Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
|
Cargando... The Stories of Erskine Caldwellpor Erskine Caldwell
   Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Pertenece a las series editorialesArmed Services Edition (P-19)
Short stories about the twentieth-century South by the national bestselling author of Tobacco Road. Author of some of the most widely banned fiction of the twentieth century, Erskine Caldwell had a talent for striking a nerve. In this collection of nearly one hundred stories, the full depth and scope of his talent is on display, including his trademark biting satire as well as his skill at rendering deeply moving portraits of his native South. In a career that spanned over six decades, Caldwell produced stories that serve to document a changing society, from the dehumanizing trials of the Great Depression through the transformative battle to desegregate the South. Taken together, his short fiction reveals a voice that remains essential for readers hoping to understand the American experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares
 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (3.9)
¿Eres tú?Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
I said in my review of Gretta at the end of last year that Caldwell was the master of character development. I’m now prepared to add to that accolade that he’s also the maestro of word choice and sentence structure. By that, I mean that he would seem to feel (or hear) the appropriate rhythm for each story he tells.
One thing Caldwell does — and does remarkably well — is use repetition. In the hands of any less of a master, the result would be boredom (the reader’s) and redundancy (the writer’s). But Caldwell can take a thought or a sentence and spin it over and over again with only slight syntactical variations. The result is mesmerizing.
Taken as a whole, this collection of short stories is a trove; taken individually, each contribution is a gem. While some may shine more brilliantly than others, each story has a sparkle. I don’t know how else to put it. Does Caldwell have the wit of a T. C. Boyle? No, I don’t think so. But then, humor is often regional and zeitgeistig — meaning, that it doesn’t survive the ravages of time. (If you don’t believe me, (re-)read Aristophanes — or even Molière. Some things were downright hilarious in their time; in our time, they’re lucky if they elicit a shrug.)
And yet, when Caldwell writes the thing he knows best, he’s unbeatable. And that thing is the poverty of the Deep South and Deep North. From Georgia to Maine, Caldwell goes to the heart of the region and the matter — and finds it either impoverished, broken, or on the verge of an arrest.
We, in the meantime, are the beneficiaries of his genius—even if it’s at the expense of his characters. Never did I want a writer’s characters to be drawn from real life. And yet, I fear — as is almost universally the case — that they were.
RRB
06/28/13
Brooklyn, NY
(