Book Description
Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is the now-classic novel of two women in the 1980s: of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women--of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth--who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present--for Evelyn and for us--will never be quite the same again. . . .
Customer Reviews:
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.......2007-09-13
I love the movie version. Watch it about once a year. The book fleshes out the beloved characters very well. The book is a keepsake to be re-read often.
A Treasure.......2007-07-26
First off, the title is one of the best ever; and everything about this book lives up to it. Not a story that is reeled out in a straight cast but payed out slowly- under and over stories artfully woven. The character's names, the place, the times, the sounds of the train, the smells of all that fabulous pre-health conscious stuff frying on the grill. Boy oh boy!
The hope of life against the odds. This is one classic book.
I quite liked it!.......2007-07-18
Whenever I see a movie that was originally a book, I always want to read the book. Then i got on amazon and saw how many people were just lovin the book! So i got. And here I am, to make my own rave review.
Although the book jumps around alot, somehow I never got confused or annoyed. It just still fit seamlessly together, ninny telling her story and the rest being filled in. And then it tells the story of Evelyn, who's struggling with depression and her want to die. And then it goes through with her as she suddenly becomes angry, calling herself Towanda.
I'd say that it's definately worth the money.
Better than the movie!.......2007-07-09
Read the book, it's better than the movie and you will be glad you did.
Book.......2007-07-03
I loved it. I watched the movie first and now am reading the book and it's just fantastic!
Average customer rating:
- Southern Rococo
- Carson's Ballad is Beautiful
|
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories
Carson McCullers
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
McCullers, Carson
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| Melville, Herman
| Moliere
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Anna In The Tropics
-
Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary
-
Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry
-
Enduring Love: A Novel
-
Reflections in a Golden Eye
ASIN: 0618565868 |
Book Description
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers's best stories, including her beloved novella "The Ballad of the Sad Caf." A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose caf serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind," McCullers's first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. Newly reset and available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition, The Ballad of the Sad Caf is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South's finest writers.
Customer Reviews:
Southern Rococo.......2007-05-24
The title novella of this Carson McCullers collection is much loved, although I'd be hard-pressed to explain why. It takes place in a small Georgia milltown in the first half of the century, and involves a love triangle concerning a gay hunchbacked gossipy dwarf; his cousin, the six-foot-two, cross-eyed, androgynous town despot, Miss Amelia; and her ex-husband, who robs gas stations and carries in his pocket a salted human ear he gained in a razor fight. Like the short stories and the later plays of Tennessee Williams, this novella seems to go beyond mere Southern Gothic to yet another level, more like that of what we might call Southern Baroque or Rococo; McCullers seems to be pushing herself constantly as far as she can go. It's not enough for McCullers, for example, that Miss Amelie likes to fidget with the gallstones she once had removed that she keeps in a curio case: later she has them set in a watch fob to give to her beloved cousin the hunchback. The larger (and intelligent) points McCullers makes in the novella about the nature of love, particularly concerning the roles of the lover and the beloved, seem occulted rather than clarified by the freakshow approach to the characters.
This is a shame, because McCullers is certainly intelligent, and she certainly can write, as she shows not only by her gorgeous descriptions of setting in his story but also in the fine shorter pieces here that follow the title novella. I'd recommend starting elsewhere with her fiction than this novella: here she just seems trying to top herself with outlandish details and effects rather than strive for something more honest.
Carson's Ballad is Beautiful.......2007-03-06
I was first turned onto Carson McCullers in a southern lit class in college. Sad Cafe was required reading, and one of the best stories I read that whole semester. I found myself reading it again and again because I just liked the way the story sounded in my head. McCullers has such a simple technique for description and writing. It's so easy to understand, and it stays with you. Unlike a lot of stories, it's uncluttered and her writing is the bare soul of her characters.
Beware, if you are new to southern lit you might want to know a few tips...stories are usually a tragedy, the characters are usually flawed emotionally and often physically, and setting plays a huge part of the story. Don't forget language either. Carson McCullers captures the true essence of all of these in her writing. Sad Cafe is no exception.
It is a story that stays with you in some way. I know it has definitely stayed with me. I find myself wanting to pick it up again and again. Whether you are from the South or not, don't miss out on this beautiful and haunting piece of literature.
Book Description
When The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was published in 1940, Carson McCullers was instantly recognized as one of the most promising writers of her generation. The novels that followed established her as a master of Southern Gothic.
"McCullers' gift," writes Joyce Carol Oates, "was to evoke, through an accumulation of images and musically repeated phrases, the singularity of experience, not to pass judgment on it." McCullers effortlessly conveyed the raw anguish of her characters and the weird beauty of their perceptions. Set in small Georgia towns that are at once precisely observed and mythically resonant, McCullers' novels explore the strange, sometimes grotesque inner lives of characters who are often marginal and misunderstood. Above all, McCullers possessed an unmatched ability to capture the bewilderment and fragile wonder of adolescence.
In The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, an enigmatic deaf-mute draws out the haunted confessions of an itinerant worker, a young girl, a black doctor, and the widowed owner of a small-town café. Two shorter works, Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941) and The Ballad of the Sad Café (1943), use melodramatic scenarios and freakish characters to explore the disfiguring violence of desire. The Member of the Wedding (1946), on which the play and film were based, tells of a young girl's fascination with her brother's wedding and is perhaps McCullers' most moving and accomplished novel. In Clock Without Hands (1960), the story of a terminally ill druggist, McCullers produces some of her most forceful and indignant social criticism.
