Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: A Vital Collection of Contemporary Literary Short Stories on How Work Excites and Defines Us

by Richard Ford

Edited byRichard Ford and featuring stories by Russell Banks, Alice Munro, Tobias Wolff,Jhumpa Lahiri, JohnCheever, and many others, Blue Collar,White Collar, No Collar is a profound and groundbreaking anthologyexploring resonant themes of employment, service, and daily obligations asunique windows into our culture, our society, and our very humanity. With ashare of proceeds going to assist the literacynonprofit 826Michigan, this unforgettable collection of short fiction from manyof contemporary literature’s most powerful authors limns the diverse meanings of work in American culture today, even as itlooks to the future of the American workforce and its capacity to succeedcreatively tomorrow.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Class

627 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 19, 2011

About the author

Richard Ford, born February 16, 1944 in Jackson, Mississippi, is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and Let Me Be Frank With You, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories. Comparisons have been drawn between Ford's work and the writings of John Updike, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and Walker Percy.

His novel Independence Day won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1996, also winning the PEN/Faulkner Award in the same year.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just skip the book and give $20 to the charity this book is funding. Richard Ford is a fine writer, and this is a book of fine writing, but most of the stories are only vaguely related to work. The one story contributed by Richard Ford, for example, is a brilliantly rendered, ugly episode -- the dreary breakup of a marriage -- that leaves me wishing I’d taken a nap instead. It’s all admirable literary stuff, mostly by writers with clean fingernails who got MFA's or teach at universities and get Guggenheims. Leaves me cold. Give me Studs Terkel. Please.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was eager to read this book but found it disappointing. The stories are dreary in that deliberately flat and oblique New Yorker-ish sort of way, and many of them seem dated. More to the point, very few of them seem to have much to do with actual work, at least as I've experienced it.

Full disclosure: I think I only read about half the stories. Life is short.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book struggles with something that a lot of collectives struggle with; some authors and short stories are of much higher quality, both in writing and in overall engagement, making the other stories seem quite lackluster in comparison, and unfortunately most of the works fell into the latter category.

[Terry Clague · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished this a while ago but hard to know what to say about it really. Well, it was OK - but it reminded me why I dislike short stories. Some were good, some were poor - the best ones read like extended film synopses and after each one I had to summon up motivation to pick the book up again. Despite the decent stuff, that's the last time I take a recommendation from Harvard Business Review. One quote stuck out to me from Jeffrey Eugenides' story about a guy working for a Publisher: "One's country was like one's self. The more you learned about it, the more you were ashamed of".

[MA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this work three stars because I found the short stories uneven across the work- some I would have given five stars, some two. The reader will have to decide which ones they would rate on that scale. That said, I found the idea of a series of short stories based on work to be fascinating , of not as good as Studs Turkel's non- fiction work on the same subject. Five stars to the organization that receives funding from the sale of the book.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are what we do for a living...or what we do makes us who we are, argues Richard Ford through his spectacular selection of short stories about the nature of work. From lawyers to escorts, struggling artists to a few successful writers, each story starts to investigate why we work where we work, and what a regular income may cost us.

[Brianne W · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some stories I liked a lot - like "Zapatos," "Pharmacist," "Interpreter of Maladies," and "The Store," and there were some I didn't like at all. I suppose this is to be expected. The stories didn't connect for me with one another in a way I hoped, and I thought the theme would come out more boldly.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is not one dud in this collection, though it is long and I have a hard time reading so many short stories in a row so I had to break it up a little. I have been thinking about the nature of work and this was an excellent fiction piece to add.

[Katrina Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of what constitutes work.

[Alex Gleason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing remotely avant garde or groundbreaking here, but a solid collection of short fiction in the New Yorker mode.

[Emily B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who read "Interpreter of Maladies" a couple years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see a story from that collection in this one. Since there are so many stories here, I wanted to focus on my top five, in no specific order:

Me and Miss Mandible Imagine Billy Madison as a drama instead of a comedy. The three central characters are an adult, a child, and an adult who everyone thinks is a child. Their misunderstandings leave one character "ruined but fulfilled" and another in tears. Sample quote: "Today we are to have a fire drill. I know this because I am a Fire Marshall, not only for our room, but for the entire right wing of the second floor."

Zapatos The title is Spanish for "shoes", which makes sense, since this story takes place in Chile and involves a black market deal for Italian leather shoes. Without spoiling anything, the narrator thinks he's being ripped off, until he realizes he's actually come out ahead. Sample quote: "The government is unfriendly. We are born, we die, it rains, it clears, the government is unfriendly. Facts of life."

The Working Girl When a book/movie is aware that it's fictional, it is said to 'break the fourth wall'. This story's lack of a fourth wall adds layers to an otherwise-typical premise about a workplace affair. Sample quote: "Life is a speeding train. Storytellers get derailed too."

Some Women Much like "Me and Miss Mandible" the plot concerns a child's attempt to understand adult relationships. Sample quote: "I understood pretty well the winning and losing that had taken place between Sylvia and Roxanne, but it was strange to think of the almost obliterated prize, Mr. Crozier, and to think that he could have had the will to make a decision, even to deprive himself, so late in his life."

