Winesburg, Ohio

by Sherwood Anderson
List(s):"Carp 500"
"Racine Library List"
Category: "Fiction - General"
Pages:247
Year of Publication:1919
Date Read:07/28/1992
Notes:Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town in a collection of loosely-interrelated character sketches. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who stands witness to the dark and despairing dealings of a community of isolated people.
My Rating: 5

Reviews for Winesburg, Ohio

Review - Winesburg, Ohio

What a lovely town. All the women are mousy or loose — or both. The men are shallow. Everyone has a deep, dark secret — an obsession with something done or an unspoken desire that prevents happiness. Nobody has a sense of humor except the crazy man who pushed lumber through town in a wheelbarrow. The religious people are all nuts. Most homes have broken marriages and the ones that don’t have broken marriages have unhappy marriages. Nobody knows what he is looking for in life, and if someone thinks he’s figured it out, he can’t express it coherently and runs off into the night, arms flapping. Sure, in real life there are people like these, but I’d like to think that a few of us have discovered how to get some pleasure out of life and that some of our night-time arm flapping is due to joy.

In the introduction to the edition I read, I discovered that Sherwood Anderson had four wives. If this book reflects his view of life, I don’t wonder. Here’s what he himself said about life in a piece titled An Apology for Crudity. “The road is rough and the times are pitiless. Who, knowing our America and understanding the life in our towns and cities, can close his eyes to the fact that life here is for the most part an ugly affair?” I’m not sure if Anderson was the first author in the “Life Is Hard and Then You Die” school of writing, but he’s certainly a member in good standing.

“So, why,” you may ask, “is this book on the Carp 500, and why should I read it?” Here are four good reasons:
1. It is well written.
2. The description of the town and its characters, told with a series of loosely-intertwined stories, is interesting.
3. It is short. You can read it in less than four hours and be one book closer to 500.
4. It will make you feel a lot better about your own life.
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