Winesburg, Ohio

The stories in Winesburg, Ohio, tell of a restless longing for something that the characters can’t quite define, but which may be community or connection. It has an aura of disappointment verging on despair. The town is filled with lonely souls who seem detached from everyone around them, except for young reporter George Willard, who seems to be the last remaining thread connecting the people of Winesburg. What will happen to the town when George Willard leaves?

Anderson seems to capture the beginning of the Midwest’s shift from agricultural economy to manufacturing economy and the waning of its small towns. Everyone with Midwestern roots ought to read this book.

If Winesburg, Ohio had gone on for just another 10 pages, I would have started looking for a razor blade. Oh, this work deserves its place among classics, sure, because you could read and re-read and still have plenty of "grotesque" meat left to chew on. But, good lord, who would want to? A therapist?

I had to force myself to finish the long parade of people nursing old hurts, sabotaging themselves with actions sure to shame them, and often blaming others. Granted, Anderson wrote some amazing, delicate moments of the human condition but I was still much relieved at the last page. I made it through. Alive!

There was one character who made me smile, Joe Welling. He's the tiny volcano of a man in "A Man of Ideas," who quietly works around show more town until suddenly charged by an idea, big or small, an idea he finds so fascinating he erupts with enthusiasm, accosting any hapless soul. Gee, one guy in the whole town who is undamaged by childhood, made no bad life choices, and is not steeped in brooding. Just a half-nutty, likeable guy being true to himself.

Call me well-adjusted, but I wish the town had had half a dozen more Wellings. show less

Esta es la historia de un observador, George Willard, y de sus crónicas sobre algunas de las situaciones que acontecen o acontecieron a su alrededor. Sherwood Anderson era un mago. No hay otra explicación. Es capaz de conmovernos con cualquier mísera historia, apenas importante a simple vista, pero contada con tal apasionamiento que logra hacer grande lo insignificante. Anderson es capaz de ver lo extraordinario en lo cotidiano, de hablarnos de sus semejantes con una precisión y una poesía exquisitas.

Estos cuentos transcurren en el Medio Oeste americano, concretamente en Winesburg, Ohio, durante los primeros años del pasado siglo.

* EL LIBRO DE LO GROTESCO. Nada más empezar la novela, un relato extraño pero maravilloso sobre un show more anciano escritor que desea elevar la altura de su cama para poder observar por su ventana. Como digo, una pequeña maravilla, cuyo significado se va comprendiendo según se van leyendo el resto de cuentos.

* MANOS. Las protagonistas de este cuento son las manos de Wing Biddlebaum. ¡Pobre Wing! Este cuento es una pequeña (o gran) obra maestra.

* PÍLDORAS DE PAPEL. Nunca más veré las manzanas rugosas y arrugadas de la misma manera. Un cuento, apenas una miniatura, conmovedor y bellísimo.

* MADRE. Elizabeth Willard desea lo mejor para su único hijo, ya que no ha podido conseguirlo para ella misma. Un cuento triste y hermoso al mismo tiempo.

* EL FILÓSOFO. El doctor Parcival es un personaje curioso que intenta inculcar a George Willard su particular filosofía de vida a través de sus vivencias. Una buena historia de aventuras.

* NADIE LO SABE. Historia sobre el deseo, contada muy sutilmente.

* DEVOCIÓN. Este cuento está dividido en cuatro partes en las que se nos cuentan las vicisitudes de la familia Bentley, sobre todo del cabeza de familia, Jesse Bentley, obsesionado con ser el elegido de Dios y conseguir cuantas más riquezas mejor. Los otros dos personajes principales de este cuento son Louise, hija de Jesse y mujer sumamente compleja para su época, y David, su hijo y nieto del viejo Jesse, muchacho absorbido por las neurosis de ambos. Es un relato perfecto, en el que ni sobra ni falta nada.

* UN HOMBRE DE IDEAS FIJAS. Otro cuento exquisito en el que prima el humor, y es que Joe Welling es un personaje memorable.

* AVENTURA. Me he sentido muy identificado con este cuento, porque al igual que Alice Hindman, también he sufrido más de una vez el temor a la soledad, a qué será de mí en los años venideros.

* RESPETABILIDAD. Una clásica historia de amor e infidelidad, perfectamente contada.

* EL PENSADOR. De nuevo un personaje, Seth Richmond, en busca de qué y quién ser en la vida. Seth se siente un extraño en su propio pueblo, no logra integrarse. Le gusta la soledad y hablar poco, y esto me gusta.

* TANDY. ¡Ójala encuentre algún día mi propia Tandy!

* LA FUERZA DE DIOS. A simple vista, parece que el reverendo Curtis Hartman es un hombre satisfecho con la vida que lleva. Pero surge un obstáculo, en forma de mujer, que pone en entredicho su fe.

* LA MAESTRA. Este cuento es el complemento del anterior, 'La fuerza de Dios', y un ejemplo de cómo escribir un cuento con los mínimos medios, para obtener un resultado en donde todo encaja como en el mecanismo de un reloj.

