I know I said I was going to read slowly and deliberately, but Sweet Land Stories was an extremely fast read. I’m not quite sure how to describe this collection, but it wasn’t at all what I expected. Each of the stories was pretty disturbing and tackled various types of moral ambiguity. What tied them all together was the question of why people go along with things that are not in their best interests or in many cases reprehensible. And why do so many people make excuses for those who do horrible things? My favorite story was “Walter John Harmon,” which was about a religious cult led by a con artist. The members of the cult refused to see the truth and found ways to continue to venerate Walter John Harmon even after his betrayal was clear. This collection was published in 2004, but there were so many parallels to what is going on today. I’ll be thinking about this for a while.
Reading this satisfied two challenge categories: “Sweet or Spicy” and “read a book based solely on the title.” They fit together nicely. It would have also worked for “door on the cover,” but I have other books that will satisfy that.
Now for shelf #11!
I plan to read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe because of the reviews and because it has a door on the cover! I like letting the reading challenges guide me because deciding what to read from this shelf would have been extremely difficult without them. It’s highly likely that I’ll get through all my fiction shelves before I finish the reading challenges. I’ll have to come up with a new plan once my shelf challenge is complete!
Books I’ve read:
- Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
- Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
- The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
- Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
- You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
- Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
- Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald