Tonight our book club was looking at short stories; three of us chose stories for tonight, the other three will choose them for next month.
Tonight’s offerings were ‘A Man of Honour’ by Jack Schaefer, best know for his novel ‘Shane’, which he didn’t consider his best book, ‘Counterparts’ by James Joyce, and ‘Beer trip to Llandudno’ by Kevin Barry. They were three contrasting stories, a ‘western’ set in the nineteenth century but written in the twentieth, an Irish story published in 1914, and a contemporary story by an Irish writer about a group of beer-loving English men going on a real ale drinking trip.
These three stories certainly stimulated a lot of discussion; I don’t often really enjoy short stories, but it was interesting talking about them with our group. We had quite a difference of opinion on the Schafer story, although we all agreed it was brilliantly written. I didn’t like the fact that there seemed to be so many unanswered questions, that there were some aspects of the tale which weren’t revealed to the reader; for others in the group this was exactly what was so intriguing and fascinating.
We are in for another intriguing meeting next time, stories by Saki (H.H.Munro) Isaac Bashevis Singer and Nadine Gordimer. Three writers of very different backgrounds, an Englishman, a Polish-American Jew and a South African.
Lois Elsden 