* SOLEDAD. Este es un triste cuento de hasta dónde nos puede conducir un exceso de imaginación.

* UN DESPERTAR. De cómo la pasión y el amor, por y de una mujer puede ofuscar la razón.

* "RARO". Elmer Cowley odia ser un bicho raro. Pero no se da cuenta de que es imposible huir de uno mismo, que luchar contra la propia naturaleza es imposible. Cuanto menos raro quieres parecer, más lo eres. ¡Qué bien comprendo a Elmer!

* LA MENTIRA NO DICHA. Un relato precioso sobre las insatisfacciones de la vida, y de las obligaciones a las que se han de ver abocadas las personas en un momento dado de su existencia.

* BEBIDA. Otro maravilloso cuento. Cómo me gustaría vivir en un pueblo como Winesburg, estar cerca de la naturaleza, que cuando quieras alejarte y pensar un rato, estés a un paso del campo. Tom Foster y su abuela son unos personajes muy tiernos de los que habría que aprender.

* MUERTE, es un emotivo relato impregnado de una bella tristeza.

* SOFISTICACIÓN. El despertar a la edad adulta siempre supone un fuerte golpe y un enigma.

* PARTIDA. Y por fin, George Willard se decide.

Tras la lectura de estos cuentos, no me extraña que escritores de la talla de Faulkner, Hemingway o Steibeck, por citar unos pocos, hablasen de Anderson como de una de sus más significativas influencias.

Recomiendo este libro a todos aquellos que amen las palabras y las buenas historias. Así de simple. show less

This novel-y collection of interconnected short stories exploring the inner thoughts and outer actions of the people of turn-of-the-century small town Winesburg, Ohio is just about the most perfect encapsulation of the weird tension between our inner feelings and emotions and the society around us that I've ever read. Each of the stories stands alone, but as a group they make up a much deeper whole which, you know, is a pretty good metaphor for a community, no matter how imperfect. Published in 1919 and taking place just 25 years or so after the Civil War, this is a uniquely Amaerican and Midwest town that is centered around the railroad, berry picking, horses and carriages, and Main Street. The people are farmers, hotel owners, show more milliners, storekeepers, pastors, wives, bankers, and layabouts. More than one of them is distinctly odd on their exterior, and everyone is distinctly odd on their interior, and very few of them have any luck communicating honestly with each other (but when they do: wow!), just like all of us. The explosions of emotion and release of control that happens as interior desires butt against all the rest of life are amazing. Not sure why I hadn't ever read this one, but now that I have, I want to read it again. show less

Jean Arp said, “Art is about a secret, primal meaning slumbering beneath the world of appearances.” Her Sherwood Anderson in his story cycle, possibly the only thing essential from him it seems, reminds me of how early "modern art" came into plays with its focused exploration of dark corners in the human condition. Anderson throws light into those corners with his "grotesques", damaged persons living in the town he modeled on Clyde, OH: a pederast, voyeur, stress-induced streaker, and more in this 1919 short story cycle which reads in a strikingly modern feel, as if it were published today. The George Willard character listening/reporting and even participating in many of the stories even presages gonzo, in a sense.

Amos Oz discussed this book (oddly enough) in a Tale of Love and Darkness, as an almost liberating experience for him. Namely, he mentioned that the banality of the experiences depicted in Sherwood Anderson's book freed him up to describe the places and people of his own somewhat provincial upbringing. I kind of have to disagree with Mister Oz. I enjoyed the book and am now beginning to appreciate its power and hold, even its influence over subsequent generations of writers. But where Oz saw liberation I saw claustrophobia, where he sensed liberation I felt only a desperate loneliness and urge to escape. The dialogue is at times clunky and unimpressive, and the narrative more than once stalls due to unwieldy sentences that just don't show more hold together as they should. But this is a wonderful book and should be read as it seems to crystallize many of the feelings and sentiments of those who have ever felt trapped or isolated, and even more so, a reminder to those same people that they are neither alone in their mental landscapes or isolated in their thoughts. show less

This wasn’t a page-turner for me. In fact, I carried it for years before I really got through it—and that turned out to be part of the point. It asked me to slow down, to sit with stories that didn’t rush to entertain or resolve. There’s a strange quietness to it: lives brushing against one another in a town that feels both intimate and indifferent. The landscape is beautiful, but it doesn’t care. The people ache, but often silently.

The writing is quietly intense—descriptions that creep up on you and leave you weirdly winded. Some stories stayed with me more than others, but the overall atmosphere lingered. It felt more like a slow companionship than a novel, and I was very satisfied to finish it. I'm grateful to the friend show more who gave it to me, even if they don’t remember doing so.

Deeply affecting and quietly dazzling in its unassuming, slightly jarring and direct prose—which is somehow beautiful and cuts right through to the soul in the most simply human way. show less