Edited by Carlos Dews.
Customer Reviews:
The American Jane Austen?.......2003-12-24
I have read many novels by many writers, both American and foreign, but it's been a good long while since I've read something so penetrating and perceptive as Carson McCuller's first and last novels. The characters in the books, their lives and personalities, are so well thought-out and delineated that you have to wonder how a woman of 23 could put something like this together. Anyway, below is a synopsis of each story in this volume.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the longest of Carson McCullers' novels, and the first. She wrote it in the late `30s, and published it in 1940, when she was 23. It's an incredible first novel, and amazingly prescient and wise for someone of her age, era, and upbringing. The story revolves around a deaf mute, John Singer, who works engraving silverware in a small city in the South somewhere. He has only one friend in the world, another deaf mute who works for his cousin, making candy. As the story begins the candymaker (named Antanopolous) is committed to an asylum, and Singer moves from the home they shared, and slowly begins to acquire a circle of other friends. Principle in this circle are four people: Mick, the daughter of his landlords at the rooming house he lives in; Biff, who runs the diner where he takes his meals; Blount, another denizen of the diner, who wishes to unionize the local mill-workers; and Dr.Copeland, a black man who rages against the injustice of white society towards him and his race. The heart of the story is a character study of these five people, with alternating chapters following the one and then the other. Each is intelligent, in his or her own way, and each has special insights into the world around them. How these characters interact, and the relationships between them and the rest of the world, make the heart of the story and most of the book.
Reflections in a Golden Eye is a shorter story, one of McCullers' novels that is really more of a novella. The plot revolves around a love triangle that develops between two officers on an Army base, and the wife of one of them. There's also a strange, solitary, enigmatic private who tends the horses on the base, and he interacts with the other characters. Frankly, I didn't enjoy this story as much as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. The characters weren't anywhere near as believable, and their motivations weren't as transparent or understandable. The ending was also somewhat predictable.
The Ballad of the Sad Café is the shortest of McCullers' novels or novellas, weighing in at 60 pages. It's the story of a strange, unpredictable relationship between the standoffish businesswoman who dominates the culture of a small town, and a dwarf hunchback who shows up one day claiming to be her long-lost nephew. How the two of them interact in the story is strange, to say the least, and not wholly explained in the story. This creates an enigmatic atmosphere, and as the story progresses and it becomes obvious we're not going to receive an explanation of things, you find yourself re-reading passages looking for clues as to motivations. I enjoyed this story much more than Reflections in a Golden Eye, perhaps almost as much as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
The Member of the Wedding is perhaps McCullers' most strange work. The heart of the book is built around the fantastic intentions and beliefs of a twelve-year-old girl. In the first portion of the book, she's known as Frankie. Later, when she gets the idea she's going to leave with her older brother on his honeymoon, she changes her name to F. Jasmine, and the book follows that convention. Once it develops that she can't go with the brother and his new bride (you knew this was going to happen) she becomes Frances. There isn't much of a plot other than this girl fantasizing about all of the things she's going to be or do, and looking down her nose at all the common people who surround her, who she thinks are beneath her.
Clock Without Hands is the best of McCullers' books other than The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I now wonder if the length of the books had something to do with whether I liked them or not. She seems to have been able, in the longer books, to build her characters more, and have more plot twists. Clock Without Hands is about a dying pharmacist in a small Georgia town, and the events surrounding his death, but it really turns out to be more about one of his acquaintances, a senile old judge who imagines himself a great leader of the opposition to the desegregation movement. The episodes of the Civil Rights movement, as McCullers recreates them, become at times farcical and silly, and the resistance to the movement altogether silly and irrational.
Library of America volumes are wonderful to hold and read, and this is no exception. The type is clear, the book handy to hold or slip into a pocket. Given McCullers' stature as a writer, I think I'm going to value this book for a good long while.
Magnificent McCullers.......2002-03-11
Carson McCullers, one of America's greatest Southern writers, was often misunderstood, as many people were put off by or unwilling to deal with her (at the time) controversial subject matter. MCCullers used the grotesque as exaggerated symbols of everyday experience. The loneliness and isolation of her gothic-like characters were merely extreme examples of feelings we all have, though magnified and intensified to the nth degree.
Tennessee Williams, in his introduction to MCCullers' "Reflections in a Golden Eye", posed the question (in a mock dialogue) most people asked about writers of the 'gothic' school such as Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter and Eudora Welty: "Why do they write about such dreadful things?" Williams replies, " In my opinion it is most simply definable as a sense, an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern society.. Why have they got to use..symbols of the grotesque and the violent? Because a book is short and a man's life is long... The awfulness has to be compressed."
McCullers, unlike any writer I have ever read, pierces the heart of themes such as love, isolation, and loneliness with her lucid, poetic prose. Tennessee Williams, in Virginia Spencer Carr's biography of McCullers summed up McCullers' writing as follows: "I have used the word 'heart', but it is not an adequate word to describe the core of Carson McCullers' genius....I believe, in fact I know, that there are many, many with heart who lack the need or gift to express it. And therefore Carson McCullers is what I would call a necessary writer: She owned the heart and the deep understanding of it, but in addition she had that 'tongue of angels' that gave her power to sing of it, to make of it an anthem."
