Normally the stories I offer here are ones that I love and that long ago entered my creative bloodstream and are constantly informing what I do in my own work.
So, when I go to write about them, I’m doing so in a spirit of celebration and advocacy; my goal is to try to convey what I find good about them.
This is, of course, a little circular. I love the story and analyze it in “my” way and – voila! – it is, it turns out, a perfect demonstration of my esthetic ethos.
This week, I was intrigued by the idea of trying something different: reading a story I have never read before, by a writer I’ve often heard about and been urged to read but never had.
And, as I write this, I still haven’t.
I will step away now, to do my first read of “August,” by Bruno Schulz.