I've never read any Joyce Carol Oates. I want to.

Fairly bleak short stories tend to be my favorite form of fiction, and it sounds like she has a few of those in her oeuvre.

Any recommendations?

bigc wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2024 8:40 am I've never read any Joyce Carol Oates. I want to.

Fairly bleak short stories tend to be my favorite form of fiction, and it sounds like she has a few of those in her oeuvre.

Any recommendations?

AIRSHIPS and BATS OUT OF HELL by Barry Hannah
TINY LOVE by Larry Brown
LAST DAYS OF THE DOGMEN by Brad Watson
A STRANGER IN THIS WORLD by Kevin Canty
MY PEOPLE’S WALTZ by Dale Ray Philips
JESUS’ SON and LARGESSE AND THE SEA MAIDEN by Denis Johnson
COLLECTED STORIES by Breece D’J Pancake
THE COMPLETE STORIES by Flannery O’Connor
DUBLINERS by James Joyce
Everything you can find by Eudora Welty

I love JCO, you can’t really go wrong picking up anywhere in her bibliography. But the above are added suggestions for usually bleak and unsentimental stories that cut like a razor.

Southern Reach trilogy could not maintain past the first book, but I finished it anyway. A big "okay" at that ending.

Dave N. wrote: Fri Jul 12, 2024 7:26 am Just finished William Gay’s Provinces of Night, and now I’m reading Fay by Larry Brown. Eagerly awaiting the new ones from Willy Vlauten and James Wade.

I wrote at Larry Brown’s writing shed in Tula and made friends with his son Shane a year or two ago. Oxford is a fantastic place that just bleeds stories. I have a file box full of Larry’s stories and “novels-in-progress” that he sent to my buddy Clyde Edgerton, who is a brilliant writer in his own right. I liked FAY but I prefer the terse prose of JOE and FATHER AND SON. Brilliant writer.

Read Tim McLaurin if you haven’t already.

bigc wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2024 8:40 am Fairly bleak short stories tend to be my favorite form of fiction, and it sounds like she has a few of those in her oeuvre.

Any recommendations?

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, by Wells Tower. None finer.

Thanks so much for the recs, y'all. Now on the short list.

Any suggestions by JCO specifically? I've never read a word of her writing and want to dig in.

'the year of magical thinking'. i haven't read 'blue nights' but i should. 'very sad' doesn't really cover it, but it is.

Listening to the audiobook of Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel.

Fucking incredible. I cannot recommend it enough. The reader is also doing an amazing job.

The story and writing is amazingly good. It’s weirdly reminding me of Game of Thrones which all the courtly intrigue and murderous politicking.

A book worth all the praise I’d seen.

If you have an Audiable account all three books are in a single bundle.

bigc wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 8:27 am Thanks so much for the recs, y'all. Now on the short list.

Any suggestions by JCO specifically? I've never read a word of her writing and want to dig in.

Chiming in late to suggest checking out Roberto Bolaño's short stories too.

jimmy spako wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 2:19 pm Chiming in late to suggest checking out Roberto Bolaño's short stories too.

Nazi Literature in the Americas (a collection of bogus biographies, entries between two paragraphs and novella in length) is a phenomenal read. haunting in places and viciously funny in others. one of those books i gave away because i couldn't stop picking it up and noticing something new in it.