The unique lady of the "South".......2001-10-20
Until very recently, it was quite difficult to find a nice hardback copy of Mc Culler's novels. Each one of them is absolutely priceless and unforgettable; believe me when I tell you that "The Ballad of the Sad Café" is one of those stories that long remain on your mind. Mc Culler's novels, clearly influenced by Faulkner, surpass the master himself in magnetism, , power of storytelling and above all, characterization. If you add to all this a dose of gothic dark strangely ambivalent sense of humour, the result is certainly a writer utterly impossible to classify, novels that you really enjoy reading and characters that you are very unlikely to forget. Besides I am fully in love with the Library of America hardback editions and Mc Cullers certainly deserves to be included in this collection.
Later, if you want to give yourself a treat, go and buy her autobiography, although unfinished, a memorable book.
Book Description
Carson McCullers--novelist, dramatist, poet--was at the peak of her powers as a writer of short fiction. Here are nineteen stories that explore her signature themes: wounded adolescence, loneliness in marriage, and the tragicomedy of life in the South. Here too are "The Member of the Wedding" and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," novellas that Tennessee Williams judged to be "assuredly among the masterpieces of our language." (A Mariner Reissue)
Customer Reviews:
A master of characterization and setting.......2004-02-18
What strikes me most about McCullers is the simple yet rich complexity of her characters. While some of the earlier stories in this book felt too incomplete for me, as if they were more vignettes than stories, the tales grew stronger as I read on. The Haunted Boy is my favorite because it resonates with a sad truthfulness as a boy struggles to cope with a tragic event from the past which he's yet to deal with emotionally.
I think any true fan of literary storytelling will admit that, though perhaps not always perfect, Carson McCullers' writing as a whole is a sample of this genre at its best.
Interesting..........2001-11-15
I have always read stories in the past that gave me feelings right away. After reading these short stories, I was somewhat confused why McCullers didn't elaborate, or why she ended the story where she did. It was only after reading her biography, that I began to reread the stories and became obsessed with all of them. The meanings became clearer, the ideas behind them were revealed, and she has become my favorite author. I would recommend this to anyone, and I would also recommend her novels too. Enjoy.
Fine, neglected writer, on her way back!.......2001-06-28
I've loved Carson McCullers for years, and her complete works have only been sporadically available. Her miniatures are near perfectly realized works of literary art, and this collection is a fine introduction to a great writer from the south who seems to have dropped of the critical radar. Her output is quite small, finely honed, and the prose is like a clear blue sky. Her longer works are worth searching for, and I recently noted that The Library of America has been hard at work making sure that Carson will continue to be read....!
Depressing themes emerge.......2001-05-04
I'm not a fan of the open-ended short story, being a tale that is redolent with symbolism that I'm certain is there but just don't "get." Unfortunately McCullers' tales seem to fall into this category so I was not terribly thrilled with the stories. However, as a body of work they were interesting--the themes of lost childhood, changing sibling relationships, disgruntled musical prodigies, and general loneliness / rejection emerge and give a nice sense of continuity to the works. The inclusion of two of her novellas is nice; I appreciate the longer story format for the ability to get to know the characters and setting a little better.
Overall I'd recommend picking up McCullers' novellas and if you're thrilled with those, tackle her short stories.
A wonderful collection.......1999-09-29
This book contains a wealth of moving stories by a great writer, including a well-written introduction by her biographer. This would definitely be one of my desert island books.
Book Description
The author of the phenomenal #1 national bestsellers The Bridges of Madison County and Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend now presents a collection of his reflections on life, love, loss, and longing--a timely treatise on the emotions of the heart, the powers of the imagination, and the infinite possibilities of being.
Customer Reviews:
I love this book.......2006-12-01
Since this is a group of essays, it is easy to pick up and read any particular portion at will. I've read "...Rachael's room" several times, cry every time, and it makes me give thanks AND say a prayer for our own son. Love the flow. Each story is unique, and living. I've given a number of these books as gifts, and will again. I'm glad Mr. Waller shared these stories with us.
Robert James Waller - A Mentor for Writers.......2006-10-25
I found "Old Songs in a New Cafe" to be the choice selection of Waller's essays, although "One Good Road Is Enough" and "Just Beyond The Firelight" contain excellent essays as well. Waller is a master of dressing emotions in words and for me a new experience. After finding this author, I read his fiction as well. I don't care for some of the subject matter of the fiction but was intrigued with the sensitive prose. Behind it all is a seeker who has "been circling a thousand years and still does not know whether he is a Falcon, or a storm, or a great song." Waller sets me on a high plains afternoon remembering the flowers and the wind, dancing through the late autumn dust remembering those who were free.
Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope, Concepts to Ponder and South State Street Journal, Secrets of The Heart.
Wonderful Read.......2004-03-06
I enjoyed reading this biography of writings by Robert James Waller. I, too, felt he was very similar to Robert Fulghum in his approach to life; a reverence for all that is simple and beautiful in this world. After reading only his fictional works, I gained a deep appreciation of the author himself and am refreshed that someone with a PhD in business can have a soul.
What an amazing biography!.......2002-03-13
Reads a tremendous lot like Robert Fulghum, but beyond that...
