GRACE PALEY--American Authors Challenge February 2020

Grace Paley was born in 1922, the child of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. She grew up in a multi-lingual family, the youngest of 3 children. Although she briefly attended both Hunter College and The New School, she did not complete a degree. Her literary reputation is based primarily on her production of short fiction, including her Collected Stories, which was a finalist for both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award. Most of her stories feature Faith, a character referred to by critics as her alter-ego. She is noted for her realistic dialog, which contains speech patterns reminiscent of the Yiddish community in which she grew up, and her turns of phrase can be hilariously unforgettable. She also published several collections of poetry, which show the influence of W. H. Auden, with whom she studied at The New School.

Paley was a life-long activist, protesting the VietNam war, nuclear proliferation, and many forms of social injustice, even demonstrating against her state representative’s support of the Iraq “surge” just months before her death from breast cancer at age 84. She was arrested on the White House lawn in 1978, for participating in a protest against nuclear testing; it was not her first time being jailed for civil disobedience. She referred to herself as a “combative pacifist”.

A documentary entitled “Grace Paley: Collected Shorts” was produced in 2010. The trailer, which begins with Grace being hauled off by police, can be viewed here. Unfortunately, the entire documentary seems only to be available for purchase. Amazon has it, if you are so inclined.

A New Yorker Magazine article published in 2017 gives a much fuller account of her work and her political activism. You can read it here in full. The author said of Paley “No one was more grimly adamant that the world was in mortal peril, or had more fun trying to save it from itself. "

Another New Yorker article earlier that same year (the tenth anniversary of her death) called her "The Saint of Seeing".

Here’s an example of her poetry….and her way of seeing.

Suddenly, there’s Poughkeepsie

what a hard time
the Hudson River has had
trying to get to the sea
it seemed easy enough to
rise out of Tear of
the Cloud and tumble
and run in little skips
and jumps draining
a swamp here and
there acquiring
streams and other smaller
rivers with similar
longings for the wide
imagined water

suddenly
there’s Poughkeepsie
except for its spelling
an ordinary town but
the great heaving
ocean sixty miles away is
determined to reach
that town every day
and twice a day in fact
drowning the Hudson River
in salt and mud
it is the moon’s tidal
power over all the waters
of this earth at war with
gravity the Hudson
perseveres moving down
down dignified
slower look it has
become our Lordly Hudson
hardly flowing
and we are
now in a poem by the poet
Paul Goodman be quiet heart
home home
then the sea

Published in the print edition of the December 24, 2007, issue of The New Yorker Magazine

>1 laytonwoman3rd: - I like the poem. I grew up near Poughkeepsie :)

I have one Paley on my shelves - it's a collection of stories called The Little Disturbances of Man - so that's what I hope to fit in this month.

>2 katiekrug: We're rather fond of Poughkeepsie and the Hudson Valley in general.

>3 laytonwoman3rd: - Me too! I grew up in Dutchess County, of which Po-town is the county seat. My hometown was on the other side of the county, on the Connecticut border.

Have you read any Paley before, Linda?

I have not read Paley, other than a couple excerpts featured in articles I read for the introductory post. I do have both her Collected Stories, and Begin Again, a collection of her poetry. She first came to my attention when I was reading Ann Patchett's collection of essays, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. I immediately went out and bought the Paley short story anthology, but haven't yet cracked the cover.

>5 laytonwoman3rd: - Thanks for the reminder that I have that Patchett essay collection and really need to get to it!

Good choice, Linda, especially since I was not familiar with her at all. I like the poem too and have requested one of her volumes. I like Katie's suggestion of The Little Disturbances of Man, but it does not come up in my library system, so I requested Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, which my library does have. Since I adore short fiction and poetry, she should be a good fit.

I read Little Disturbances of Man and will add review later.

I'm hoping to read one of her poetry volumes.

My library has A Grace Paley Reader and Leaning Forward, so I just went ahead and asked for both. :) I liked the poem you posted, so I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Found my copy of Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, so hope to get to this short story collection this month.

I read Fidelity: Poems. It seemed mediocre to me.

Just stopping in to say that I've started Begin Again: Collected Poems and am just blown away by her poems. Big difference from your experience, thornton. And to think that I'd probably never have given Paley a try without the AAC! Thanks!

Karen O.

>13 klobrien2: I wonder if it's because the collection I read was published when she was an octogenarian?

>13 klobrien2: That's the collection I have, Karen. I haven't dipped into it yet, because I've been reading some of her short stories, sporadically, and haven't had a lot of brain cells to spare the last couple weeks. But I hope for some calmer days to turn my attention to the poems.

>12 thornton37814:, >14 thornton37814: We can't love everything, and poetry is so subjective. Sometimes just one out of an entire collection will speak to me, and whenever I give up I wonder if it was the next one that was going to work...

>12 thornton37814: >15 laytonwoman3rd: thornton, it could be that the poems are from completely different times of life. Begin Again: Collected Poems was published in 2000, and is an assemblage of previously published poems, and new work.

But laytonwoman3rd is right too, I think. Reading poetry is different from reading anything else. There are two reviews of Begin Again on LT; the first was that the collection was a disappointment and gave it 2 stars; the second was a rave and gave it 5 stars! I am leaning towards the 5-star side of things myself right now.

Lovely discussion!

Karen O.

