RE: JCO: RE: Female of the Species

Yes well, there was that cheap shot about cheap thrills ... But since it's
JCO they have to make some jab it seems.

I agree with you regarding the excellence of her writing in the short form.
Even the briefest of her stories is immensely rich and satisfying to me as a
reader. Many remain with me long after they've been read.

There is one story I especially enjoyed and admired -- I believe the title
is The Runner though I don't recall in which volume it was collected. In
this marvelous story a woman is running on a wooded path with her lover from
whom she becomes separated. While running alone she sees on the path up
ahead two men, not running, just standing there. What follows is her swift
transformation from strong, confident woman to helpless victim and it all
takes place in the woman's mind. At the same time she continues to run
toward these strangers seemingly unable to divert her steps or act in any
other way to overt her victimization which she has already resigned herself
to.

I admire several things about this story. First, JCO is able to create so
much character movement while setting the story in the protag's mind with
very little external action.

Second, she bestows on the protag so many thoughts, emotions and responses
that are familiar to, if not every reader, certainly every female reader;
thus creating a kind of Every Woman with whom the reader identifies and for
whom she can hope and worry for her safe outcome.

I'm sorry this post got so long. I just get carried away ...

Kim

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Re: JCO: RE: Female of the Species

Hi, Kim. It was a surprisingly brief review, but then I've read only some of
the stories in various magazines. The "cheap thrills" remark seemed a bit
off to me. As I said to Katie earlier today, the stories are my favorite part
of JCO's work. I think that she works up some of her ideas in various stories
and then gives them a lengthly treatment in her novels -- although many of her
best, most memorable stories, notably Where Are You Going Where Have You
Been, stand alone as unique reading experiences.
Cyrano

In a message dated 1/22/2006 8:51:45 AM Eastern Standard Time,
kstarrett5@comcast.net writes:

<< Randy,

Thanks for posting this link. All in all it's not a bad review though I
can't agree with the reviewer that JCO's short stories don't measure up to
her novels. I first encountered JCO through her short stories and still
devour them whole whenever I come across a new one.

Kim >>
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Re: JCO: Female of the Species

Several weeks ago, the Borders Books and Music website claimed that High

Lonesome:  New and Selected Stories was expected to go on sale on Tuesday,

10 January.  Of course, I found instead The Female of the Species.  Just for

the sake of contrariness, I asked the store's manager if he knew of any reason

for the confusion.  He explained that it was "probably the author's fault...or her

publisher's"  but certainly not Borders's.  Yeah, right.  Of course I'm delighted

with my purchase nevertheless and intend to savor it slowly.  In the meanwhile

the website has been corrected.

;

Randy Souther <tinmachine@earthlink.net> wrote:

NY Times review of The Female of the Species:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/books/review/22frey.html

"Even as you're wishing you could, you can't put this book down."

Randy
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Re: JCO: Re: Black Water

 Thats very interesting Cyrano. Yes I remember that, and now that you have brought it up, it is funny and sad at the same time. It's almost as her beliefs killed her, but she opposed something she felt was really wrong and ended up succumbing to a parallel of that kind of death.

Thank you all for your suggestions on books, they are greatly appreciated, mostly beacause a website that lists her books can not tell me which ones are actually the most liked by readers!! Thanks to all!!!

 

katie

 

JCO: RE: Female of the Species

Randy,

Thanks for posting this link. All in all it's not a bad review though I
can't agree with the reviewer that JCO's short stories don't measure up to
her novels. I first encountered JCO through her short stories and still
devour them whole whenever I come across a new one.

Kim

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jco@usfca.edu [mailto:owner-jco@usfca.edu]On Behalf Of Randy
Souther
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2006 12:21 AM
To: jco@usfca.edu
Subject: JCO: Female of the Species

NY Times review of The Female of the Species:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/books/review/22frey.html

"Even as you're wishing you could, you can't put this book down."

Randy
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Re: JCO: Re: Black Water

Hi, Katie. I'd like to recommend her short story collections: The Wheel of
Love (available thru public libraries), Heat, Will You Always Love Me? and I Am
No One You Know.
Black Water is a novella. When I interviewed JCO about it, we mainly
talked about the issue of capital punishment. I believe her first treatment of
that issue was in the story "Legacy," collected in her first short story book:
"By The North Gate."
There was a fairly detailed discussion of By the North Gate in Tone Cluster
during the late summer of 2004. Anyone interested could probably find it on
the site.
You remember that Kelly was especially opposed to the death sentence.
The cruel irony of Black Water is that she dies in a situation similar to a gas
chamber execution: slow suffocation.
Cyrano

In a message dated 1/20/2006 4:51:46 PM Eastern Standard Time,
BoArDiNgcHiCk421@aol.com writes:

<< hanks for the suggestion. I do do sort of that type of thing. At the end
of
every year we get a reading list which 4-5 books we are required to read
based on our class. There is also a suggested reading list that is attached.

This past summer, I was not required to read any of the books on the
suggested
reading list so I did it by myself. I was happy with my decision because i
ended up reading excellent books like The Color Purple and One Flew Over
the
Cuckoos Nest. For now, I am reading JCOs books to study her in my class.
Are they
any books that anybody recommends that they feel were especailly good? I
have the book What I Lived For as my next book to read, but i would like to
read
more. Thanks!!!!

Katie



>>
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