and am still sad that she is no longer with us.
Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes have complete short story collections. If you can get a hold of Langston Hughes' The Ways of White Folks, snatch it up!
I have two collections that I haven't read yet but I am going to because I have waited years for both of them to go into print again; Hue and Cry by James Alan McPherson and White Rat and other stories by Gayl Jones.
If I run across anymore, I'll drop a line. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7018
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 12:48 pm: |
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Hue and Cry by James Alan McPherson
REAL good one--especiallly "For Doc--A Solosong"
The anthology you pick ought to have "King of the Bingo Game" by Ralph Ellisoon and "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 82
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 04:13 pm: |
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Wow, thanks so much!!!
Hue and Cry is a collection that Jones mentioned that he enjoyed in an interview I read a while back.
I don't have Black Ice but I DO have Gumbo, which was edited by Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris.
I also have Baldwin's collection and those of Himes and Hughes, need to pick up Ellison's. I just started a novel about the Harlem Renaissance by Richard Bruce Nugent called Gentleman Jigger and it is hysterical.
I'm going to look for the Lewis and Eubanks, Thumper. If you loved it the I know I will; when you talked about how you threw Trouble Loves Company across the room when you finished reading it, I started it that NIGHT! LOL
And in case you Jones fans missed this - here is a BRILLIANT look into his work by Wyatt Mason...I can read it over and over.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/09/0081200 |
Emanuel
Veteran Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 574
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 04:17 pm: |
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I could never really get into short story collections but I do love "Flying Home" by Ralph Ellison. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 83
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 04:37 pm: |
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I used to feel the same way, I don't know which collection changed me but now I cannot get enough of them!
I forgot to mention The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers edited by Langston Hughes and Children of the Night, its recent anthology, edited by Gloria Naylor.
Looks like I can get most of the collections mentioned here for a song on Amazon Marketplace too!
Tonight I'll be digging into Gumbo a little more - the very first story is The Dew Breaker, from Edwidge Danticat's novel-in-stories of the same title, I can't believe I've sat on this book for so long, that's one of the books I also have on my must-read list! Krik? Krak! is excellent too.
Oh, and I meant to say I don't have BREAKING Ice, not Black Ice. Yet another order to place.
Some of my other favorite non-black short story writers are Steve Almond and Alicia Erian and Jean Thompson cracks me up. Rebecca Barry, Adam Haslett, Stacey Richter...just an embarrassment of literary riches, but thank you for all of these suggestions, I want to read about MY people right now and Jones just left me DYING for more! |
Carey
Veteran Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 826
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 05:58 pm: |
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Nom_de_plume, thank you,
Your mention of Gumbo and The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers edited by Lanston Hughes took me back. I have/had Gumbo and for the life of me I can't find it. Until you mentioned it I had not thought about it. I believe Thumper turned me out to that book. I do remember it was a great read. Not that I read all the authors but I remember it having an effect on me. I too was never big on short stories but sometimes, many times the point, the message, the story is told with just enough flavor that it is much like a fine small meal, just enough to fill me up.
I believe Langston Huges's The Best Short stories is a must read. It's a shame that many of these talented writers where not given the resourses and audience to continue their craft. It's interesting to read how some had to endure "gifts" from patrons to front their works.
Some of the titles in the edition are interesting....A Summer Tragedy by Arna Bontemps, Marihuana And A Pistol by Chester B. Himes, The almost white Boy by Willard Motley, Santa Claus Is A White Man by John Henrik Clarke, This Morning-This Evening-So Soon by James Baldwin. Of course Earnest Gaines is included; A Long Day In November.
Notice the absence of "He Said, She Said" also "Babies Mamma Daddy" didn't peek it's ugly head in the mix. There is one title that will forever be with us...Junkie-Joe Had Some Money by Ronald Milner *smile*.
Since we mentioned Langston Hughe, I think his book, The Ways Of White folk is very thought provoking and funny. Every black person should read it! Heck, white folk too, they might learn a little something....about themselves.
