Status Updates From The Story and Its Writer: A...

The Sun, the Moon, the Stars (Diaz): 1/5
Night Women (Danticat): 2.5/5
The Red Convertible (Erdrich): 2.5/5
Battle Royale (Ellison) : 3/5
A Simple Heart (Flaubert): 3/5
That Evening Sun (Faulkner): 3.5/5
The Revolt of "Mother" (M.E.W. Freeman): 3.5/5
Sorrow Acre (Dinesen): 4/5
Babylon Revisited (F.S. Fitzgerald): 4/5
A Rose for Emily (Faulkner): 4.5/5

not my favorite set...lots of meh stuff compared w/ last set

my fave segment so far featuring many famous authors! yay!

Desiree's Baby (Chopin): 5/5
The Story of an Hour (Chopin): 5/5
A Continuity of Parks (Cortazar): 4.75/5
The Wife of His Youth (Chesnutt): 4.5/5
The Lady with the Little Dog (Chekhov): 4/5
The House on Mango Street (Cisneros): 4/5
The Open Boat (Crane): 4/5
The Blunder (Chekhov): 3.5/5
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (Clemens): 3.5/5

These 10 stories (several by famous novelists) have been some of my favorites...I didn't hate any!

Excellent:
"The Swimmer" by Cheever

Really Good:
"The Bath," "A Small, Good Thing," and "What We Talk About..." by Carver

"Paul's Case" by Cather

"Angel" by Chekhov

Good:
"This Way for the Gas..." by Borowski

"Friendly Skies" by Coraghessan Boyle

"The Guest" by Camus

"The Company of Wolves" by Angela Carter

I really enjoyed "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Bierce - very vivid, featuring that characteristic twist at the end that I love in short stories. Baldwin's story "Sonny's Blues" and Berriault's "Who Is It Can Tell Me Who I Am?" were impactful and made me think about some things more deeply. I really didn't like "Lost in the Funhouse" and "Me and Miss Mandible".

Of the 10 stories I've read so far, I liked "And of Clay Are We Created" by Isabel Allende and "Hands" by Sherwood Anderson; Woody Allen's "The Kugelmass Episode" had a funny ending

I'm recording this in percentage based on the percentage I intend to read. There are a substantial number of authors included which are without interest to me, seemingly included for modernist reasons. Despite this, the collection is great and the commentaries fantastic.

Hiatus for War and Peace

I've gotten involved with this as a distraction because I opened it and it did not lend itself to putting down easily. The authors and stories assembled, the biographical notes on the authors and the essays chosen (written 90% by the authors commenting on works of other authors in the collection - a theory of Ms. Charter's that best commentary comes from the authors themselves) are like an initiation into a world.

What a feast of writing styles! So far, the funniest story has been Wood Allen's 'The Kugelmass Episode,' while the most worthy of study has been Henry James's "The Beast in the Jungle.' The short bios for each author add a welcomed dimension to this book.