My own private canon (updated)
These are my favorite stories in English, with links where available. Some are huge influences, some I just like. Charles Bukowski should be on this list, but all his stories merge in my memory into one Bukowski story.
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery. My view of life exactly, though mine has more jokes.
Woody Allen, The Whore of Mensa. Clearly not for meshuggeneh.
Delmore Schwartz, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities. Possibly the greatest short story every written about the cinema.
J.D. Salinger, A Perfect Day for Bananafish. The first time we meet Seymour Glass, he. . .
James Salter, Last Night. Killer. Read it on the train. Missed my stop because I had to read it again to make sure I got it right the first time.
Daphne DuMaurier, Don’t Look Now. Aaaaaah! Then watch the film adaptation by Nicolas Roeg. AAAAAAAH!
Laurie Colwin, My Mistress. I discovered Laurie Colwin’s novel Happy All The Time in a bargain bin when I was in high school and proceeded to read everything of hers that I could find. She wrote sharp romantic comedies full of intelligent characters. The rare stories in which romantic fulfillment does not mean idiocy.
Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard To Find. Not what it sounds like. Aaaaaah!
Woody Allen, The Kugelmass Episode. Featuring possibly the most terrifying fate for a professor of literature. You spend your life poring through the great books and what do you get? Bupkis.
Harlan Ellison, Shatterday. I was going to put A Boy and His Dog on the list, but that’s a novella.
Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener. A 19th century classic set on Wall Street which everyone should read today.
Tobias Wolff, Bullet In The Brain. Sure it’s show-offy, but the man has powers.
Jean Stafford, Children Are Bored On Sunday. Drunks at the museum.
John Cheever, O Youth and Beauty! Longer post on John Cheever on the way.
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber.
J.D. Salinger, Just Before The War With The Eskimos.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something vital.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 26th, 2008 at 13:39
Hahaha, the Kugelmass Episode for the win. My favorite part: “What he didn’t realize was that at this very moment students in various classrooms across the country were saying to their teachers, “Who is this character on page 100? A bald Jew is kissing Madame Bovary?” A teacher in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, sighed and thought, Jesus, these kids, with their pot and acid. What goes through their minds!”
November 26th, 2008 at 13:50
No link on “Don’t Look Now?” Picked up the anthology once and read the story in Powerbooks, when I was broke. When payday came, the book disappeared!
November 26th, 2008 at 18:07
I read all of Salinger’s fiction before reading Catcher in the Rye and I have to say the novel exceeds the others. The use of unreliable narrator is the most effective I’ve read and certainly the most endearing. One of the novels that made me cry and certainly the only novel that made me cry multiple times in different passages. Seymour Glass’s short affair with a random underage girl on the beach (he grabbed her by the ankles, if I remember correctly) is best explained by Holden’s special affection to his sister Phoebe. Also in To Esme – With Love and Squalor.
The great books? I read philosophy and the great books (by Homer, by Shakespeare, the novels making up The Human Comedy, Moby-Dick, etc.) are far better. It probably helps that I didn’t need no professor to tell me they’re great. Sometimes I’m disturbed about personal canons such as this, which are obviously just reactions to The Canon. I do this mental experiment in which I imagine a world where The Canon is relegated to the “might also want to read” instead of the “must read” in college. Imagine finding Moby-Dick in the list of NYRB editions.
I suppose we can’t be told what we like to read. But I can’t thank you enough for the link to Delmore Schwartz. I am reading the short story. My favorite American writer Bellow’s inspiration for Humboldt this is the first time I’ll have read him.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:23
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something vital.
— Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried maybe?
November 27th, 2008 at 14:00
Jessica, Just Before The War With The Eskimos is my favorite Salinger short story, too! And notice how the girls’ names sounded tennis player-y? Hehe. The Kugelmass Episode is hilarious, especially the last part when a verb ran after him. I just read The Lottery upon your recommendation. I think it’s something that Mulder and Scully can look into.
Brian, i also like reading shakespeare (without being prodded. hehe). i haven’t gone through his histories, though. i think juliet has the best lines and king lear contains some of the best insults one could hurl at someone (“and the whoreson must be acknowledged!”). i pity shylock and i think adonis (from his poem venus and adonis) is gay.
November 28th, 2008 at 19:46
Ah, Bartelby! Ah, Humanity!
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My favorite Salinger short story is ‘This Sandwich has no Mayonnaise.’