Chekhov's Mistress
Sedaris on Short Stories and Chekhov
[updated to correct numerous grammatical and sensical errors – don’t sleep and write at the same time folks, you’ll only get hurt.]
I happened to be in the car today and caught the The Leanord Lopate Show with David Sedaris and Lorrie Moore:
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules:
David Sedaris tells us about a new collection of his favorite short stories that have inspired him as a writer. He’s joined by Lorrie Moore, whose short story “People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk” is included in Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules.
It was fun listening to people talk about the stories that inspired them and hearing Lorrie Moore made me want to go home and do some writing! I don’t remember how it came up, but Lopate asked Sedaris why there were no stories by the likes of Chekhov in the book. Sedaris said that he had never read Chekhov and intimated that people use those names to impress others. Chekhov? That sounded silly, but I’ve read just enough Sedaris to say that perhaps he should read some Chekhov. Ah, he is rich and famous – a home in London and in Paris, no less – but that isn’t a measure of writing.
Moore talked about her writing and that it may take as long as a year for her to finish a story. That’s what was encouraging made me want to go write. Also the fact that she is a single, working mom and she still manages to find time to write is inspiring, like a one-legged man running a marathon. She talked about Flannery O’Connor, whom I love, as a prose stylist, which is not how I ever thought of her, so I might have to go back and re-read one or two of her stories.
So, my attitude about Sedaris aside, I am interested in seeing what others choose as their favorite short stories, particularly when there are few or no constraints, like published date or slushpile. This looks like a good collection:
• “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter
• “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
• “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield
• “Half A Grapefruit” by Alice Munro
• “Applause, Applause” by Jean Thompson
• “I Know What I’m Doing About All the Attention I’ve Been Getting” by Frank Gannon
• “Where the Door Is Always Open and the Welcome Mat Is Out” by Patricia Highsmith
• “The Best of Betty” by Jincy Willett
• “Song of the Shirt, 1941” by Dorothy Parker
• “The Girl with the Blackened Eye” by Joyce Carol Oates
• “People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk” by Lorrie Moore
• “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor
• “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amy Hempel
• “Cosmopolitan” by Akhil Sharma
• “Irish Girl” by Tim Johnston
• “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff
Link to the podcast of the show: Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules.
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: July 05, 2005
- Filed Under:
Wise Men Fish Here: Literature
- Comments:0
- Links to this Post: Technorati
