William Maxwell was one of my favorite writers, especially the novels, TIME WILL DARKEN IT and SO LONG, SEE YOU TOMORROW. But his short stories are very fine too and this volume collects some of his best, along with some of his "improvisations" which were very short pieces he stuck in people's cards or Christmas stockings. I have discussed other stories from this collection on here and hope this was not one of them.This story, just a few pages, begins with a seamstress, coming to drop off some work she has completed and being caught in the middle of a college-age son telling his mother he was not going back to school and also he'd not be living with her any longer. A dog, brought home from college by the boy, breaks up some of the heartbreak here but some of us remember the day when it was clear that our children had left home for good and know some of what she is feeling. In this case, she's a new widow so his departure is doubly painful. How clever to insert the dog and the seamstress to bear witness to the pain and give the reader a break from it.
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Maxwell is one of those writers I keep meaning to read more of. Claire Keegan's first book, ANTARCTICA, is not what you'd call a light read, but she is very good. A couple of these are set in the States, most in Ireland and England. "Sisters" has two sisters with a very difficult relationship.
Edith Pearlman's stories have a wider range than the first few I'd read might suggest. A couple are set (with the same main characters) in London during WWI and in a post-war refugee camp ("Purim Night"). The only ones I didn't care for were the ones set in South or Central America.
Actually, I enjoyed rereading Agatha Christie's stories in MIDWINTER MURDER, especially the Marple and Poirot stories.
I have not read any of her stories in years.
I get the impression that Keegan was trying out different things in these stories. In "Passport Soup," a marriage is clearly breaking up because their 9 year old daughter has gone missing and the wife blames the husband. It is set in Boulder, Colorado. In "Close to the Water's Edge," a young man is celebrating his 19th birthday in Florida with his mother and his rich, crude stepfather. He is doing well at Harvard and clearly the mother's marriage is not a great success. It is not a subtle story.
I see Pearlman has a third connected story in the post-WWII series - "If Love Were All," "Purim Night" and "The Coat."
I'm not quite ready to earnestly sing Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" ("If it weren't for bad luck/I wouldn't have any luck at all"), but there was something like a tornado touchdown in Mercer County, NJ last night (no humans hurt, at last repot, but some trees and the things they fell on), leading to an interruption of service into the morning hours as Verizon was apparently testing and repairing systems In The Area, as I learned at about 2:30a in a service call. After all that, slept in.
So here's today's tardy post:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2023/02/ssw-worlds-of-if-retrospective.html
I got a copy of TIME WILL DARKEN IT and look forward to reading that. I will also look out for a copy of this short story collection too. Maybe at the book sale later in the year, maybe sooner. I also see that there is a book of the letters of Eudora Welty and Maxwell, which sounds interesting.
Oh, I will look for that, Tracy.
We are in the midst of a terrible ice story. This is queer weather indeed.
And I keep meaning to read her letters with Ross McDonald. So much to read and so little time.
So very true, Patti. I started reading it and haven't finished yet, and it is very good, very interesting. But also long. But I am doing better with nonfiction this year, so I will get back to it.
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