Fiction – Page 2

Five Books that Will Change the Way You Read

Lauren Starnes

There are few things more fulfilling than reading a truly great novel. Often these rich and complex works do not make for the easiest reading, but the rewards make it a worthwhile endeavor. In these works, everything from the plot to the characters and language draws the reader in and beckons him to read on. During my lifetime I have come across several of these thought provoking novels that completely changed the way I approach literature. These life-changing books are packed with intricate language, motifs, characters, and provocative themes. After much thought, I have compiled a list of the top five works that changed the way I read. Enjoy!

1. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

I read this novel when I was a senior in high school and again in college. Each time I study this book I am in awe of Hemingway’s bare, yet incredibly poignant style. Through his usage of his own Hemingway Code the author creates nuanced shifts in tone, character, and setting. This novel alerted me to the power of motifs and symbols in literature.

2. All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren

It only took about one chapter in this wonderful novel for me to fall in love with it. Warren’s depiction of Willie Stark is at times beautiful and sympathetic, but at other instances damning and critical. Warren’s language and character development in All the King’s Men is unparalleled. I particularly love the foil created by Stark and the narrator, Jack Burden.

3. The Optimist’s Daughter, Eudora Welty

On the surface, Welty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book seems simple and conservative. However as Welty herself once said in One Writer’s Beginnings, “I am a writer who came from a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.” The Optimist’s Daughter is clearly a testament to this idea. Welty’s seemingly traditional story explores such complex and provocative themes as love, death, truth, and relationships. Finally, she ventures to ask what happens when we realize our parent’s marriage was not what we originally thought it was.

4. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner

In this dense and intricate work, Faulkner tells the story of the decaying Compson family. This unsettling story is unlike any other novel I have ever encountered. Faulkner experiments with time, psychology, sexuality, and conscious through the guise of various narrators. Reading and studying The Sound and the Fury taught me about new approaches to style, language, and character in literature.

5. Persuasion, Jane Austen

I’m sure most male readers are rolling their eyes at the inclusion of Austen on this list. As a woman, my affinity for Ms. Austen is probably coded into my DNA. Nevertheless, Persuasion is arguably the author’s best and often most under-appreciated work. This novel is darker than her previous books and represents a shift towards Romantic style and sensibilities. Austen is a master of dialogue and character development. If you can’t stand the love story, at least read and admire Austen for her wit, writing, and satire.

Senior at Washington and Lee University. Originally from Chattanooga, TN. Majoring in English.

Pride and Pigs

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When I was in high school, my junior English teacher assigned us a project: to write the story of the three little pigs in the style of our favorite author. We were not allowed to write the author’s name anywhere on the page and we were graded by the ease with which he guessed that author. A couple of my favorites flitted through my mind- Daphne Du Maurier, Dornford Yates, Martin Cruz-Smith– all with their own entirely different writing styles. I could just imagine all the various sorts of transformations the little pigs would go through in the eyes of these distinctive writers. But I wasn’t going to risk my teaching not having read one of these author’s of mine, so I settled on one that I figured any high school English teacher had to recognize: Jane Austen. I had a great time writing it. It was so easy letting yourself slip into the mind of an author so stylistically well known and use her voice to speak through. There was no need for me to be original, no need for me to be afraid of overstepping my boundaries. The story wasn’t mine and that made it easy.

When I write my own stories it can be agonizing. I never know how much influence I should allow other writers to have over me. I want to be the one to tell my own story, no exceptions. But sometimes, when I read over a piece I wrote a while ago, I could tell you exactly which author I was reading around that time. Usually, when I ask my friends to see if they can tell they can’t see what I’m talking about, but it bothers me. I know its natural for other writers’ influences to creep into your work, but how much is too much? When does the work become more theirs than yours? Sometimes I struggle with this more than others, but I am beginning to believe that everyone’s particular voice is made original by the authors they have read. Influences are allowed as long as they are slightly outweighed by your own inventiveness. They should be the assistants, not the craftsmen.

