I can't count the number of times I've read these stories. Some of the greatest writing ever committed to the page is in this book. ( )

I love all these short stories. Especially living at the P.O. which is my favorite. Her stories are not LOL funny like Flannery O'Conner but still great southern fiction. ( )

(#37 in the 2005 Book Challenge)

No doubt, this is a metric ton of short stories. I like Ms. Welty quite a bit, although one thing that was rather alarming is that early on in this mammoth volume, I realized I love, oh, 90% of her early stories, when her writing is more straightforward, and then increasingly smaller percentages of her later stories (with the noted exception of the Maclean series). Which are still good, but not luuurve on my part per say.

Grade: A
Recommended: Very much, although you'd need to be very committed to the idea of Eudora Welty to read this straight through. Upon reflection, this might have been better if I read some, and then went back later to read others. ( )

Don't get me wrong - Welty is a top-notch writer. However, I find that so many of her characters, particularly in her short fiction, rub me the wrong way. While Flannery O'Connor creates similar characters (She calls them "grotesques."), she seems to have a gift for tempering their annoying qualities with a humor that Welty lacks (or that I just don't get). ( )