“A Favorite of the Gods” By Sybille Bedford
Sybille Bedford wrote two novels that are considered twentieth century classics, “A Legacy: A Novel”, written in 1959, and “Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education”, written in 1989. I read these novels several years ago and was duly impressed. She is one of those writers who puts herself in every sentence, can’t write a dull sentence. She passed away in 2006. After reading these two novels which are pretty much universally acclaimed, I wanted to read more Sybille Bedford, so I read “A Compass Error”, which I had heard nothing about. That novel, for me, was just as good as her two classics. By this time, Sybille Bedford had gone to nearly the top of my list of novelists, and I had a desire to read more of her work. So I had a chance to read “A Favorite of the Gods”, a novel written in 1963.
This novel was a disappointment to me. I suppose every writer has at least one book that isn’t up to their usual standard. I was used to being charmed by her words, but for some reason, her assumptions here grated on me. In all of her novels, people travel from country to country in Europe from mansion to villa to castle, along with their large coterie of servants. Even though my circumstances have been pretty much the opposite of these, having always to concern myself with earning a living, Bedford’s charm was more than enough to bridge our differences. But here the story wasn’t strong enough, so all these servants and villas grated on me.
Should you read Sybille Bedford? Absolutely! Any of the first three novels mentioned above are marvelous, three of the best novels the late twentieth century has to offer. Save “A Favorite of the Gods” until you’ve read the rest of her work. She is also quite famous for her travel writing.

Ten by Maugham by W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham was a natural born storyteller. There is nothing flashy about his technique, just a straightforward telling of what happened. Frequently he put himself in the stories as a friend of the family, an outsider, who has traveled everywhere and is observant and detached.
Unlike many literary bloggers, I enjoy reading story collections. I like the variety, the relatively short time it takes to read the story. Frequently I’ll read two story collections at a time, playing one writer off another. And good luck to any novelist trying to construct an entire novel, if they cannot construct a story.
Probably Maugham’s most famous story is “Rain”, the story of Sadie Thompson, which was made into a famous movie starring Joan Crawford. The stories in this collection vary widely in subject matter. One story is about couple living in Malaysia where the husband casually shoots his wife’s lover, leaving her his hostage in their jungle home. Another story is about an English mother who lures her son away from his wife and back to her home by using his old love of kites. One can never predict what the next Maugham story will be about.
Perhaps I’m showing my age by admiring Maugham as a story writer. Maugham must be way out of fashion by this time. But good story writing is eternal. The Canterbury Tales are a story collection. Is one out of fashion for admiring them?

Usually, I won’t start a book unless I’ve seen several positive reviews of the book.  But this one I stumbled on to, reading the back cover.   Also given the strong tradition of Russian literature and all the strong Russian novels and stories from Pushkin to Gogol to Tolstoy I’ve read, I’m always on the lookout for new Russian writers.   Ludmila Ulitskaya was the first recipient of the Russian Booker prize in the mid-1990s.

Still, I approached this book with some trepidation, being completely unfamiliar with the author.  I decided to read one story and then choose whether or not to continue.  I read “The Queen of Spades” a medium length story, first.  This was such a delightful story I decided to read the rest of the book.  This story has all the ingredients that make her stories so much fun to read.  All of the stories have several strong female characters, usually within the context of a family.  Thus you might have a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter, all strong-willed and stubborn.  Ulitskaya puts a lot of irony and humor in her stories.  She uses the “F” word often, but only where it is proper and appropriate, ie when women are talking to each other.  The men are off somewhere either getting drunk or killing each other in wars.

Also Ulitskaya puts a lot of literary references in her stories.  I believe “The Queen of Spades” is also a Pushkin story.    There are references to Bunin and Solzhenitzyn and Nabokov also.  Especially because so little great literature came out of the Soviet Union during the Communist era, Ulitskaya takes a dim view of the Soviet Communist years.  Also from her stories you get the idea that Ulitskaya is a proud unique individual who wouldn’t want to get ground down by an all-pervasive bureaucracy

All of the stories in this book are fun to read.  The title novella, “Sonechka”, is the Russian endearment for Sonya.    It is about a girl who loves reading, gets involved with a man in about as romantic a setting as possible, has a family.  Circumstances cause her to return to reading for her sustenance.  She has a long happy life.

To sum up what I see as the theme of this book, it would be that women with the right humorous slant of mind can have a happy fulfilling life in what seem miserable difficult circumstances.   But it helps to have friends and family and other interests.

Looking for an audio CD book for my commute to work, I saw many new and recent best sellers, of no interest to me whatsoever.  Then I spotted “Ten by Maugham”  – ten short stories by W. Somerset Maugham.  I have read enough Maugham to know that I have found a gem.

Do Not Deny Me, stories, by Jean Thompson

Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, stories, by Maile Meloy

Novels I always read one at a time, but I will frequently read two or three short story collections at a time.  I like to alternate between writers while reading story collections.  This has made for some strange juxtapositions over the years, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Joyce Carol Oates, Nicola Barker and John Updike, Theodore Dreiser and Lorrie Moore.

My latest juxtaposition is not so strange.  It is of two living United States woman writers, Jean Thompson and Maile Meloy.

I’ve been reading Jean Thompson for about five years now, and she is one of those few authors whom I actively try to keep up with all her books. She is from Illinois. On the back cover of this book, they say, “Jean Thompson has been called the United States’ Alice Munro.”  This is probably over-stating the case for Thompson, but I do find her stories very entertaining and thought provoking.    .

Her technique is to get deep inside the head of the main character in each of the stories so that for the time of the story the reader is living the life of that person.  For her, writing is an act of complete empathy.

Maile Meloy is a young rising star of the United States literary world.  This is my first acquaintance with her work.  As a side story, her brother Colin Meloy is the leader of an odd, interesting rock band called the Decemberists, who have appeared on the Stephen Colbert show several times.  I listened to one of their albums where Colin sang seriously and joyously in the character of some sort of duck.

I would classify Maile Meloy as a writer as a hard-edged realist, no families of ducks.  Her stories tend to be shorter than those of Jean Thompson, more omniscient.  She accomplishes a lot in a short number of pages.

I was amazed at the range of stories which both of these writers includes in their collections.  No two stories were similar.

Which collection is the better?  I’m going to wimp out on that question.    This is another strong book from Jean Thompson, and the Maile Meloy book was a revelation.  Maile Meloy is now on my list of must-read authors.