Thanks again for reminding me of the jewels I had sitting in my bookcase.
Carey
Carey |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 507
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 07:10 pm: |
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Hello All,
Boy, am I glad this thread got started. Believe it or not, I do Not have Langston Hughes' The Best Short Stories. I'm going to have to visit the Amazon Marketplace for that one myself. I'm a big sucker for that Amazon Marketplace.
As far as Langston's The Ways of White Folks, do like I did and read the book, with the cover on display, in a room full of white folks and start giggling. *giggling* You know white folks is always curious when black folks gets to laughing. It'll bring one of those funny, quiet moments. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 85
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 08:09 pm: |
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Carey, thank YOU for pointing out the stories that you seem fondest of! I've just been reading it from cover to cover and now I see I have plenty to tide me over until my new books arrive!
Thumper, I have ordered all the books you suggested for a whopping 20 bucks! So thank you too!
Chris Hayden, I can't wait to get my hands on Hue and Cry especially and I'll go ahead and put Flying Home in my shopping cart as well!
I spent this afternoon organizing my books (again) and I have ONE HUNDRED collections and anthologies total, including Freedom in this Village: Twenty-five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing, which I had completely forgotten about.
I *have* to have books, I don't go anywhere without at least one, not even to a nightclub. LOL
Tonight will be spent rediscovering what I have right here at home! |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 87
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 10:56 pm: |
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OMG...how could I forget Toure, Toure, Toure.
The Portable Promised Land.
LOVE. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7027
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 12:05 pm: |
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Cane by Jean Toomer has a lot of short prose pieces in it |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 515
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 12:08 pm: |
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Hello All,
Chris: What was the meaning of Cane? Were the short pieces connected to each other or were they meant as individual stories? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12357
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 12:19 pm: |
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I am not a fan of short story anthologies but I did like "Cane". Reading it was was like opening a treasure chest full of gems because the writing was so extraordinary. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12361
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 12:49 pm: |
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The "cane" in this book refers to sugar cane, which as I recall, was a major crop around the area where some of the stories took place. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 88
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 02:34 pm: |
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Hmm...I think the reviews I read of either First Thing Smoking or I Got Somebody in Staunton mentioned Cane and their similarities because of the "prose poems"... |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7038
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 03:33 pm: |
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Chris: What was the meaning of Cane? Were the short pieces connected to each other or were they meant as individual stories?
(I have tended to follow the interpretation that they were individual stories and poems with different characters in similar settings--in this case the rural and small town South of the teens and twenties--some have read into it a nostalgia for this setting--in some works I have read on Toomer (who was notoriously obtuse) he indicated that it was sort of a Swan song or a farewell to these times and characters) |
Steve_s
Veteran Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 346
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008 - 08:32 am: |
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Melvin in the Sixth Grade by Dana Johnson (Break Any Woman Down) ..."Av'ry darlin'" LOL! |
Steve_s
Veteran Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 349
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008 - 10:55 pm: |
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Nom_de_plume, I liked both Edward Jones collections, have read all of James Allen McPherson's books, liked Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, I Got Somebody in Staunton, Cane, Flying Home, have mixed feelings about The Portable Promised Land, and have not yet read The Elephant Vanishes (considered by many to be Haruki Murakami's best collection).
You might like "War By Candlelight" by Daniel Alarcón and "The Shell Collector" by Anthony Doerr. Both authors, along with ZZ Packer and 18 others, are among the Best of the Young American Novelists 2, chosen by Granta magazine. The anthology contains an excerpt called "Buffalo Soldiers" from ZZ Packer's upcoming novel "The Thousands." Haven't had a chance to read it yet.
