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3.5
The Wide Net And Other Stories
ByPublisher Description
These eight stories reveal the singular imaginative power of one of America's most admired writers. Set in the Old Natchez Trace region, the stories dip in and out of history and range from virgin wilderness to a bar in New Orleans. In each story, Miss Welty sustains the high level of performance that, throughout her distinguished career, has won her numerous literary awards. "Miss Welty runs a photofinish with the finest prose artists of her time" (Time).
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Wide Net And Other Stories Reviews
3.5
“It's an odd little collection of stories. There are two that veer toward historical fiction -- First Love involves Aaron Burr around the time of his trial for treason, and A Still Moment involves James Audubon and two other minor historical figures who meet in the woods. I liked A Still Moment, but I have my doubts what it adds to have the characters be historical. I needed to look up the other two, and even reading a bit about them, it didn't (or detract) anything to my understanding or enjoyment of the stories. The same goes, even more so, for the presence of Burr in First Love.
The Wide Net is a fabulous story and easily the best in the collection. Next is probably At the Landing, which is also quite good and very disturbing in its portrayal of rape and the victim's reaction to it. I'm glad I read the collection if just for these stories. I also, in general, like Welty's use of language and her ability to make the ordinary seem extra-ordinary and almost magical, so that the Natchez Trace becomes a place out of myth.
But the rest of the stories (5 of the 8, including First Love) were just not all that captivating. I'm well aware that that might just be me, or my mood. I have a strong suspicion that with age, and the evergrowing distraction of the internet, I am becoming dumber and a much worse reader than I used to be. Who knows how I would have reacted to these 20-25 years ago? Not me.”
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