I’ve been a fan of Richard Ford ever since I read The Sportswriter in 1986 and his short story collection, Rock Springs in 1987. Ford won a Pulitzer Prize for Independence Day. I highly recommend all Richard Ford’s books. In the May 18 issue of Newsweek, Richard Ford shared his thoughts on books that influenced him.
MY FIVE MOST ESSENTIAL BOOKS
1. “Essays” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. A plain-spoken, cunning tour of inconsistency, yearning and faith.
2. “The Moviegoer” by Walker Percy. A seriocomic masterpiece that exploits the human connection between bliss and bale.
3. “Inferno” by Dante. Serious things here. But often very funny too, and useful: it lets you know what really happens if you’re bad.
4. “Collected Stories” by John Cheever. A feast of great wit and dire, closeorder human observation that perfects the short-story form.
5. “The Snopes Trilogy” by William Faulkner. America’s best writer of the last century at his funny-nastiest and most accessible.
A BOOK TO WHICH YOU ALWAYS RETURN: “Collected Stories” by Eudora Welty. Proves you can do remarkable things if you just stay home and do them.
A CLASSIC YOU REVISITED WITH DISAPPOINTMENT: “Ulysses” by James Joyce. Way too long, and unduly obscure. Should have stuck to short stories.
I agree with you on Richard Ford, and I agree with what Ford has written about Richard Yates. I haven’t read all the ones on this list, however.
I really agree with Ford on James Joyce.
I love Rock Springs, nearly as much as Eleven Different Kinds of Loneliness (Yates). I like the Dubliners but find Joyce unreadable aside from that. Cheever wrote at least a few of the greatest American short stories ever written in that collection-THE SWIMMER and THE ENORMOUS RADIO, for two. I read Emerson during a Concord Circle kick but don’t know if it would hold up for me. Liked LIGHT IN AUGUST and AS I LAY DYING but have never gotten through any of the other Faulkner books. The MOVIE GOER was terrific but I remember liking one or two others more. Was it Lancelot? Oh, I’m getting old. I could once rattle all of these off. Welty-I just have to bow down. So much heart in her stories. What was the one about the Post Office? She knew small town life better than anyone.
Can’t bear to read the latest Ford though.
I know what you mean about Ford’s latest novel, Lay of the Land. It seemed like Ford was trying to put everything in that book including the kitchen sink. As I get older “Less is More” is my mantra.
On short stories I still go with O’Hara (I know George agrees) and Chekhov, among others.
O’Hara and Chekhov knew how to write short stories. It seem like a lost art today in our multimedia world.
No, I couldn’t bear to read it for the subject matter. O’Hara is so under-rated. Does anyone read him today? He captured the mid-century angst better than anyone. Jeff-when are you going to write about a forgotten book for me.
I certainly read John O’Hara. I find it mind-boggling that he’s nearly forgotten today.