I never managed to put up a reading journal entry for Tuesday, or indeed for yesterday (time can be such an enemy can’t it), so I thought, in a unique one-off, that I’d combine both days together into a single entry. In all honesty both days did kind of combine together in relation to my reading, so this post actually mirrors this quite well.
So on Monday then, you may remember I re-acquainted myself with Chekhov. So on Tuesday I made a point of turning to Maupassant for my short story reading fix. He’s another writer I’ve not visited in a while (August of last year to be exact *blush*), and so it was a real pleasure slipping back into the comforting glow of his exquisite prose. Reading Maupassant also meant that I was once again making progress on my Devouring De Maupassant challenge. So it was all good!
The first Maupassant short I read was The Donkey, a tale about two vagabond types who trawl the river bank in order to scrape up a living (quite literally). I loved the humour of the story, and I also loved Maupassant’s descriptions of both character and setting (no surprise there then). But what I wasn’t expecting was a mild-ish scene of animal cruelty. I can see that Maupassant included it for a reason (so I’m willing to forgive the French maestro on this occasion), but it did catch me a bit by surprise. Anyway enough babbling on about this story. If you want to read more, then pop along and catch up on my afterthoughts for it.
The next story I read was The Begger, and the thing with Maupassant is, you often don’t know what kind of story you’re going to get from the man until you’ve read it. I mean a story entitled The Beggar certainly sounds as though it’s going to be rather ominous tale, but knowing Maupassant it could equally turn out to be a story that’s as slapstick and humour-filled as it gets.
Well, it turned out to be the former – a sad, forlorn and wholly depressing tale, which so far I’ve not read too many of from Maupassant. However, it’s a tale that offers a really powerful reading experience; one that shows Maupassant to be the master storyteller that he is. So for that reason alone this is a story which I wholeheartedly recommend. Again, if you want any more info then head on over to my afterthoughts post for the story.
****
Well after two days in a row of not really liking the Miller story served up in Presence: Collected Stories (Bloomsbury), I’m happy to report that the latest story, Fame (first published in 1966 as Recognitions, before being renamed Fame for the I Don’t Need You Any More collection), was one which I thoroughly enjoyed.
It’s a story which follows successful playwright Meyer Berkowitz, as he negotiates his way through the streets of Manhattan, one late afternoon, in search of liquid refreshment. During the course of Berkowitz’s wanderings the reader sees the fictional playwright both crave attention and reject it, and Miller draws the concept out beautifully. He then takes the story to its climax with an exquisite exchange between Berkowitz and an old school friend Bernie Gelfand. What more can I say? It truly is superb storytelling! Story Rating: 
****
Well I’m in the final furlong – the last third – but as fast moving and enjoyable as the storyline still is for Bequest, I’ve slowed down a little in my reading of it. Does this mean that Shevchenko’s novel has suddenly got a lot more difficult to read? Absolutely not. Although I think the story has got slightly more complicated, I think that that has more to do with the crazy combination of blogging and other reading I’ve found myself engaged in these past couple of days (especially Miller with his 40+ page short stories 
). It’s meant, that when I finally get myself to Bequest at the end of the night, Ive got to spend a little bit of time reacquainting myself with it. Not good, and there’s a simple solution to that. All my other reading stops until I’ve finished Bequest.
::Thursday/Friday reading plans::
- As I’ve said already, absolutely no other reading until Bequest is ticked off.
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