Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules

[katekintailbc]

Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules
by Various Authors
(Audio)
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8638160/

I love David Sedaris' stories and I was interested to hear his choices in this anthology because I have seen most of the authors featured (Wolff, Baxter, and Hempel) at the conference I help run every year for work, though I've never read any of their stories.

This audio book actually didn't leave my car from the time I picked it up at the PO until just now. I had to finish earreading the Uglies series and then I gave this a listen.

I wouldn't say that I was disappointed... it's just that every single one of them seemed to end far too soon. Maybe that's because I was earreading them in the car and just couldn't give them 100% of my attention, so I missed something that would have made that moment a good one to end at? I'm not sure. But I was definitely caught off guard when they ended. Perhaps they were too literary for me and I missed the points? I hope not, so I'll blame it on earreading them in the car :-)

Introduction by David Sedaris- loved it. He definitely made me laugh and desperately want to love these stories. If David Sedaris would defend these stories to his death, I was bound to adore them, right?

Where the Door is Always Open and the Welcome Mat is Out by Patricia Highsmith- I liked that the two characters just didn't *get* each other. The lengths the main character went to in order to look good and prepare for her sister's visit really drew me in and taught me a whole lot about her. And then when her sister didn't notice a single thing she had done to prepare and, instead, focused on all the things entirely out of her sister's control, I wanted to slap the woman! LOL But, similarly, the main character just didn't seem to hear a thing her sister said. Even though all the fussing and detailed cleaning annoyed me... it still endeared me to her. And so I was totally on her side at the end... even though she was perfectly clueless. Oh, and Cherry Jones' reading of it was amazingly entertaining. She really did a great job bringing the main character to life.

Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff- wow. Extremely short but not only focused on what he did think about in the last seconds of his life but also what he didn't think about. That was really interesting... and heartbreaking as well.

Gryphon by Charles Baxter- definitely one of my favorites, though I suspect I wouldn't have been quite so in love with it if not for Sedaris' reading. He was able to really accentuate the amazing range of normal to absolutely crazy that this young child sees (and that we see through his eyes). It brought to mind a lot of crazy childhood imaginary things and how black & white things are for me now that I'm an adult. This entertained me as well :-)

In the Cemetery Where All Jolson is Buried by Amy Hempel- This was poignant but also very dark. The whole world and especially the people in it feel so alive, and it's both understandable and rather startling when the mother never wants to have anything to do with it/them ever again.

Cosmopolitan by Akhil Sharma- Loved this. I usually love it when authors read their own stories. Sometimes, it's a BAD idea. But when it works (as it does here) it's wonderful hearing the way sentences are read and different words stressed from the person who wrote those words. I really, really like Gopal (rather, I could sympathize with him and understand his situation). I love that we get his POV but it really takes outside forces (Cosmopolitan magazine, Mrs. Shaw-what was her first name again?, and his ex-wife/daughter/Indian American community) to let us really get a sense of what's in his mind and heart. WOW! I just Googled it and found that they made a film based on this story in 2003. Think I'll have to track that down.

Now I wish I had the longer print version so I could try some of the other stories. I do love the idea of trying out an author here and then devouring his/her whole body of work (I tend to get stuck on authors that way, and Sedaris' name is why I put this on my wish list to begin with)