Through essays, the presumably all true story of a man who lived as if he was born with a detailed, incredibly accurate set of instructions and near-Godlike wisdom. Learns pool and billiards as an eleven-year-old kid and beats the town champ. Takes up basketball, making his high school team as a freshman and becoming a good major-school college player. Starts a loving marriage in college that remains super-strong over 25 years later. Plays guitar, and with his small combo is chosen for national TV appearances with Charles Kuralt and Robert Kennedy. Despite all his independent thought, establishes a solid - actually distinguished - career in academia. And, in the decade after this book, writes a novel that may have sold more copies - and tickets to its subsequent movie - than ANY in the 1990's!
And guess what? NONE of this - not even a SCRAP of it, according to the essays - ever misled him or cost him anything! He didn't drop out of school to hustle pool, ignore academics to over-concentrate on basketball, discover his wife who he chose at age 22 didn't fit his ever-evolving life at age 50, go for a low-paying full-time music career, QUIT music altogether and lose the fun of playing recreationally, or constrict his thinking by getting it in line with the PC work setting of a university.
Not only did he seem to be always doing the exact right thing at the right time, he avoided every trap there was.
Amazing! Have never seen a life so comprehensively superb since Jennifer Beals' in Flashdance, and she was FICTIONAL!
So, Robert James, we have two ways to interpret you. You can be one of the most premier renaissance men of our time, or an archly annoying "perfect" person akin to Martha Stewart. So, my challenge to you is - write an essay, telling us in detail, how in at least one instance YOU, not circumstances, luck or the people around you - have FAILED. Have you done it? Can you do it?
Beautiful, Absolutely Beautiful.......2000-03-09
I was 15 years old when I was first introduced to this book and author. The essay "Slow Waltz for Georgia Ann" was the most touching story iv ever hurd. It was love, and reckless, and compation, and solitude all wrapped up into one. Every time I need something to make me smile I read this story. I have incouraged every one I have met, who also loves to read, to read this book. The cat, his daughter, the birds and the romance tie it all together to make this book, in my opinion, the greatest ever writen. If you were to pass this up without at least reading once you are a fool. I am 20 now and the original paperback that was givin to me 5 years ago is still laying on my nightstand next my bed.
Customer Reviews:
sure, McCullers' concerns are weighty and everything..........2006-09-24
but I think you do yourself a disservice if you overlook her bemusement. Take these lines for instance:
People were torn between the longing for the good taste of pork, and the fear of death. It was a time of waste and confusion.
Pretty concise if you ask me. And, by the way, Mofo Moron- did you really need to go to college and read a book before you came to the conclusion that it was alright for you to hop in the sack with your cousin? The shortest distance between two points is, after all, a straight line.
A HAUNTING STORY.......2006-02-22
Read this one years and years ago and it has never left me. It is absolutely haunting. It examines a side of love in a way most of us do not consider. This short story is indeed filled with some very strange characters, as one reviewer pointed out, yet if we look close, we can see these same characters float through our lives daily. I am not sure what is meant by the work being "art." I do know a good story when I read one though and this certainly fits the bill. The author is a true teller of stories. Recommend this one highly.
Unrequited Love, McCullers' Theme of Life.......2005-08-16
In The Ballad of the Sad Café, McCullers displays her most vivid example of unrequited love with the triangle created by the story's three main characters. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a ballad as "a narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a recurrent refrain." Miss Amelia's love for Cousin Lymon, Cousin Lymon's love for Marvin Macy, and Marvin Macy's love for Miss Amelia can be seen as this refrain. It is with this love triangle that McCullers delineates her brilliant observation of the relationship between the lover and the beloved. She describes love "as a joint experience between two persons," but explains that the experience is often very different for those involved. The lover has a store of love that needs to be projected; the object of this love is incidental. It is the love itself that must be spent, and "the value and quantity of any love is determined solely by the lover himself."
She writes: "It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons. For the lover is forever trying to strip bare the beloved."
The lover is the Enthusiastic Taker, while the beloved is expected to be the Reluctant Giver. The three characters in the story are doubly tragic, because they inhabit, at one time or another, both roles. Miss Amelia is the most sympathetic "point" of the triangle. Because her harsh treatment of Marvin Macy is in the past, she is unable to undo it. Her role as beloved came about without the lesson she learns as the lover of Cousin Lymon. Following this logic, it would seem that Marvin Macy, then, is the least sympathetic "point." One considers his spiteful treatment of Cousin Lymon abhorrent, especially since he was treated the same way by Miss Amelia. But the reason he is not the least sympathetic is because he can be somewhat forgiven for forgetting his experience as the lover, considering the gap in time and his stay in the penitentiary. What one is left with, then, is Cousin Lymon, who becomes the least sympathetic of them all. His experiences as lover and beloved are happening concurrently. His behavior is not redeemable; one gets the feeling that he should know better. The symmetry McCullers displays with this triangle creates a memorable and educational structure, indeed.
