More suitable for reading than listening

What did you like best about The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty? What did you like least?

I love Eudora Welty's writing and read this same book several years ago. Since I enjoyed it enormously, I thought it would be a good audible selection at this time, when I am recuperating from a surgery that makes it difficult for me to hold a book. In retrospect, Ms. Welty's stories are more suited to the printed page, where one can linger on the beautiful descriptions of nature and keep track of the enormous number of characters (many of whom have delightfully peculiar names). Still, I listened to the entire book --nearly 40 hours!--and was able to take pleasure in the soothing flow and rhythm of both the writing and the narration.

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8 people found this helpful

It's a rollercoaster ride, Eudora.

What did you like best about The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty? What did you like least?

The collection is exhaustive, covering her entire portfolio. It is purposefully inclusive of her impressive span of writing. That being said, Eudora tends to leave her story endings as wide open as her eyes always were. Short stories with great characters and fantastic depth play across the pages, make you care who they are, what they feel. Then, snap, Eudora changes stories and her characters are left hanging in the air. I suppose even that is the mark of a fantastic story-teller. What's better than a lively character who is unresolved? Well, perhaps a lively character who is resolved. Still, she makes you come back for more.

Would you be willing to try another book from Eudora Welty? Why or why not?

Yes. In fact, I have several volumes of her works in writing.

Would you listen to another book narrated by the narrators?

Some of them. Others were not enjoyable at all in context with a SOUTHERN writer. A southern drawl is completely necessary when reading Eudora Welty aloud...

Do you think The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

She did plenty of that.

Any additional comments?

Would be a great tool for teachers, if teachers are still allowed to teach creative writing.

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9 people found this helpful

brings back many memories of Mississippi

loved each story and did not want them to end wish I had met Eudora Welty

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2 people found this helpful

A Collection of Welty narrators

Eudora Welty is a wonderful writer of timeless literature. This collection is excellent. I have the physical book as well but wanted to revisit the material with other folks narrating. All the narrators were unique and pleasant to the ears; however, some were better than others.

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great stories, uneven readers

I was initially appalled by the arch and phoney accent of the initial narrator reading Welty's preface. Happily most of the readings are better than that, some of them actually quite good. The stories themselves, it it almost needless to say, are varied and splendid.

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11 people found this helpful

Literary and descriptive, but lacking plot

Eudora Welty is recognized as a great Southern writer. Her vivid descriptions of characters and scenes are classic, rich with imagery and simile. However, few of the stories have a discernible plot-- with a few exceptions, such as the Wide Net, a story I particularly enjoyed.

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No story index

Sent this back because the chapters are arbitrary and do not start at story beginnings. I wanted to be able to find stories by their titles but I could not find a table of contents. These are wonderful stories that have been well narrated, but the only way to listen to stories from the beginning one has to listen to the whole book. Eudora Welty would be horrified at this silliness.

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17 people found this helpful

Too Good For Audio

(I've given fewer stars for performance, because some performances here are better than others).
Based on what I've been hearing on this recording, Eudora Welty may be the best American writer of the 20th Century. (For me, for my taste) Hard to tell. So I've got to read her on the page. I've bought this book, now, from Amazon. I can't listen to it anymore because I want to constantly stop, go back, and read stuff over, asking, "WHAT did she just say?!." I can't believe an American writer I haven't read before (I'm old and I've been reading all my life) can be so impossibly good.
Usually I LISTEN to books to escape. Audio is fine for that. But this is escape of a different kind entirely. It's a glimpse into the real world made magical by descriptions that make you catch your breath. I may change my mind after pursuing her onto the page. I don't think so, though.

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60 people found this helpful

A Beautiful Companion

I have read and listened to 'The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty', not all in one go, a few or one at a time, between novels or for a break, in a car on NPR, and on a plane to escape my seat companion, and I am always taken completely from myself into a world of word as music. The common and tragic tales of survivors, living as best they do, in the chaos of being alive.
The narrators are not all meant to be reading these stories to us, sadly, as much as they may love the author, but don't let those few stop you from purchasing this excellent collection. You will be transported!

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12 people found this helpful

TWISTED, SICKO, BORING, DEPRESSING -- DOWNER!

Finally on "Good Reads" I found a few other people who had the courage to admit they really didn't like Welty. I majored in English. Well, not at a very good school. My dad drove a Mercedes but didn't see fit to send me to USC. Anyway, now I'm old and have nothing to prove. I'm here for enjoyment, thank you! I'm spoiled by Diana Gabaldon, Alexandre Dumas, Bryce Courtenay and so many other wonderful story-tellers. I love long novels, but I don't think it's the short story form that's the problem. I enjoy Hemingway and O. Henry very much! No, I think Welty is an intellectual snob, and too many people are reluctant to say they don't get it or find no resonance. Well, I was stationed in Mississippi and found it almost a foreign country compared to California. I really should have known I would not like this. Barbara Rosenblatt must be a wonderful actress because she manages that nauseating down home accent like a native. So ugly! Oh, yeah, it's subtle! So subtle I'm nodding off. No, I don't get it and while I realize "it" may be there somewhere, I'm not willing to use a nutpick to pull "it" out. Not when the man knifed his pregnant wife or the little girl tipped on over into the rain barrel. I don't relish insanity or off-the-wall sicko. Whimsical or surprising would have been nice. The story about Aaron Burr is faintly interesting, also the point of view of the deaf boy who apparently had been taught to read before he lost his folks. All in all, thus far I feel that Welty thinks she can share the entirety of her weird mind with the whole world whether or not we find it uplifting or exciting or funny.

Years ago when "In Cold Blood" appeared in New Yorker magazine, I chanced on it and could not put it down. Yes, that was violent and twisted and horrible -- and also well-written, but based on true events. I really enjoyed that writing. Somehow, this Welty stuff is different for me -- or I'm different now.

I've read and enjoyed all the Sarah Orne Jewett stories as print books. She is subtle and moves very slowly, but with normalcy and oftentimes some humor. Many people would say that's like watching paint dry, but . . . remember the elderly poor trying to refurbish their best bonnets?

The silent space between these stories is way too short! Maddening! No time to stop in between. Hard to tell when Welty has arrived at her too darned subtle endings. One of the male narrators drops words in a terribly sensitive way but if I can't hear the word, I won't get the story! I have no problem with non-Southerners reading this material. In fact, that was better for me. If you enjoy un-beautiful Mississippi "beauty"-shop conversation -- and I don't! -- you'll love Barbara Rosenblatt's reading. All that what-will-people-think small-town stuff and people getting in a snit and . . . I'm bailing. Good-bye!

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8 people found this helpful