I also read Doerr's novel "About Grace" and his memoir "Four Seasons in Rome," but I think "The Shell Collector" is his best. |
Mike_e
Regular Poster
Username: Mike_e
Post Number: 26
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008 - 10:20 pm: |
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I hope you don't mind me bringing up a few short story collections that you young folks failed to mention or perhaps forgot:
Dancers On The Shore-William Melvin Kelley
Tales-Amiri Baraka
Bloodlines-Ernest Gaines
Ark of Bones-Henry Dumas
The Sorcerer's Apprentice-Charles Johnson
Uncle Tom's Children-Richard Wright
Damballah-John Edgar Wideman
Gorilla My Love-Toni Cade Bambara
The Weather and The Women Treat Me Fair; The Big Picture;& Damned If I Do-Percial Everett
You Can't Keep A Good Woman Down - Alice Walker
William Henry Lewis published a previous volume of short stories the title of which I can not remember but it was almost as good as I Got Somebody in Staunton. |
Mike_e
Regular Poster
Username: Mike_e
Post Number: 27
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008 - 10:30 pm: |
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In The Arms Of Our Elders is the title of William Henry Lewis' first short story collection. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 89
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 - 11:20 pm: |
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Wow, I'll look these up and get them at some point too, I see I'm missing a lot!
I do have the Granta anthology, and I also have one called The Workshop, which is an anthology from Iowa. One of McPherson's stories is in that!
Mending the World: Stories of Family from Contemporary Black Writers is another that I forgot I had, I just have to find it...LOL
I loved Percival Everett's Erasure so I'm looking forward to checking out his stories in particular. Thanks again! |
Steve_s
Veteran Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 353
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 07:37 am: |
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On the subject of "Cane" by Jean Toomer, Borders carries a new book in its anthologies section called "Classics for Pleasure" by Michael Dirda, the Washington Post book critic.
It's a collection of book recommendations which includes "great books" from Lao Tse and Beowulf to twentieth century fiction, however, included among the less that 100 books he chooses is "Cane" by Jean Toomer, somewhat surprisingly, to me. It's an interesting three-page appreciation of Cane. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12393
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 12:50 pm: |
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Why would the inclusion of "Cane" surprise you? Isn't it considered a classic? One reason I read this collection was the high regard in which it was held by the literary world. |
Steve_s
Veteran Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 354
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 03:39 pm: |
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Why would the inclusion of "Cane" surprise you?
Hi, Cynique, Why "did" it surprise me, you mean?
I'm not saying that it does not belong on the list, only that I was surprised. Well, primarily because Cane is not often (or never) chosen for such a short list (eighty-eight books) of "classics" representing all of literature. In that respect, it may not be alone (I can't tell from Amazon.com which books are on the list, only authors.)
A few examples of collections of this type are Harold Bloom's "Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds," which includes Ralph Ellison at number 100, while if I remember correctly, authors like Vladimir Nabokov and Nikolai Gogol are not included. Bloom's The Western Canon, if I'm not mistaken, includes 500 books, historical and international in scope like Dirda's. I think Mumbo-Jumbo made that list. In Bloom's "What to Read and Why" (not specifically a selection of "classic" books, more a kind of self-help syllabus), Song of Solomon and Invisible Man hold down the chair for black culture.
Although Jane Smiley's 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel contains reviews of 101 books similar in scope to Dirda's, I would not have been surprised to see Cane on her list, probably because it's not specifically defined as a list of "classics" (for example, she likes White Teeth but not Moby-Dick); they merely represent books that she'd been meaning to get around to reading (or re-reading) before becoming immobilized by a leg injury, which presented an opportunity for her to write the book.
Cynique, I had not heard of Cane until I started reading black literature extensively. Before coming here (2002?) I had posted for a few years on another board, or a couple of them, which eventually closed. There was a brother one who had been on campus in the sixties and had read a lot of books and was actively attending book events in the Boston area by authors like H.L. Gates. So he was very helpful. I would read When Harlem Was in Vogue and he would point out Jervis Anderson's This Was Harlem and JWJ's Black Manhattan; when I read A Different Drummer, he told me about Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence, etc. I still haven't read many of those books.