So, the question begs to be asked: Can anything be done, in McCullers' view, to attain mutual love, or are we perpetual slaves to immutable biology and the fundamentals of human relationships? McCullers gives one hope with her short story "A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud." In this story a man in a bar stops a young boy by telling him he loves him. He then proceeds to explain that "`With me [love] is a science.'" He believes that the reason love fails is because men "`start at the wrong end of love.'" Without guidance of any kind, men "undertake the most dangerous and sacred experience in God's earth. They fall in love with a woman.'" He states that men should learn to love step-by-step, by first learning to love these objects of nature, before moving on to the treacherous endeavor of loving a woman. Love should be practiced, reflected upon, spread around. The lover must learn how to love one step at a time; and then, perhaps, it becomes possible to attain beneficial love that feeds the soul rather than love that eats it away. This is the last hope, it seems, for McCullers in her search for mutual love. One gets the impression of a cautious optimist, protecting herself diligently from the pains of unrequited love, but nonetheless unwilling - or perhaps incapable - of giving up the endeavor altogether.
A good quote.......2005-08-02
I know other people have alluded to the area where this sentence exists (in talking about the lover and the beloved), but I believe this sentence specifically to be so powerful..."...the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself."...this follows talk of how someone could be ghastly, but that doesn't matter to the person who loves him, because that love is just as powerful as any. On the other hand, someone could be a great man, but if his lover is induced to love him "violently" and impurely, then theirs will be that kind of love, and not as true as the other. How much someone is loved is truly in the eye (and hands) of the beholder...
1 hour of my life that I can never get back........2005-07-25
This is a dreadful story about a bunch of cynical losers who screw each other over in this tiny town of like 50 people where there's absolutely nothing to do but drink oneself into total obliteration. In this story, there are three main characters. Miss Amelia is a 6-foot-2, burly, lonely, stingy, argumentative 40-year-old woman who is in love with her hunchback cousin. Cousin Lymon has a severe case of short-man's complex. He is the apple of Miss Amelia's eye, but he is in love with Miss Amelia's ex-husband Marvin Macy. Go figure. He's severely hunched over at crotch level and walks around with his toosh in the air. He's configured to be (...), so therefore he probably is. Marvin and Miss Amelia were only married for 10 days because she had no interest in him. One can only wonder why the dumb broad married him in the first place. Wow I just realized that this was a love triangle. I still think that it was 72 pages that never should have been printed. What a total waste of paper, of printing resources, and of my time.
I disagree with the previous reviews stating that this was somehow supposed to be "an artistic book," because I saw absolutely nothing artistic about it. The only thing I learned was that it is okay to want to jump in the sack with a cousin.
I want my money back.
Book Description
The fourth volume of Stories from the Blue Moon Café presents a selection of the most talented practitioners of Southern writing, including Chip Livingston, Diane McWhorter, and Charles Simic.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Read !!!!!!!.......2006-01-26
I love short stories, and this book has some great one's!!!!! The short story titled "Jimmy the Playwright Began to Slur" is exceptional !! Jeff McNeil's writing reminds me of a "Seinfeld" episode.
I enjoyed the book very much. I gave it as a gift to many friends for the holidays.
(3.5) A mixed brew..........2005-08-23
Brewer's folksy introduction to the fourth volume of short stories by Southern writers waxes idealistically about the writer's life, who can and who can't and who gets to judge. He promises to keep his nose to the ground, so to speak, in search of those writers waiting to be discovered by a ready audience. If that's the case, perhaps the first selection in an anthology determines whether a reader sticks with it. I'm already committed to the pieces by my favorite authors, but if I hadn't been familiar with the earlier editions, I might have put the book aside. I didn't.
"The Good Neighbors" by John Boyet is more to my liking, a sly insinuation of evil intentions behind the facade of good Christian neighbors. Rick Bragg's offering, "Dear Friend", is a letter of condolence to a family who has lost one of their own, nearly as precious as any child. There is a small selection of poetry by Andrea Hollander Budy, "Those Summer Sundays" and "An Explanation", speaking to the high price of love. In "Spleen", Ann Fisher-Wirth notes the passing of natural species in pursuit of entertainment on the campus of Ole Miss; "Where, Beneath the Magnolia" is a history-laden paean to Faulkner's legacy.
"Chicken Bone Man", a fiction about 1927 Memphis by Anna Olswanger has an afterward to clarify its subject matter. "Down There on a Visit", by renowned poet Charles Simac, has footnotes, but this story bears the same authenticity as his poetry. Simac writes of a new segregation, more subtle but just as devastating, "there is a caste system with clear class distinctions and accompanying inequality... there are towns... that in their shocking poverty make one gasp". Simac's travels through the South yield profound, even frightening observations of religion wedded to politics. "Strawberry Fizzle" is Kristin Grant's expression of the extremes of segregation, federal government aside. Of course, in "That Thing with Feathers", Suzanne Hudson's prose is impeccable, as always, a poignant and shocking story of a young girl's loss of innocence, all wrapped up in need and confusion until she sees a way out of an untenable situation. This story alone is worth the price of admission.
Like poetry, short stories are subjective, their appeal very personal. This volume offers the writers' fresh perspective of the South, the regional traits that define the genre. Although I have enjoyed other recent collections more (Matthew Kneale's Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance, Christopher Coake's We're In Trouble), this uneven group, much like Stories III, has a number of well-written selections, most notable the superior Suzanne Hudson's. Luan Gaines/2005.
Book Description
Thirty of today's finest Southern writers serve up an intoxicating blend of stories, essays, and poetry. From the Civil War to the Cold War, country music to the blues, a mother and daughter to a boy and his dog, this is the South in all its sorrow-and all its splendor. Stories from the Blue Moon Café is a delightful mixture of Southern spice: the good, the bad, the heart-breaking, and the hilarious.
