Friends,
I gotta question for you all.
How many "novel in stories" do you know of? It's a collection of titled, stand-alone, short stories that comprise what the author or others consider a novel.
The ones I can think of are:
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien (he calls it a novel, so good enough for me)
Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout (I think it is a novel in stories, but all I really know for sure is that it was a highly acclaimed book of 2008, but a shitty audiobook that bored me to tears, and I imagine it's a much better read.)
Come Ye Back - Beth Lordan (actually has "novel in stories" on the book, so yeah, this one counts).
Lives of Girls and Women - Alice Munro (this one, I'm not sure of, but it looks like it).
You know of any others?
viva el mustache
February 22, 2009
Novel In Stories?
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6 comments:
It's been a while since I've read the blog Brian, but I thought I'd give my two cents here.
I guess the answer to your question would depend on how you define "novel in stories." If we're using "The Things They Carried" as a model, here are two that come to mind for me:
"Monkeys" by Susan Minot (If I remember correctly, each chapter or story has a different narrator so it reads like a collection of short stories)
"Winesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson (I'm interested to hear what other have to say about this one. For me, it reads like a novel since all the stories are about this town or people from this town, and in the end you get a picture of what this place is like.)
"I Sailed With Magellan" by Stuart Dybek would be a novel in stories, I think.
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Banks
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
Dubliners by James Joyce
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Georgia Under Water by Heather Sellers
Later, at the Bar by Rebecca Barry
I'll try to think of some more.
Knockemstiff by DR Pollock - I haven't read it, but it's on my to-read list.
I agree w/ Bronson that Winesburg, Ohio is a novel in stories, but I've never thought of Dubliners as one. The stories are linked by locale, as in Winesburg, but I think the stories stand alone more than those in Winesburg. I don't think a unified collection is the same as a novel in stories. Maybe I'm splitting hairs.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Rattlebone by Maxine Clair
More I can't think of at the moment, as I've got to get to the bar for some cheese fries
"Jesus' Son" by Denis Johnson, though Amazon lists the full title is "Jesus' Son: Stories" as opposed to "Jesus' Son: A Novel."
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