Voice Your Opinion On The Best Short Stories Of The Century

BETHEL — It’s not too late to jump on the book discussion group bandwagon and help answer the burning questions: “Are these the best American short stories of the century?”

Last year, Houghton Mifflin released a collection titled The Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison. The anthology covers the years 1915 through 1998 and contains 55 short stories from many of the nation’s leading literary lights.

For Bethel Public Library’s book discussion series this summer, the group has decided to discuss two short stories per session.

In June, the first third of the century was covered when the group focused on the satirist Dorothy Parker’s Here We Are (1931) and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Crazy Sunday (1933). Consensus at the June meeting was that these two stories were not two of the best American short stories of the century.

Will the stories selected for July and August make the grade? The series will resume on Tuesday, July 11, from 7:30 to 8:45 pm, with two selections from the second third of the century.

In Elizabeth Bishop’s The Farmer’s Child (1949), the seemingly commonplace elements of farm machinery and the Canadian winter take on the sinister Shirley Jackson-esque quality of The Lottery. Then, in Tennessee Williams’s The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin (1951), a 12-year-old boy comes of age when he realizes that his sister is mentally ill and that he himself is gay.

The series will conclude on Tuesday, August 15, with two selections drawn from the final third of the century; Updike’s own Gesturing (1980) and Lorrie Moore’s You’re Ugly, Too (1990).

Copies of the book are available at the library. Book discussions take place in the Seelye Room, with refreshments provided by The Friends of the Bethel Public Library.

All programs sponsored by the Bethel Public Library are free, open to the public, and meet accessibility requirements for the disabled. Those needing special accommodations should contact the library at least two weeks prior to the program to make arrangements. The library, at 189 Greenwood Avenue, can be contacted by calling 794-8756.