Featuring: Marlin Barton € Rick Bragg € Jill Conner Browne € C. Terry Cline, Jr. € Pat Conroy € Tom Corcoran € Beth Ann Fennelly € Patricia Foster € Tom Franklin € William Gay € Jim Gilbert € W.E.B. Griffin € Winston Groom € Melinda Hayes € Frank Turner Hollon € Silas House € Suzanne Hudson € Douglas Kelley € Tom Kelly € Michael Knight € Bev Marshall € Barbara Robinette Moss € Jennifer Paddock € Judith Richards € Richard Shakelford € George Singleton € Monroe Thompson € Sidney Thompson € Brad Watson € Steve Yarbrough
Customer Reviews:
WHAT A GREAT MENU...!.......2002-11-19
This collection is a real treat - not only did I get to check out some work by some of my favorites (both old and new), but it allowed me to discover the work of some writers I had never experienced. Every piece is of high quality - most are short stories, but there are a couple of essays and a poem here as well. I won't take the time (or space) here to comment on each and every entry, but I'd like to mention a few...
Marlin Barton's story, `Final spring', cemented my admiration for him. I had previously read (and reviewed here) his collection THE DRY WELL - and now I can look forward to his new novel BROKEN THING, coming out in the new year. C. Terry Cline's `S Trident' had me laughing out loud - and shuddering a little, knowing that the string of misunderstandings depicted within could actually occur. Patricia Foster's `The girl from Soldier Creek' is a well-written, moving account of a young woman going back to the home she fled in a time of crisis. While I found his collection POACHERS entertaining, I must say that I enjoyed Tom Franklin's `Christmas 1893' much more - I look forward to reading more from him. William Gay's two novels - THE LONG HOME and PROVINCES OF NIGHT have simply astonished me in their power. His short story here, `Come home, come home, it's suppertime' didn't disappoint me at all - what amazing writing! Winston Groom's `Just a little closer to the Lord' illustrates poignantly how people can react negatively to someone who's just a bit different from them. Silas House's `The last days' chronicles a mother's decision to return her child to his father, from whom she abducted him several years before. Michael Knight's `Killing Stonewall Jackson' is a chilling, partially surreal look at the horror endured by those who took part in the American Civil War. Also very powerful are Barbara Robinette Moss' `Blackbird' and Brad Watson's `The dead girl', an excerpt from his novel THE HEAVEN OF MERCURY.
This collection has given me a lot of additions to my `to read list' - and it also kept me well entertained for the several days it took me to work my way through it. I would heartily recommend it to anyone - it's a great way to sample to work of all of these talented writers.
Taste the Flavor of the South at the Blue Moon Cafe.......2002-11-17
Ah, the South--a strange blend of tradition and modernity, where portraits of Elvis and Jesus vie for prominence on living-room walls.
The South--a volatile caldron of atavistic prejudices and avant-garde visions, where religion and sex fitfully embrace in a frenetic danse macabre.
How does one capture the distinctive milieu of Southern mores and culture? By what artistic legerdemain can wordsmiths translate the complex movements of Southern life onto the pages of a book?
In Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe, thirty Southern writers each contribute a short story (one of the chapters is a poem) in an attempt to capture the Southern essence.
In "Final Spring," Marlin Barton of Montgomery, Alabama, writes of the lost cause, the collapse of the Confederate army during the Civil War. And in "Killing Stonewall Jackson," Michael Knight of Knoxville, Tennessee, writes of the death of Robert E. Lee's greatest lieutenant.
In "The Blues Is Dying in the Place It Was Born," Rick Bragg describes the forlorn music of the deltas of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers: "When you sing the blues, here in one of the poorest, most unchanging corners of the country, you hand everybody who listes a piece of your pain, fear, and hopelessness, until there is such a tiny piece left, you can live with it."
In "Bitsy," Jill Conner Browne of Jackson, Mississippi, tells of meeting the world's largest transvestite in a ladies' room in a New Orleans restaurant.
In "S. Trident," C. Terry Cline, Jr. of Fairhope, Alabama, describes his inadvertent purchase of a nuclear submarine base and of the resulting hilarious exchange of letters between himself and officials in Washington and Moscow.
In "Just a Little Closer to the Lord," Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump and Shrouds of Glory, tells the story of a black man named Walking Hand, whom the people of Widgeville, on the Carolina coast, mistake for the devil incarnate.
In "Love Like a Bullet," Melinda Haynes of Mobile, Alabama, interweaves the story of a present-day dysfunction family with Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and the biblical story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.
In the book's most hilarious story, "The Fall of the Nixon Administration," Suzanne Hudson writes of a bona fide chicken massacre. (The chickens had been given the names of the principals involved in the Watergate scandal.)
In "A Modern Tragedy," Douglas Kelley of Fort Smith, Arkansas, describes a veteran actor who has played the role of Brutus, in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," so often that he actually "becomes" Brutus.
Tom Kelly's short story, "Payback," about a turkey hunter in Florida, contains this striking passage: "There truly are temptations so strong that no man can resist them. There really are boxes that positively shriek to have the lid removed, no matter how much the box trembles, no matter how much colored smoke is leaking through the cracks around the hinges and regardless of how many troubles may be liable to escape when the lid comes off. I have been tempted and I have succumbed. We will press on from here."
