What do you think?
Rate this book
Seven Contemporary Short Novels
1975 Scott Foresman jumbo trade paperback, Charles Clerc (Mason & Dixon & Pynchon). Seven short stories by the author.
- GenresFiction
720 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
2 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 6, 2008
The mid-70's edition of this book that I had, brought home by my father from a Veteran Administration's Hospital to which it had been donated, had GOODBYE COLUMBUS by Philip Roth, NOON WINE by Katherine Anne Porter, SEIZE THE DAY by Saul Bellow, THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE by Carson McCullers, SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut, OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck and WISE BLOOD by Flannery O'Connor. I'm not sure that when I read it that I understood they weren't supposed to go together in some way, and the books are still inextricably tied together in my mind.
January 2, 2013
I lliked all the stories but especially like MargaretAtwood. surfacing became a big MargaretAtwood. fan
liked slaughterhouse five a buch n a grunch too!
liked slaughterhouse five a buch n a grunch too!
June 1, 2022
This is one of the many story collections I have adopted/rescued over the years. Very likely a textbook, as each story is followed by a "Topics for papers and discussion" section. My copy's cover is set up the same but the color scheme is different for some reason. Maybe because this is the second edition? Anyway...
1 - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I've been meaning to go back and read some of the KV books I read long ago, so here we go. I'm pretty sure I read this one, and it's on my "Read" list, but it doesn't seem all that familiar. I definitely remember seeing the not bad movie. In the scene where Mr. Rosewater(who gets no lines in the movie) appears in the hospital bed next to Billy, Eliot Rosewater was portrayed by the film's Production Designer Henry Bumstead, the father of a dear friend from my Boulder days; she regaled her friends often with Henry/Hollywood stories. Henry had a monumentally long Hollywood career, won two Oscars(The Sting, To Kill a Mockingbird) and was eulogized by Clint Eastwood at his funeral. And so it goes. KV uses the occasion of the barbaric allied bombing of Dresden to wax philosophic about human folly and cruelty. So far I'm not exactly engrossed, but I'm finding KV as readable as I remember him to be. My FIRST exposure to his writing was in one or more sci-fi anthologies back in the 1950's.
- Was Peter Paul's Mounds Bar ever known as a Mound Bar - ?
2 - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe' by Carson McCullers - Definitely read before in a McCullers collection. Maybe even twice. It's been adapted for Broadway by Edward Albee and filmed. This story seems to fit right in with other Southern Gothic tales by such writers as Faulkner, O'Connor, Caldwell, Willingham, Welty, Williams and several more. Much fun to read, but what it's about is anybody's guess. The classroom section at the end has a few scholarly ideas. Maybe... that it's a really bad idea to put a heaping amount of love/trust in another human being.
3 - Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth. Possibly read before, but if I did it must've been before my Goodreads days. I've seen the fun movie several times. So far the story and film hew close together, even to the part about Brenda the babe adjusting the seat of her bathing suit. Funny, funny, funny.
- Short Hills! My step-father's parents lived there, along with their two Mercedes Benz's. My mother and younger sister and I visited there for a few days in June of 1962. At one supper the maid/cook, Lavinia("colored" of course) served something very weird-looking and unfamiliar to me, which turned out to be beef tongue. GROSS!
4 - Noon Wine by Katherine Anne Porter - Read before recently in a collection of ALL her stories. A sorry tale of human failings in rural Texas. I had a similar "engagement" as described in the book. I was a doorman/bouncer in a bar and had to physically throw someone out of the place. Violent, but not deadly, and it bothered me a LOT. KAP is a great writer...
- the plot bears some resemblance to "Canada"
5 - Seize the Day by Saul Bellow - I'm still in the middle of this depressing "story" of a depressed and messed-up guy taking his own inventory and finding himself greatly wanting. It takes place mostly in the mind of its hapless protagonist. Reminiscent of "Sister Carrie," but better written. This is my first read of Saul Bellow(as far as memory serves) and likely to be my last. Relentlessly grim and hopeless with overly solemn fancy writing to boot.
