I think I'm halfway through the stories (assuming that I'm reading the right ones-- most of the page numbers I have written down don't match the starts of stories, so I'm making guesses). I'm not really sure how I feel about Barthelme? In a lot of ways, reading Barthelme reminds me of reading Charles' work, but I enjoy Charles' work more. I keep zoning out when I read Barthelme, and maybe it's just because I'm tired. There are a couple of his stories that I just get completely sucked into ("The Game" and "The School") because they're absolutely brilliant (even when he wavers onto the Gertrude Stein line that I can't stand). But a lot of them, I don't know, maybe I'm just not smart enough to conquer Barthelme?
Or maybe it's because I read Orringer first and her prose is so lucid and smooth, that it just makes Barthelme's that much more stilted and jarring for me?
I don't know, but I will be really interested to see how everyone else reacts to Barthelme.
No comments:
Post a Comment