In "White Sugar and Red Clay," Bev Marshall of McComb, Mississippi, writes a pognant tale of racial prejudice in the Deep South.
In "Vietnam," George Singleton describes Dr. Wanda McGaha, who "had received her undergraduate degree from Berea College, where she double-majored in philosophy in Appalachian heritage. She may have been the only college president in America who could weave a basket, carve out a bread bowl, operate a still, and quote Schopenhauer."
In "Arnold's Number," Sidney Thompson of Fairhope, Alabama, writes of a poor soul who spends his time meeting and talking with strangers in bus depots.
In a shocking Gothic tale, "The Dead Girl," Brad Watson writes of bizarre eroticism in a mortuary. The story is taken from his novel, The Heaven of Mercury (Norton, 2002).
Many of these stories present stereotypical caricatures of Southern life. One should bear in mind, however, that stereotypes and caricatures, whose exaggerations perpetuate falsehoods, often contain strong elements of truth.
Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe is a delightful anthology. One would hope that this is the first in an annual series.
Sonny Brewer owns Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama. He was
editor of the city magazine in Mobile, Alabama, associate editor of an Alabama weekly newspaper, and a feature columnist. He edited an anthology of Fairhope writers and artists called Red Bluff Review, and is the author of a parable on aging cleverly disguised as a children's book, Rembrandt the Rocker, and a book of dime store philosophy called A Yin for Change.
Roy E. Perry of Nolensville is an amateur philosopher, Civil War buff, classical music lover, and aficionado of fine literature. By trade he is a copywriter at a Nashville publishing house.
ABOUT FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA:
With its location high on the bluffs of the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, Fairhope has long been known for its lovely parks, rich with moss-draped live oaks, its sweeping panoramic views of Mobile Bay, and its charming and vital downtown where visitors and locals alike find reasons to shop, stroll, and dine. Whether you come for a day or for a lifetime, you'll be welcomed to beautiful Fairhope.
if i could give this TEN stars, i would.......2002-10-05
i picked up this book of short stories because it has some pieces by authors i have loved in the past--conroy, rick bragg, web griffin--but i came away with a whole new list of writers i know i need to read. i am a northerner and have always relied on the esteemed anthology new stories from the south to guide me along the path of the southern writing tradition, but now i have added the blue moon cafe to my list of destinations to visit again and again. this is a collection of writers to watch out for. do yourself a favor and order this book NOW.
worst anthology I ever read and does not even deserve 1 star.......2002-09-26
What a dismal book, redeemed only by the reliably excellent George Singleton. Don't expect any Flannery O'Connors or Walker Percys in this anthology. Almost every Southern character in this book lives in a trailer, is a violent drunk or married to one, or kills someone. So if you think Southerners are a bunch of white trash drunken murderers, then by all means read this book.
Most of the stories rely on simple shock value to get their point across. It's a easy task to shock a reader, and any writer can do this. That isn't good fiction. Most offensive was "Left Behind," a 1 1/2 page story about a man whose wife leaves him, so he kills her cat. This is described quite graphically and since the story is only a handful of paragraphs, it was obviously written for the express purpose of describing this cruel and vicious act. It's pretty clear the writer got as much of a kick out of writing this as his character did from killing the poor creature. That's a sick way to get your jollies.
This is not the only story to rely on shock value. Many of the stories describe murder and violence. In "Christmas 1893", a wife who suffers chronic violent abuse from her drunken husband regrets that he was killed because she'll miss that feeling between her legs. As if the sex makes up for the fact that he beats her and her son. This is totally unrealistic, even for 1893.
Even the highly esteemed Rick Bragg is full of cliches in his tiresome "The Blues Is Dying in the Place It Was Born". If there's one thing the world doesn't need, it's another endless litany of sentences that begin "The blues is...".
I could go on and cite many more examples of the unimaginative writing in this book, much of it from otherwise excellent writers. I will conclude by saying that I hated this book so much I did not donate it to the thrift shop, as I usually do with unwanted books. I threw it in the garbage--a drastic step for a bibliophile.
Take me to bed..........2002-09-07
Lonely? Uncertain? Longing for some good reading? Take this title to bed. Featuring some names you might know (William Gay, Frank Turner Hollon, Steve Yarbrough) and some others you probably don't (Jim Gilbert, Jennifer Paddock, Sidney Thompson), the compelling voices and startling stories between the blue covers make for good company and sweet dreams.
Average customer rating:
- A GIANT LEAP FORWARD - SOUTHERN WRITING AT ITS BEST!
|
Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe II: Anthology of Southern Writers
Manufacturer: MacAdam/Cage Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Collections & Readers
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
20th Century
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
Anthologies
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Anthologies
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe
-
Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe III
-
Stories From The Blue Moon Cafe IV
-
The Poet of Tolstoy Park: A Novel
ASIN: 1931561435 |
Customer Reviews:
A GIANT LEAP FORWARD - SOUTHERN WRITING AT ITS BEST!.......2003-09-29
The list of great anthologies has increased by two. Not only has the anthology list expanded, it has made a giant leap forward with the Stories From the Blue Moon Café: Anthology of Southern Writers series. Blue Moon Café I and Blue Moon Café II, edited by Sonny Brewer, a Fairhope, Alabama, resident and Bama native, knows how to pick a jam-up good story, essay, or poem when he sees one. No question there. And the craziest, nuttiest thing, I believe, is that he gets these big guns of Southern literature-Larry Brown, William Gay, Jill Conner Browne, Cassandra King, and Fannie Flagg-to hand over their cash cow honorarium as a donation, proceeds to benefit the non-profit organization called Fairhope Center for Writing Arts. Now that's the amazing way of Dixie!