One of the regulars told me about Alice Walker's essay on Toomer. Her deep sense of hurt over the author's decision concerning his identiy is almost painful to read. As a result, I wondered if it contains any factual inaccuracies? I've still read very little of the literature of the Harlem Renaissance, yet my sense is that there was a 1960s revision which still more or less in place. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 90
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008 - 12:49 am: |
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Thumper - thank you SO much for recommending Gayle Jones's White Rat collection. I finally started reading it morning and am about 2/3 through it already; I've barely put it down. It is OFF the fucking RICHTER. Never read anything like it and I've already ordered three of her novels! She seems to be a very interesting woman and reclusive too - I found a Salon.com piece on her which I'll try to post later.
I'm probably going to finish this book tonight!
I've been reading First Thing Smoking and I Got Somebody in Staunton but this held my attention fast (also have been reading The Men of Brewster Place, forgot how great that one is too)! I'll go back to those when I'm finished with this one.
Bout to start a thread on Stephen Carter!  |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 548
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 07:48 pm: |
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Hello All,
Nom_de_plume: I am so glad you like it. I have to admit I haven't read it yet, but I recommended it because I have read all of Gayl Jones's novels. I've been saving it because I don't know when or if Jones is going to keep writing. So, I save books for when the mood hits me, I have something to read.
Gayl Jones - I LOVE her style! I hope two of the books that you ordered was Corridega (sp) and Eva's Man. Those books are off the hook! Let me know what you think after you've read them. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 98
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 11:48 pm: |
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Alright - you *have* to at least read one story - The Women. There you will see similarities between that story and Eva's Man! I love her writing style too. I feel ya on wanting to save the books cause now that I have The Healing and Mosquito in the queue I want to hold off for a minute, if only to take a breather from such devastating subjects. I need to get Corregidora next!
While not a black author, Jill McCorkle is another AMAZING writer - I just finished her collection Creatures of Habit and I haven't been the same since. LOL |
Carey
Veteran Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 914
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 08:25 am: |
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See, you two are going to have to break it up. I am like a kid in a toy store, "I WANT THAT". Books, like movies and music is for the most part, subjective. Although Jones work is defined as fiction, for me, this black man in America, I think not. After reading Nom_de_plume's link to the article on Gayle Jones, the voice of her writings breathe more clearly. |
Nom_de_plume
Regular Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 100
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 09:48 pm: |
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Get White Rat first! Get White Rat first! LOL
I'm going back to the others in a bit, right now I veered all the way left and am reading The Corrections. I started it a few times a while ago but couldn't give it my attention the way it needed to be given. So now I'm ready! |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 103
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 06:15 pm: |
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I found a copy of White Boys by Reginald McKnight, also worth a mention. This collection was published about ten years ago, happened upon it last week and am enjoying the first story so far. |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 104
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 10:06 pm: |
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Alright, I devoured White Boys last night and plowed through I Got Somebody in Staunton today - only two stories left, I had to MAKE myself put the book down and read something else to savor them!
On point once again, Thumper. THANK YOU!! |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 556
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 11:47 pm: |
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Hello All,
Nom_de_plume: No problem. That's why I'm here. You know I have forgotten all about Reginald McKnight's White Boys. It is an excellent one. I have a couple more short story collections to suggest: Short Stories by Langston Hughes and Miss Muriel and other stories by Ann Petry. If you haven't heard of Petry before, she's an author who doesn't get the press that she should. Her most popular novel is The Street, which happens to be a damn good novel. It's still in print. She wrote two other novels but only one is in print, The Narrows. The Narrows, which in my opinion, is the MASTERPIECE! It is my sincere hope that one day it will be turned into a movie...that is NOT produced by Oprah! |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 105
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 04:01 pm: |
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Yes! Palm Wine was my favorite in that story collection. I see that he expanded two of the stories revolving around the character's time in Africa into a novel called He Sleeps. Made me also want to start Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan pretty soon.
As with any author I go apeshit over, I Googled and found this spectacular, lengthy interview!