Geese This should be required reading for everyone who's wanted to live abroad with roommates; it'll serve as a wake-up call. Instead of finding adventure, you'll run out of money, get sick of each other, and get harassed by the locals. Sample quote: "[After killing a goose] there would be a wishbone, but it wouldn't matter, because they'd all have the same wish."

[christopherdrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a solid collection of work. It's not just stories of how we might define ourselves by our careers, but also how sometimes we fall into jobs without thinking, or by accident, or how sometimes work is simply this thing we do while real life happens. There's such a wide variety of writers and themes, and I'm having a hard time picking out favourites (although Joyce Carol Oates' High Lonesome is definitely a standout, as is Delivering by Andre Dubus); I should admit, though, that I kinda skimmed over the ones that were about writers. I gots no time for those whiners. 8/10 would eat here again, and I'd make sure to leave a healthy tip.

[Tal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very uneven. There are probably ten great stories in here for a collection about "work." But as the introduction tell us, Richard Ford views work as informing all stories, which I don't agree with. Work is barely a factor in a good many of these. Proceeds went to 826Michigan, which is a great cause, so there's that.

[Bveselsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this collection! I would say that some stories were only related to work in the most vague sense, but that didn't stop them from being a great bunch when all was said and done. thankful that this collection led me to Edward P. Jones and James Alan McPherson, neither of whom I'd previously read.

[Richda Mcnutt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a very uneven collection of stories - and for the most part, only peripherally related to the character's work life.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed many of these stories-- Office Friendly in particular. That dropped me into the body some kids up to some serious mischief.

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories about work features some excellent writers. Very interesting subjects. I will read this one again!

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection, but the Carver absence is felt throughout.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Richard Ford's work, and so was excited to see what he considered good story telling. From that standpoint I was not disappointed. There is some excellent work in this anthology. As a "fan," I couldn't help notice that the protagonist in Cheever's "The World of Apples" has the same last name as Ford's Frank Bascombe.

But I also read these stories about work (some explicitly focused, others just tangentially so) as a means to contemplate my own relationship with work. In the intro, Ford tells of the vital importance of his father's job to his family, both economically and psychically. Ford does not overstate this point, but I feel a mixture of doom and awe when I think of what my dad's work means to him, both in terms how the work itself sustained me, as well as how his work and the way he feels about it casts shadows on the legitimacy of my career path. Mr. Ford also cringes at the the memory of his mother's dismissive comments about his career path as a writer. I can relate.

I shudder to define my own history chronologically in terms of my job (surely my time can't be reduced to just that?), and yet sometimes I do. Annie Proulx's "Job History" spoke to me in those terms, as did Cheever's "Apples" and McGuane's "Cowboy." Sometimes I judge people as illegitimate when I feel their work ethic doesn't measure up to mine (Packer's "Geese," Diaz's "Edison"). I know both in mind and in my heart that I am wrong to do this, and yet I do.

And sometimes work relationships are hyperreal and yield much less than we wish they would ("Pharmacy," "Interpreter of Maladies," and "Minotaur").

"Drummond & Son" resonated with me, as I struggle to balance work with my son's needs. Can I teach him how to find balance when I struggle to do just that? Can I even have a life outside of work?

I loved some of these stories without feeling any personal context at all. I loved "The Gully," "Delivering," and "Sauerkraut Soup."

Finally, I found great value, if no measurable understanding of why, in reading some of the more symbol laden and surreal stories. "Me and Miss Mandible," "Death of a Traveling Salesman" and "Unjust."

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not many good reviews on here for this collection and the main beefs seem to be that the stories aren't really about work, and that they are of a sober, domestic, New Yorkerish tone. Those are frankly two very positive things for me. I didn't pick this up as I wanted to read about work, I did so because Richard Ford knows his short story onions and thus I couldn't ignore it.

Ford has essentially put together a themed compilation tape of stories. The theme forcing him to lean towards well chosen album tracks, but all are impeccably chosen as you expect from a man of his taste and all harvested from top notch writers. The net effect being a consistently great and surprising collection.

[Sara Gerot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some pretty great stories. A couple duds. It wasn't enough of what I wanted though. I wanted more blue collar than what it gave me because that is what I associate with work. Blue collar or service industry. This says more about me and my values than the quality of the collection. Loved Junot Diaz's story.

[Nancyedwards Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for exploring different views on why we do what we do, from a range of writers and genres

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are more about their characters than the particular jobs they hold, which is just exactly right for fiction. Very enjoyable.

[Denise Dolence · Rating 5 out of 5]

great group of short stories

[Jim Vander Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anthology. Compelling stories by Russell Banks, John Cheever, Cahles D'Amrosio, ,Alice "Pearl" Munro, Annie Proulx and Richard Yates.

[Scott Pakudaitis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were interesting and well-written, others were not as interesting. Hence the 3 star rating.

[Kandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I read the ones I enjoyed and they were great. If I wasn't into a story, I just skipped it.