- This was made into a PBS TV-movie with Robin Williams in the lead. Doesn't seem like good casting to me, but one of my movie books praises it.
- The "Sister Carrie" connection = both Hurstwood and Tommy find themselves sinking in NYC.
- Egyptian cotton = Catch-22
- This story has much to say about American Priorities(stuff and money), and finds them spiritually wanting.
- Wilky vs. Adler = my sister Gretchen vs my mother.
6 - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - Read before and reviewed under that title.
7 - The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O''Connor - Would make as much sense if the title referred to the banishment of violent bears. I have read this before and didn't much care for(or understand) it then. Ms. O'Connor's writing is always hit-or-miss for me. This story is about religious craziness in the dear old Southland(at least I THINK it is - you never know with Miss F. O.). I may have noted this before from my first review of this, but she writes like Cormac McCarthy(or vice versa).
- the Schoolteacher... Beloved's Schoolteacher
- "pale fire" - Pale Fire
- In the after-wards section of this story the writer comments that this story has been criticized for being too long and boring. I sympathize with both takes. Still, Ms. O'Connor's writing is compelling.
- There IS an undercurrent of the absurd/comic - very dark...
- If you're hearing voices(as young Tarwater does), you are certifiably insane(and he is).
- I just got the connection to ""Of Mice and Men" last night: Lennie and Bishop. Both are holy fools/innocent killers.
- Tarwater is a "Wild Child" - see the film by Truffaut.
- Habakkuk - ? A minor prophet in the Hebrew bible.
1 - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I've been meaning to go back and read some of the KV books I read long ago, so here we go. I'm pretty sure I read this one, and it's on my "Read" list, but it doesn't seem all that familiar. I definitely remember seeing the not bad movie. In the scene where Mr. Rosewater(who gets no lines in the movie) appears in the hospital bed next to Billy, Eliot Rosewater was portrayed by the film's Production Designer Henry Bumstead, the father of a dear friend from my Boulder days; she regaled her friends often with Henry/Hollywood stories. Henry had a monumentally long Hollywood career, won two Oscars(The Sting, To Kill a Mockingbird) and was eulogized by Clint Eastwood at his funeral. And so it goes. KV uses the occasion of the barbaric allied bombing of Dresden to wax philosophic about human folly and cruelty. So far I'm not exactly engrossed, but I'm finding KV as readable as I remember him to be. My FIRST exposure to his writing was in one or more sci-fi anthologies back in the 1950's.
- Was Peter Paul's Mounds Bar ever known as a Mound Bar - ?
2 - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe' by Carson McCullers - Definitely read before in a McCullers collection. Maybe even twice. It's been adapted for Broadway by Edward Albee and filmed. This story seems to fit right in with other Southern Gothic tales by such writers as Faulkner, O'Connor, Caldwell, Willingham, Welty, Williams and several more. Much fun to read, but what it's about is anybody's guess. The classroom section at the end has a few scholarly ideas. Maybe... that it's a really bad idea to put a heaping amount of love/trust in another human being.
3 - Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth. Possibly read before, but if I did it must've been before my Goodreads days. I've seen the fun movie several times. So far the story and film hew close together, even to the part about Brenda the babe adjusting the seat of her bathing suit. Funny, funny, funny.
- Short Hills! My step-father's parents lived there, along with their two Mercedes Benz's. My mother and younger sister and I visited there for a few days in June of 1962. At one supper the maid/cook, Lavinia("colored" of course) served something very weird-looking and unfamiliar to me, which turned out to be beef tongue. GROSS!
4 - Noon Wine by Katherine Anne Porter - Read before recently in a collection of ALL her stories. A sorry tale of human failings in rural Texas. I had a similar "engagement" as described in the book. I was a doorman/bouncer in a bar and had to physically throw someone out of the place. Violent, but not deadly, and it bothered me a LOT. KAP is a great writer...
- the plot bears some resemblance to "Canada"
5 - Seize the Day by Saul Bellow - I'm still in the middle of this depressing "story" of a depressed and messed-up guy taking his own inventory and finding himself greatly wanting. It takes place mostly in the mind of its hapless protagonist. Reminiscent of "Sister Carrie," but better written. This is my first read of Saul Bellow(as far as memory serves) and likely to be my last. Relentlessly grim and hopeless with overly solemn fancy writing to boot.