What do you think? How much influence should you allow into your work?

What Editors Want. . . ?

R.T. Smith

What Editors Want: A Week of Fresh Catch Wishes (as opposed to the old reliable, workshop-safe, combed-and-scrubbed, A+-in-deportment, even par poems & stories)

Day 1
Funk, something hybrid and loamy, misbehaving
like a snake that’s twined a wild vine
scabbed bark and lush blossoms
flagrant, ghastly
rumpled surface, tightly wrought structure and texture
crow-cawking, naughty (but dodging the obscene)
or something wholly serendipity and green

Day 2
A fairy tale subverted, myth twisted, old saw with new teeth
Grimm written as history
“Boldness has genius.” – Goethe
creepy-compelling (maybe ogres, but no vampires, werethings or zombies of fashion)
in hock to Angela Carter
madness with method to it

Day 3
urgent as a mystery, piquant, desperate even
channeling some kind of Anthony Burgess’s Little Alex-like primal embellishment
Catullus, undated again
what Sicorax said to the storm
a form deformed – sestina scrambled or writ as prose or camouflaged
OK – what The New Yorker seems to think is de rigueur, sine qua non
– but just this one day

Day 4
comic, but not mild or confectionary

Day 5
what the redwing blackbirds would say, could they be resurrected
feral, not floral nor feeble
angry, cranky
a fool’s errand successfully achieved

Day 6
a non-literary genre (menu, invitation, Christmas letter . . . ) yoked to literary ends

Day 7
work authentically, persuasively set in times with no (or few) cars, phones,
quickburgers, Brazilian waxes
or in places not predictable (Guatemala? the Caucasus? a barber shop in Saigon?)
       but rendered untouristy
or, finally, work about characters whose occupations (luthier, Rotor-Rooter woman,
      jockey, surgeon) or preoccupations (luna moths, the Spanish-American War,
      hopscotch, scotch, hail, tetherball, mantel clocks, tomatoes, doubloons,
      funerary customs) provide them with a perspective and jargon that makes them
      refuse stereotype)

Now that would be a week of discovery and re-configuring glee.

[lagniappe] quirk, swoon, horror, dazzling pizzicato

scarred bark and astonishing blossoms of the crape myrtle
pipsissewa suddenly arising under the river birch
and yes, there is the obligatory carpentry, but it’s not scrabble or
Betty Crockery

R. T. Smith has edited Shenandoah since 1995 and serves as Writer-in-Residence at Washington & Lee. His forthcoming books are Doves in Flight: 13 Fictions and Summoning Shades: New Poems, both due in 2017.

The Gloaming

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I was recently reading Nightwoods by Charles Frazier when I stumbled upon a word that really stuck in my mind: gloaming. Frasier uses it as a possible option for a description of the state of nightfall, which the antagonist, Bud, is experiencing. Frazier writes, “It gets to a point of darkness where you don’t know what to call it. Dusk or Night…People used to have a word, gloaming, but that’s only a snatch of memory from a song.” I do not think I had ever heard the word before, at least not in a way that would have made it memorable, but this time it just resonated with me. I find myself watching for its appearance in the evenings. It seems I have a new compulsory desire to feel its manifestation.
It’s strange how that happens, when an author uses a word well and you just can’t stop thinking about it. I later looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary, but the somewhat stagnant definition of “Evening twilight” did not captivate me near so much as Frasier’s “snatch” of time between dusk and nightfall. As I think it over, I probably have heard the word once or twice, but it took Frasier’s unique description to make it stick. There is something mysterious about the way he describes it. For instance his use of “people.” People is a very ambiguous term. What people? And from where? Perhaps it was the combination of the strange new word and the ambiguous one, but my mind immediately jumped to the faery people of old. It must have been the mystifying quality of the idea of a “gloaming” that entranced me, but I would have never have noticed that quality had it not been for Frasier’s vivid description.
Have there ever been any particular words that an author has brought to life for you in the past?