>16 klobrien2: I guess what speaks to one person doesn't speak to someone else. I've increased my poetry reading over the last few years and enjoyed several collections by different persons. Paley's was not a hit, but then I didn't really like Sharon Olds' collection that is supposed to be excellent either--but I think Olds was one of those that just wasn't for me topically. I didn't get the sense topic was the issue for me with Paley. It was clearly something stylistic. I've enjoyed all of Mary Oliver's collections I've read. I enjoy several others regularly too.

"Seventeen stories written over the past fifteen years reveal the author's vision of human love and tragedy."

^I have never read Grace Paley and barely even knew who she was until she was selected for the AAC, for February. I did try one of her poetry collections, "Fidelity", only last week and just couldn't get into it, and gave up after 30 pages. I hope she delivers on Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, a story collection and a format I adore. I will start it this afternoon.

DNF: Sadly, I could not get into this one either. I did read 40 pages, with nearly 4 stories completed, but it just wasn't working. A very, rare AAC misfire. Bummer! I still LOVE that cover though!

Grace isn't ringing many bells, is she? I say, if you read 3 or 4 stories, you've met the challenge. Nobody says you have to read a whole collection... I've been finding her short fiction amusing...not earth-shattering. I'm going to go sit down with her poetry now, and see what I think of that.

>18 msf59: I'm with you, Mark-- I didn't get very far in Enormous Changes at the Last Minute either. I read 4 stories and gave up in the middle of the fifth. Seemed like a lot of anger; I can take a little of that, but after awhile I've got to move on and find a little kindness and compassion.

One quote sums it up for me. In one of the stories, Faith's father is describing a neighbor: "That woman has a whole bag of spitballs for the world." And that's how I felt about so many of the lines in the stories: just a series of spitballs, one after the other.

ETA: But I do agree that your cover is awesome; mine was very mundane.

>20 kac522: I'm thinking she may be the least enjoyed yet in this challenge.

Okay, I guess I'm a contrarian voice here :). I haven't read an immense amount of poetry, although I love Mary Oliver >17 thornton37814:. I really enjoyed Begin Again: Collected Poems, poems spanning 1985-2000. Themes of activism, love, family, history, aging ... I liked the not knowing what to expect with each new poem. Some of them fell flat for me, but I was often startled by the words, by the topics, by a sense of recognition. Here's one for you, one of the last in the book:

"Hand-Me-Downs"

My love rests on the couch
in the sweater and bones of old age

I have stopped reading to look at him I take
his hand I am shawled in my own somewhat
wrinkled still serviceable skin

No one knows what to do with these
hand-me-downs love them I suppose

weren't they worn in and out of
dignity by our mothers and
fathers even our children in
the grip of merciless genes will
wear these garments

may their old lovers greet and
touch them then in the bare light
of that last beauty

The Little Disturbances of Man
starts off strong with the gentle humor of "Goodbye and Good Luck,"
which I immediately read again twice.

Many more women main characters continue on, happy and assertive and unexpectedly funny
as in "The Contest" with "Jews in the News."

The title story turned out to be too predictable - others were simply sad and boring.

The sweetly titled "An Irrevocable Diameter" was unfortunately shallow and followed by more
odd and boring stories, ending with an idiosyncratic and scattered one featuring horrifying animal abuse.

>22 klobrien2:, >23 m.belljackson: My reactions to the short stories and to the poetry is much the same as yours. Some of the poems are just marvelous, some of the vignettes in the stories made me laugh or chuckle, but a lot of the selections in both collections were just duds. Of course, this isn't an unusual response from me to anthologies of short works. Very few poets strike fire with me every time, and short fiction is not my favorite form. I'm glad to be able to say I sort of know what Grace Paley is all about now, but I'm probably not going to read her ever again.

I have just got to share this with you: NYTimes Sunday paper carries a column called, "By the Books," which features an interview with an author. One of the questions that always appears is, "You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?"

Our girl Grace Paley made the list two weeks in a row!

Last week (2/9), Gish Jen said that she would invite "William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy and, to keep them on their toes, Grace Paley."

This week (2/16), Cheryl Strayed said that she would invite "Alice Munro, Audre Lorde, Grace Paley. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it."

The reiteration was kind of eerie, but made me very happy.

Karen O.

>25 klobrien2: That's remarkable, Karen! Thanks for sharing. I used to love that column, but we don't get the Sunday Times anymore.

Well, here's hoping David McCullough will be more appealing to more people. His thread is open for business.

>22 klobrien2: I'll chime in as someone who is enjoying Begin Again. I dip in and out and have found some gems as well as a few that didn't hit the mark. I like her slice of life poems with their sense of love for her place and the people in her world.

>22 klobrien2:, >28 witchyrichy: Is it that Paley only appeals to people named Karen?? I'm glad you both enjoyed her poetry. I liked a few of them well enough myself.

>29 laytonwoman3rd: Maybe it's just that there are a few "Karen"s here at LT? I'm so glad to hear some good words about Paley--she was new to me, but I liked most of what I read.

Karen O.

Has anyone read both novels and poems?

Maybe the poems are better.

>31 m.belljackson: I would refer you to >24 laytonwoman3rd: and >18 msf59:. As far as I know, Paley did not write any novels....short fiction only.

>31 m.belljackson: The poems were dreadful as far as I was concerned.

>32 laytonwoman3rd:

Okay, short stories - I thought the book I read was one of her short story collections and that she also had novels,
judging by all the books piled up next to her!

>31 m.belljackson: I dipped into both poetry and short fiction. I was a little entertained by her short fiction, but the poetry didn't really grab me.