Short Story Challenge: The Woman in the Woods
My first official short story challenge selection is The Woman in the Woods by Ann Joslin Williams. I came to Williams by way of “Cascom Mountain Road,” a story published in Story Quarterly, issue 42. There are many, many good stories in that issue but I was so entranced by that particular story, that I immediately sought out more.
Williams’ collection did not disappoint. Okay, it disappointed a little when I discovered that the story I’d fallen in love with wasn’t in this collection. But then I started reading and immediately became enamored with the new characters and all was well again. The stories in the collection are all set in the mountains of New Hampshire and follow a brother and sister through their lives. The collection is centered on David and Kate and in the first story we learn that they lost their father when they were children and that Kate lost a young son, and with it, her marriage. All together, the collection paints a collage of these lives, through their adolescence and the discovery of new love, through the eventual loss of their own loves, marriages, and children. Taken individually, each story is a beautiful moment in time.
“Before this day there were many other days, like the day Jeff Driver found the beagle lying dead on the trail, and how he wrapped the dog in a blue blanket, carried it to them like a baby. Or when Peter Lorde drove his big truck through the little poplar trees to make a road, and how they popped as they broke and flattened under the tires. Or when her mother and father held each other and circled the living room to the beat of a scratchy blues record, and how he lifted her and stood her on the table and held her hand so they danced like that, with him below and reaching up to her.”
Williams’ writing is rich with imagery, creating a world I found myself never wanting to leave. These are not just the stories of lives, but the stories of extraordinary lives. Whether it’s a woman that’s part deer or a cult hitching a ride on the back of a comet, there’s an element of the extraordinary in every story. But it’s not flashy. It’s handled with such subtlety that you may lose it among the stunning prose.
I loved this collection as much as the original story that turned me on to Williams. I highly recommend it and I hope there will be more stories from Cascom Mountain one day.
Money, Meet Mouth
It’s been a while since I’ve taken any sort of reading challenge (I think the last one was my 50 book challenge in 2006, which I barely managed to pull off) so when I heard about the short story reading challenge, deciding whether to be involved or not was a no brainer. I write short stories; therefore I should read short stories. Plus, it’s kind of on par with my decision to read more things that I should have read whist getting my MFA and studying fiction again. So I signed up.
My choice is Option #5, the “build your own” option. Of course, I’m borrowing from the other options and incorporating that I read more authors that I have not read before.
Books I am planning to read:
- The Woman in the Woods by Ann Joslin Williams
- Best American Short Stories 2005 edited by Lorrie Moore
- Collected Stories by William Trevor
And before you say it, yes, I know the fact that I haven’t read any William Trevor is a sin. I am working to redeem myself.
That’s a start. I’m not going to plan anything beyond that. Instead, I’ll be following the short story challenge blog and looking to other lit blogs to find other new and noteworthy stories to read. Suggestions, of course, are always welcome.
If you’re one of the two people reading this, then I want to challenge you to take the challenge as well. If you’re hesitant, try Option #1: reading 10 short stories by 10 different authors over 2008. That’s not even a story a month! If you’re more daring, try one of the other options. Either way, let’s help make 2008 the year of the short story.