Homegrown Literature

Lauren Starnes

Reading a novel that is set in a place where you have actually lived or visited is an interesting experience. Being born and bred in East Tennessee, this is not a common occurrence, but it does happen. Usually, the books I read take place in distant or imaginary lands such as New York City, England, Yoknapatawpha County, or Middle Earth. However, over the past few years I have come across several novels that are centered on my home turf.

I have a complicated relationship with my Southern roots. Growing up I despised the South. I was perpetually embarrassed by my extended family’s twangy accent and bizarre colloquialisms. I despised traditional Southern food, I refused to read indigenous authors or listen to country music. In short, I was certain that I would flee the South as soon as I could. Thus, when I began my college search I confined my scope to the Northeast and Midwest. Imagine my surprise when I ended up falling in love with a school that is located in Lexington, Virginia and steeped in Southern history.

During my almost first few years at Washington and Lee, I have learned to love my home and my heritage. However, that is only the glamorous side of my Southern roots. Beneath the surface lurks the dark side of my family history. One side of my family is originally from deep in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. They are what you might call “hillbillies” and many of my ancestors were moonshiners. I tried to hide this side for years, but when we read Cormac McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper last year in my Southern Fiction class, it all came flooding back.

McCarthy, an East Tennessee native himself, perfectly captured the region’s uniquely grating and nasally accent. The strange folktales that appear in the novel are the same stories that I grew up listening to whenever I visited my grandparents. The untamed and awe-inspiring mountains depicted in The Orchard Keeper, are the same peaks that I trekked through annually with my parents. Rather than feeling horrified and embarrassed by McCarthy’s depiction of my home, I felt proud. This novel made me realize that my culture was something to be celebrated. Now, I fully embrace my distinct Southern background.

What about you? Are there any novels that take place in your home town? Did they do the place justice?

Senior at Washington and Lee University. Originally from Chattanooga, TN. Majoring in English.

To Record or Not to Record: A Question

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In the past, one of the only ways you could only hear the words spilling out of your favorite author’s mouth was if you braved the masses and attended a reading. And even though you got to see said author in person, you only got the story once. No repeats. Now, because of the ever-growing world of the online literary journal, you can listen to a new or well-known author time and again, with the added bonus of being in your own home. Sure there are some earlier examples of author’s recordings such as ones of Yeats and those collected by Caedman, but none of these are so easily accessed as those on the internet. Shenandoah is featuring a couple of them in their newest edition. Both “Love, Creusa” by Amina Gautier and “Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail” by Kelly Luce have audio versions of the stories.

Audio recordings and readings affect me in different ways. The author can either completely ruin the story for me or make it entirely better. Either way, it always changes the way that I will read the story in the future. Sometimes, if the author has a bad reading voice, hearing one of your favorite stories being read aloud is like seeing your favorite book being made into a movie: shocking and somewhat disappointing, nothing as you had imagined it.

I usually find I am more receptive to an author’s own telling when it is one I have never read before. That way I have had no time to imagine the voices of the characters in my own particular way. I can more easily see them as the author sees them.

Typically, once I can get past the initial shock of another person’s voice grabbing hold of what I have come to think of as my characters, I can see the benefits. For example it is an extremely useful tool if you wish to have a greater understanding of the work as a whole. Good recordings allow you to get more of a glimpse into the author’s intentions. Hearing the story aloud, with the author’s own particular inflections and breath, adds an entirely new level of depth.

So what do you think of audio recordings of stories? Good or bad?

Now Accepting Entries for the Bevel Summers Prize for Short-Short Fiction

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From March 1 to March 31, 2012 Shenandoah will be accepting entries for the Bevel Summers Prize for Short-Short Fiction. This $500 prize is awarded to a story of 1,000 words or less, and will also be published in an upcoming issue of Shenandoah. There is no entry fee, and entrants may submit up to three previously unpublished story. Please mail 2 copies of each story (one with name and contact information, and one without) and a SASE to Shenandoah: Bevel Summers at 17 Courthouse Square, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450. The judge of this year’s prize will be Chris Gavaler, his colleagues and students are not eligible to enter. Please see this page for more information about the judge and past winners: http://shenandoahliterary.org/bevel-summers/

Contact shenandoah@wlu.edu with any questions.

