What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
>
SOLVED. Short story collection: modern guy named Lancelot or Arthur meets a girl named Guennivere who looks like the character on a book jacket [s]
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
J.
(new)
Apr 03, 2012 06:23PM
I picked up this story collection at a book store more than ten years ago and read some of the stories and the ideas have stayed with me. It was a collection of a single author. One is about a man who dreams of meeting a woman named Guennivere because is name is either Arthur or Lancelot, I can't remember which. He has a book about king arthur and he meets a lady who looks like the cover illustration and whose name is Guennivere and she knows about the book too. I remember the book was funny in an ironic kind of way.
reply
|
flag
Do you happen to know if it's a children's book? Young adult?
It was in the adult/literature section of Barnes and Noble if I remember correctly, possibly YA, definitely not children's.
I'm not sure what book it is, but I did find this Wiki link that has a list of modern King Arthur tales in various media:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Art...
Hope it helps!
Not the same story, but similar "Knightly Dreams" located inside the collection In Other Worldshttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70...
A modern woman (an author, i think) is given a book and a knight pretty much just shows up out of it, not knowing how to behave... Takes her a long time to accept the fact that he really is from the book and not just someone playing a trick on her. pretty decent read. (I love Sherrilyn Kenyon, tho so I am biased)
Oh, and NOT a YA book unless your young adult is over 18. ;)
I'm almost certain I've read this story. I'll flip through some of my books and see if I can find it. In the meantime, I think I read it in the last couple of years and if so it should be on my bookshelf tagged as "anthology." You could have a look and see if there's anything on there that rings a bell.
I'm sorry, I've looked and cannot locate the story I'm thinking of. If it helps anyone else, I believe it was somewhere in the last half of the collection, though not the very last story. I don't think it was YA. And I think it was a female author, though I'm not certain on that part. J, if you've read any of the anthologies on my bookshelf, let me know and I'll take a second look if I still have it.
So I don't know for sure if this was in the same short story anthology but I think it was. There was another short story about a man who helps a fairy (modern day) and she gives him the gift of being able to understand animal speech. Then he goes home and it ends up being more of a curse, in a funny way.
I read a story very similar to the second one you describe in the collection Curses, Inc by Vivian Vande Velde. I don't recall the Lancelot story, but I'm not sure I read the whole book. I do remember the title story, which was about a girl who used an online cursing website to get revenge on people who tormented her. Or something like that.
This isn't it, but since you liked that story, you might like the book A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15... Anyway, free bump!
Mod
Yes. But I'm pretty sure now that the Lancelot story was not in the same collection as the fairy/animal one that I was thinking of a couple of comments earlier- I think that one was by Vande Velde. Funny, I can still remember where I was standing in the Barnes and Noble when I read the Lancelot short story... backside of the first row of shelves from the middle- so the author's last name has to be towards the beginning of the alphabet but not the very beginning.
Only other thing I can remember was the man and woman possibly meet in an elevator. And the story was short enough to read while I was standing there, 15 minutes or so.
Mod
Mod
All I can remember about genre is that it was in a book of short stories in the YA or adult section of literature. This was about 20 years ago- 1996 or 97-ish. I was a teenager with little to no money so I'd just go and drool over books and read snippets while trying not to crease the spine. Probably more likely YA since I rarely read adult literature and preferred YA. The story was very clean.One little detail I remember that I don't think I wrote earlier is that the MC meets Guenivere in an elevator. And I think that happens towards the end of the story.
Argh, my response got deleted when I tried to post it...All i can remember is it was probably YA since that's what I liked at the time (and still do). It was probably 1996-97.
The man meets Guenevere on an elevator towards the end of the story.
How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories? From the Kirkus review:
In "Lance and Gwendolyn,'' two knockoffs of Lancelot and Guinevere meet in an elevator and find themselves mutually attracted, although the woman's upcoming marriage stands in their way.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Yes, I think it must be the Carl Reiner sorry story collection. I'll have to check it out from the library to see for sure but I read a sample online and it seems like the style I remember. Thank you! How'd you figure it out? Have you read it before or just better at searching Google than I am?
Mod
J. wrote: "How'd you figure it out? Have you read it before or just better at searching Google than I am?"Just lucky with Google, something like "lancelot guinevere "short story" meet elevator" - I can't find the exact search now, I was on different computer from the one I'm using now.
Mod
Mod