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_3_35/ai_79758786/print
I read The Street some time ago but didn't know about The Narrows! I'll definitely pick that up, sounds like a great read. I'll try to find her story collection too.
I get in the mood for different collections and authors and I find myself switching around often. I picked up Alice Walker's In Love and Trouble to keep myself from finishing Lewis's book.
Speaking of which, I scoured the net to find an interview or anything on him but had no luck. Can you point me to one? |
Steve_s
Veteran Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 359
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 12:33 am: |
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Nom_de-plume, I've read McKnight's "He Sleeps" and his short story collection, "The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas," although I read the latter some time ago and barely remember it. Same for Charles Johnson's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." I had mixed feelings about "Dr. King's Refrigerator." I also have McKnight's first novel "I Get on the Bus," which, like "He Sleeps," is about an American in Senegal, but I've never gotten around to it. |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 107
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 01:38 pm: |
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I forgot about Dr. King's Refrigerator, which is fairly new! I plan on hunting down McKnight's other collection. He is a new favorite. I gotta look through He Sleeps, see where he goes with that because it really does seem as though two of the stories in White Boys are excerpts from that book. I'd like to see how he turned them into part of the novel.
I am about to start First Thing Smoking today! |
Steve_s
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Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 361
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 03:13 pm: |
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Nom_de_plume, I've temporarily misplaced my copy of McKnight's "The Kind of Light..." and I haven't read his other collection, but I think the anthropologist main character in He Sleeps, Bertrand's, hunt for palm wine on his visit to Senegal is driven by his having read Amos Tutuola's "The Palm Wine Drinkard" back in college. It ends up being one of a number of preconceptions that get overturned.
It's a terrific novel which I liked more that the short story collection, however, I've noticed that "The Kind of Light..." is one of the 10 books on Martha Southgate's reading list (of which I've read five).
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/books/review/southgate-list.html
First Thing Smoking
I checked the library's online catalogue and they don't have this title but it looks interesting, thanks for the heads up. |
Steve_s
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Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 362
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 03:49 pm: |
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Nom-de-plume, As a non-AA-short-story-related afterthought about "anthropologist novels" like He Sleeps, I just finished Mischa Berlinski's "Fieldwork," a novel that revoles around a female Dutch-Thai American anthropologist's experience living among the fictional Dyallo people of Thailand. The narrator is a journalist who's accompanied his wife to Thailand where she teaches English as a second language, and he attempts to unravel the mystery of the anthropologist who's serving a 50-year prison sentence for murdering a missionary. I liked it, don't know if you would.
http://www.amazon.com/Fieldwork-Novel-Mischa-Berlinski/dp/0374299161/ref=pd_ybh_ 14?pf_rd_p=280800601&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1501&pf_rd_i=ybh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX 0DER&pf_rd_r=0BTP8P1AZWYRRGXBFAZH |
Nom_de_plume
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Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 108
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 07:41 pm: |
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I *have* to have The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas. I've looked for it in my favorite stores but looks like I'll have to order it from Amazon Marketplace.
He Sleeps sounds like another I'll get soon and Fieldwork sounds pretty good too! In terms of Thai stories, I absolutely loved Rattawut Lapcharoensap's collection, Sightseeing.
Today I picked up two John Edgar Wideman collections, Fever and God's Gym.
I'm on a Lorrie Moore and Mary Gaitskill kick otherwise, so it was a pleasure to stumble upon these two! |
Crystal
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Username: Crystal
Post Number: 429
Registered: 01-2004
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008 - 11:58 am: |
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I just got the Percival Everett collection Damned If I Do from the library. I'll let you know how it is. |
Nom_de_plume
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Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 109
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008 - 05:11 pm: |
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I skip around collections according to my mood and I think I'll start Fever tonight.
I am having hard time getting into First Thing Smoking, probably because the first two stories were sort of blah for me. The first was a sort of scene description, the next was about stickball/baseball and I HATE reading about sports almost as much as I do about characters having dreams. I'm going to keep trying though. LOL |
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