Cold Weather Reads

Lauren Starnes

Last week it seemed like Spring was just around the corner in beautiful Lexington, Virginia, but on Sunday Mother Nature surprised us with some last minute Winter weather. As I sat inside sipping Mint tea, eating peanut butter M&M’s, and watching the snow fall, I got to thinking about novels that are best read when it’s below freezing.

I made a short list of criteria for these novels. A good cold weather book must be engrossing. The story must transport you from your present dreary “winter wonderland” to sometime or someplace that is extraordinary. In these books, it is not necessarily the physical landscape that matters, but the novel’s emotional landscape is definitely important. Some of my favorite winter reads are Persuasion by Jane Austen, Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre.

When reading during cold and dismal weather it is also essential to choose books that have happy endings. Nothing is worse than reading a depressing book when the outside conditions are equally disheartening. I once read Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic tale, The Road during a particularly gray, rainy week and I was miserable. So pick your cold weather books wisely! In short, curling up with a good book is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable activities imaginable!

What are your cold weather reads of choice? Do you have certain books that you read during other seasons?

Senior at Washington and Lee University. Originally from Chattanooga, TN. Majoring in English.

Gathering of Waters and Emmett Till

R.T. Smith

No one should ever forget the horrors suffered during the years when so many were denied their Civil Rights, but Black History Month is always a poignant time to renew our efforts for equality. Bernice L. McFadden’s novel Gathering of Waters (Akashic Books, 2012; 252 pages) revisits Money, Mississippi’s African American community and its white counterpart for several generations leading up to the murder of Emmett Till, and though the author reopens that file and brings the horrors back to life, this strange and splendid novel does much more.
You may be reluctant, at first, to engage with a novel whose narrator is the town of Money, but the conceit grows on you in this erotic and fast-moving story which bears many of the marks of magical realism. Lust, betrayal, flood, hypocrisy, viciousness, the spirit world and lyrical beauty all play their roles, while McFadden exercises her eloquence, terseness and precise instinct for conjuring characters who invite empathy, even when they are far from angels.
While rescuing memories of Emmett Till’s sorrowful story, the author refuses to let the light of hope go out and reminds you that, no matter how firmly you may grasp the facts of a story, there is a mystery as allusive of smoke surrounding all that transpires or is dreamed.
I found this book on Amazon and hope it’s readily available in stores, as well. I’m ready to read more of McFadden right away.

Food: A Vehicle for Personality

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Shenandoah’s new issue is featuring a piece of flash fiction by Nicholas Roerich Prize winner, Sharon Hasimito, entitled “Vindaloo.”The piece contains cancer, a subsequent death, and food. You would think that the first two would be the more attention worthy, but surprisingly it is food that takes center stage (or in this case center of the table). Hank Teroka remembers his wife through the meals that he has experienced with her. We are given very little description about her physical appearance and specific personality traits, but the types of food that she wants to eat and wants her husband to eat tell us everything we need to know. We find out that she is adventurous, caring and vivacious. Her husband, Hank, on the other hand, is more cautious and pragmatic. The fact that he is willing to try the things that she loved reinforces both the fact that he loved her and the fact that even after death his own decisions remain subject to hers.

I particularly liked this story because I’ve always said food can tell a lot about a person. I pay particular attention whenever eating is involved in a story and perhaps it is just my obsession with all things food related, but I like to think it helps me to develop a better understanding of the character. Like “Vindaloo” it can show whether a person is willing to try new things or not, but it can also tell a lot about a person’s background. For example, if a person only likes to eat McDonald’s perhaps they grew up with blue-collar parents who worked all of the time or if their comfort food is black-eyed peas and collard greens, you can bet on some type of Southern origin. Having the character eat something unusual is another tool that helps to create a more three-dimensional character and allows the author to segue into another aspect of their character’s personality.