Literary Short Nominations • July 2014

[Billi]

I fourth The Club of Queer Trades
and I third Berlin Stories.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by issybird

I wish he'd come back, too. I messaged him when he went missing; he said he was spending less time online and wanted to focus on his own reading, but didn't think the hiatus would be permanent.

Alas, I don't know that the Munro will be a sufficient carrot; he's already read something by her.

Thanks for asking him!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will fourth Berlin Stories.

[sun surfer]

I've begun linking to Goodreads in the title of each nomination in the list for quicker reference when perusing.

Since all previous nominations are complete, I'm going to offer three books, each at a hundred-something pages.

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Spoiler:

~144 pages

From Goodreads:

Visiting an idyllic German village, Werther, a sensitive and romantic young man, meets and falls in love with sweet-natured Lotte. Although he realizes that Lotte is to marry Albert, he is unable to subdue his passion for her, and his infatuation torments him to the point of absolute despair. The first great 'confessional' novel, 'The Sorrows of Young Werther' draws both on Goethe's own unrequited love for Charlotte Buff and on the death of his friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem. Goethe's sensitive exploration of the mind of a young artist at odds with soceity and ill-equipped to cope with life is now considered the first great tragic novel of European literature.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Spoiler:

~176 pages

From Goodreads:

A tale of the prairie land encountered by America's Swedish, Czech, Bohemian, and French immigrants, as well as a story of how the land challenged them, changed them, and, in some cases, defeated them, Cather's novel is a uniquely American epic.

Alexandra Bergson, a young Swedish immigrant girl who inherits her father's farm and must transform it from raw prairie into a prosperous enterprise, is the first of Cather's great heroines, all of them women of strong will and an even stronger desire to overcome adversity and succeed. But the wild land itself is an equally important character in Cather's books, and her descriptions of it are so evocative, lush, and moving that they provoked writer Rebecca West to say of her: "The most sensuous of writers, Willa Cather builds her imagined world almost as solidly as our five senses build the universe around us."

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

Spoiler:

~179 pages

From Goodreads:

Jorge Luis Borge's Fictions introduced an entirely new voice into world literature. It is here we find the astonishing accounts of Funes, the man who can forget nothing; the French poet who recreated Don Quixote word for word; the fatal lottery in Babylon; the mysterious planet of Tlön; and the library containing every possible book in the whole universe. Here too are the philosophical detective stories and the haunting tales of Irish revolutionaries, gaucho knife fights and dreams within dreams which proved so influential (and yet impossible to imitate). This collection was eventually to bring Borges international fame; over fifty years later, it remains endlessly intriguing.

[desertblues]

I second Ficciones

[BelleZora]

Third Ficciones.

[BelleZora]

I'll use my last vote to support The Sorrows of Young Werther.

I just recently read O Pioneers and thought it was very good.

[Billi]

I support O Pioneers.

[paola]

arriving late at the party, I will fourth Ficciones, and start thinking...

[Bookpossum]

Goodness, a lot happens in 24 hours!

I'll third O Pioneers, as I'm ashamed to say I have never read any of her work.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I'll fourth O Pioneers.

[ccowie]

I'm still a little unclear as to whether we're nominating a single story or a collection. For instance are we nominating the short story Runaway or the whole book of stories?

If we're nominating single stories I'd like to nominate Where are You and Where Have you Been by Joyce Carol Oates.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ccowie

I'm still a little unclear as to whether we're nominating a single story or a collection. For instance are we nominating the short story Runaway or the whole book of stories?

If we're nominating single stories I'd like to nominate Where are You and Where Have you Been by Joyce Carol Oates.

We've been nominating short books (of any stripe) or short story collections (some of which are also short books, but not all). However, once in the past we ended up reading a single story, so I don't think there's a problem with your nomination.

[ccowie]

Originally Posted by issybird

once in the past we ended up reading a single story, so I don't think there's a problem with your nomination.

Great. Thanks, because I remember the collection this story contained in was enormous!

[ccowie]

BTW I'm not posting as much these days because of I'm taking an unplanned vacation and I'm away a lot. I've also agreed to develop and teach a course next winter and a lot of my reading has been in that vein. I'll be back and reading all the updates on Testament of Youth real soon!