2015: The Year of Reading Women discussion

Group reads and discussions for Flannery O'Connor.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery...

I wouldn't mind some short stories. :)

Same here, Trav -- any specific collections?

Well, guess what, I have never read any Flannery 'O Connor, ( I know, I'm a Philistine), but I do have Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories and a volume called The Complete Stories, but I wouldn't want to read all of them, so I am quite happy to have the best ones picked and chosen for me if possible. Let's say 10 to 12 stories?

I am a Philistine as well, Trav!

I also have Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories, so we could read that, or figure out a selection from The Complete Stories. Option 1 may require less thinking, but I'm up for whichever you prefer. :)

I like either, but considering the number of reads going on in this group, I love the idea of picking and choosing a few (sorry for the extra work!)

No problem at all, Linda!

I would love to read a few of her short stories, maybe two weekly, that can fit in around our longer books.

Glad you'll be joining us, Connie!

When would you like for the discussion to begin? And any preferences on how to decide which stories to read? One idea is for us to post requests for GR recommendations on individual stories by O'Connor. But I'm open to other ideas....

I'm also fine for either, maybe picking and choosing, if only we had an O'Connor veteran to guide us...

Here's hoping someone volunteers!

I'm sure I've read something at some point, probably in a high school English class. But mostly, I'm a fellow Philistine!

I could ask a colleague, who (in spite of being in Spanish) has been doing a lot of work with her and the Confederacy of Dunces...

That would be great, Linda. Thanks!

I would prefer to read Flannery O'Connor in May or any month later.

That sounds good to me too, Connie. Any preferences on timing, Trav and Linda?

I'n with Connie!

Aargh! The reminder for this group always pops up over "reply" and "edit" buttons!
The colleague I have who's read a lot of FO just retired, but I should meet with her in the next couple of weeks (hopefully). I was supposed to shadow her for a course this semester, and now they've just handed it to me. I'll try to remember to ask her.

Sedaris included "Revelation" in his anthology, I see.

I'm interested in reading O'Connor too. I have the Collected Stories but am open to the "pick and choose" option. I'm hopelessly over-extended with all the wonderful reads in this and my other groups. But I plan to try my best :)

I'm pretty full up all of the time by now, so i will just follow this thread and see how it develops.

Hopefully Linda can help us with a bit of direction after meeting with her acquaintance. :)

Reporting back, as promised: So I just went out for coffee with this newly retired colleague, who's into Spanish Peninsular lit, but has done extensive work of late with O'Connor and O'Toole's Confederacy of Dunces.
Turned out to be a five hour thing! Couldn't believe that we'd gone thru lunch!

Anyway, the conversation went like this:
"Which stories would you recommend?" --I can't separate them, they're all part of a whole for me, and the stories were the basis for the novels later. There's "Revelation", which you just mentioned, and that one about the girl with the wooden leg, Hulga, and this guy comes along selling Bibles and gets her out to the barn, and steals her wooden leg after....Then, there's the one about the Polish farming family. That one's really good! The novels are shorter than the short story collection. They all have the same themes: human foibles, visions of life, the need for redemption, etc. all with a timeless quality. Yes, she's hard to read, but she's very funny, too."

"Which novel would you recommend?"--Wise Blood

So I guess that leaves me with two suggestions, though feel free to make others:

1) We go with one of the novels, which are shorter. Perhaps Wise Blood, perhaps another that we agree on.

OR

2) That we all agree to read 5-6 short stories each, of our choice, and then comment. Is that too disparate for the experience? Or would we all prefer to talk about exactly the same text?

Sorry I couldn't come back with anything concrete...I did push, but the human mind has its limitations, sigh!

Going back thru the thread, I see that a third option exists: Just to go with the collection that Kris and Trav already own.
Sorry the attempt failed!

It sounds like you had a marvelous lunch, Linda. Your friend sounds fascinating. The book that Kris and Traveller own, Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories, contains nine short stories so it's not too huge. We could probably get a better discussion going if we read the same stories. This is a link to a list of stories in the book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everythi...

I'm fine with the other options too.

I'll go with the flow. I just read "Revelation", bc Sedaris includes it in his anthology of favorites, and yeah, it's not easy to read that stuff.

This colleague's been to her place about 3-4 times already. Said the pea fowl are still there, though the chicken that could has long since
passed....here's to the chicken!

Actually time was flying by...I'd offered to do either coffee or lunch--I was supposed to shadow her course again this semester and teach it in two years. Due to a mess caused by an incompetent chair, I'm now taking over the course (yikes!) so wanted to get some pointers from here. Anyway, we never got lunch! I had no watch on, there was no visible clock, and I thought I was just feeling hungry bc I'm on crazy low calories...Nope! We were really there 4.5 hours!

Speaking purely for myself, i think i would prefer to stick to short stories at first, just to see if i like Flannery's style. Thanks so much for your trouble, Linda!
Maybe I'll see if i have Revelation, and start with that one?

Shall we create a separate short story thread for all the stories, or what?

That sounds like a good plan, Traveller.

Or it could be all one discussion thread, like the Plath poems? Just thinking that it might be a bit onerous to have separate threads for all the different stories. I kind of like the back and forth of one thread as well, since some of the same themes might come up. But maybe it's preferable for some other reasons ...

Obscureason wrote: "Or it could be all one discussion thread, like the Plath poems? Just thinking that it might be a bit onerous to have separate threads for all the different stories. I kind of like the back and fort..."

No, I did mean one thread for all the stories. :)

oh whew! I was imagining myself trying to keep up with soooo many threads! :) I guess I read "each" for "all."

Thread to be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

How about we don't set a date and just post there as we find time? I've given up trying to schedule my year....

But then that might not work so well either. Okay, how about a story every two weeks?

Traveller wrote: "Speaking purely for myself, i think i would prefer to stick to short stories at first, just to see if i like Flannery's style. Thanks so much for your trouble, Linda!
Maybe I'll see if i have Reve..."

Sorry, I commented on the thread bc I hadn´t seen this yet. Thought we were reading it later....will have to try to snag a copy somewhere.
¨Revelation¨ goes fast, is slightly predictable, but whew! Strong stuff!

Sorry, I missed where we had said said May?, but I'm not ready myself, you know. How about we start it next week sometime?