So here we are, handed a double portion of the very best writing from the South, stories that serve down-home sweet tea fiction, as well as Southern Gothic literature with more than a hint of bourbon and bloodshed.
If this book is anything, it is an event. That's an E-V-E-N-T! The writers, some twenty out of the thirty-three included, go to Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, and then on up to Oxford at Square Books for readings and signings. It's a veritable Southern Writers' conference, now two years running. They even have free beer and live music, thanks to Publisher David Poindexter and his MacAdam/Cage Publishing Company over yonder in California (MacAdam Cage just printed the wildly popular The Time Traveler's Wife, a Today Show Book Club pick). I went to Jackson and Oxford this year and got a copy of Blue Moon signed, listened to the authors read. And I'll go back next year too. And the year after that.
The book is diverse and rich. One poem throttled me with its economy of language, the boiling down to the essence of things. I have thought about the children's book author Charles Ghinga's "The Bowman's Hand" almost every day since I read the poem. It's a description of boys playing the "Cuss Game" at a Birmingham school, how one boy's punch leaves his young buddy dead.
There's the short story originally published in the Southern Review by Beth Ann Fennelly and her husband Tom Franklin, perhaps one of the finest short-shorts I have ever read in any literary magazine. Michael Morris provides a lively story in his "Just an Old Cur." I thank the editor for introducing me to Morris's work. There are lesser known authors in this volume that you won't want to miss: Joe Formichella, Suzanne Hudson, Frank Turner Hollon (one of my favorite authors), Jamie Kornegay, Jack Pendarvis, Lee Gay Warren, and Sidney Thompson, among others. They offer a treat for the careful reader that will not go unappreciated.
Let me say this, too. Mr. Brewer is one darn heck of a risk-taker. Case in point: He published Eric Kingrea, a freshman at the College of Charleston, an English major, 18 or 19 years old, who writes a World War II story inspired by the late historian Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers. My guess is that the editor is some kind of Seer. He sees both the value of Kingrea's great little story, and he sees that Kingrea is going to take his big foot and kick an awful lot of fictional tail in the near future if he keeps on writing.
So, if you want to read something outside the power circle of frozen, infested, and incestuous Southern literary hacks, grab a copy of Blue Moon Café II, and see what I am talking about. I know you'll like what you read. Oh, man, I like it!
----------Reviewed by Dayne Sherman
Average customer rating:
- Highly recommended.
- Pretty Good
- Pretty Good
|
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: Carson McCullers' Novella Adapted for the Stage
Edward Albee , and
Carson McCullers
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
| African American
| Asian American
| Classics
| Collections & Readers
| Drama
| General
| Hispanic
| History & Criticism
| Humor
| Jewish American
| Letters & Correspondence
| Native American
| Poetry
| Short Stories
| Women Writers
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Albee, Edward
| ( A )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
McCullers, Carson
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0743225317 |
Customer Reviews:
Highly recommended........2000-01-02
Carson McCullers is a wonderfully compassionate author and this novel showcases the best of her abilities.
Pretty Good.......1999-04-29
A grotesque human triangle in a primitive Southern town...A young boy learning the difficult lessions of manhood...A fateful encounter with his native land and former love...These are [arts of the world of Carson McCullers - a world of the lost, the injured, the eternal strangers at life's feast. Here are brilliant revelations of love and longing, bitter heartbreak and occasional happiness - tales that probe the very heart of our lives. It was a good story. she was not a very good person - nor was he. He a sponge who only cared about himself and she was a niggerdly woman, although the town really needed her.
Pretty Good.......1999-04-29
A grotesque human triangle in a primitive Southern town...A young boy learning the difficult lessions of manhood...A fateful encounter with his native land and former love...These are [arts of the world of Carson McCullers - a world of the lost, the injured, the eternal strangers at life's feast. Here are brilliant revelations of love and longing, bitter heartbreak and occasional happiness - tales that probe the very heart of our lives. It was a good story. she was not a very good person - nor was he. He a sponge who only cared about himself and she was a niggerdly woman, although the town really needed her.
Books:
- Golden Tarot Deck
- Graphic Guide to Frame Construction: Details for Builders and Designers (For Pros by Pros)
- Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Labor Relations Process
- It Will Never Happen to Me: Growing Up With Addiction As Youngsters, Adolescents, Adults
- Bach: The Goldberg Variations
- CNBC Creating Wealth: An Investor's Guide to Decoding the Market
- Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft Excel
- Necessary Sins: A Memoir
- History: Fiction or Science
- Accounting: What the Numbers Mean w/ Student Study Resource: Study Outline/Ready Notes/Solutions to
- Elites, Minorities and Economic Growth
- The Haunted Monastery: A Judge Dee Mystery
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man: A Novel
Standing in the Rainbow (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
A Redbird Christmas: A Novel
Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook: Featuring : Fried Green Tomatoes, Southern Barbecue, Banana Split Cake, and Many Other Great Recipes