- This was made into a PBS TV-movie with Robin Williams in the lead. Doesn't seem like good casting to me, but one of my movie books praises it.
- The "Sister Carrie" connection = both Hurstwood and Tommy find themselves sinking in NYC.
- Egyptian cotton = Catch-22
- This story has much to say about American Priorities(stuff and money), and finds them spiritually wanting.
- Wilky vs. Adler = my sister Gretchen vs my mother.
6 - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - Read before and reviewed under that title.
7 - The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O''Connor - Would make as much sense if the title referred to the banishment of violent bears. I have read this before and didn't much care for(or understand) it then. Ms. O'Connor's writing is always hit-or-miss for me. This story is about religious craziness in the dear old Southland(at least I THINK it is - you never know with Miss F. O.). I may have noted this before from my first review of this, but she writes like Cormac McCarthy(or vice versa).
- the Schoolteacher... Beloved's Schoolteacher
- "pale fire" - Pale Fire
- In the after-wards section of this story the writer comments that this story has been criticized for being too long and boring. I sympathize with both takes. Still, Ms. O'Connor's writing is compelling.
- There IS an undercurrent of the absurd/comic - very dark...
- If you're hearing voices(as young Tarwater does), you are certifiably insane(and he is).
- I just got the connection to ""Of Mice and Men" last night: Lennie and Bishop. Both are holy fools/innocent killers.
- Tarwater is a "Wild Child" - see the film by Truffaut.
- Habakkuk - ? A minor prophet in the Hebrew bible.
November 25, 2024
The third edition of this collection is an excellent textbook, now sadly out of print, that makes a solid basis for a college course on twentieth-century American (and Canadian) fiction. The selections are all very good, and represent a variety of approaches to writing literary fiction. One might see these as experiences in America:
Philip Roth - Goodbye, Columbus: The Jewish experience, especially on the inability of the Jews to fit into upper class White culture, being acknowledged, but never accepted.
Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: The rural American experience of tall tales, local legends, curious goings on that happen like explosions in an otherwise dull and dreary life.
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five: The war experience, veterans trying to come to terms with what they witnessed in war.
Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye: The Black American experience, the psychological damage inflicted on culturally oppressed people.
Jerzy Kosinski - Being There: The immigrant experience told as a kind of allegory.
Margaret Atwood - Surfacing: The feminist experience: escaping from the old expectations of what a "woman" was, but not having a clear idea of what "woman" means after the escape
Saul Bellow - Seize the Day: The commercial experience, how America's religion of money destroys whatever is best in people.
The editors of this edition provide no notes or other aids to reading the novels apart from author biographies. I like that. Students must discover for themselves. At the end of each novel is a collection of ideas for reflective essays.
As I say, it is too bad that texts such as this really do not exist anymore. The diversity of reading and perspectives what a literature course should be about.
Philip Roth - Goodbye, Columbus: The Jewish experience, especially on the inability of the Jews to fit into upper class White culture, being acknowledged, but never accepted.
Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: The rural American experience of tall tales, local legends, curious goings on that happen like explosions in an otherwise dull and dreary life.
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five: The war experience, veterans trying to come to terms with what they witnessed in war.
Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye: The Black American experience, the psychological damage inflicted on culturally oppressed people.
Jerzy Kosinski - Being There: The immigrant experience told as a kind of allegory.
Margaret Atwood - Surfacing: The feminist experience: escaping from the old expectations of what a "woman" was, but not having a clear idea of what "woman" means after the escape
Saul Bellow - Seize the Day: The commercial experience, how America's religion of money destroys whatever is best in people.
The editors of this edition provide no notes or other aids to reading the novels apart from author biographies. I like that. Students must discover for themselves. At the end of each novel is a collection of ideas for reflective essays.
As I say, it is too bad that texts such as this really do not exist anymore. The diversity of reading and perspectives what a literature course should be about.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews