I read Carson McCullers for the very first time in 2005, I was amazed by her talent, she wrote a beautiful book, The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, and she was young when she published it. Unfortunately her works only span ten years.
I've always associate the reading experience with my first Europe trip. I brought the book with me, and when our bag was soaked after heavy rain, the pages of the book were wet. I remembered sitting in the pantry of the camp-site and try to dry our clothes and the book.
It was in the middle of the night, the weather was so cold, it was our first day in Vienna. The Pantry was "deserted" and nobody there except me and my two other travel pal, we were busy drying our clothes, I can still hear the sound of the drier spinning...
I finished the book in Prague and my mind was blown away...
Since then, I learned more about Southern Gothic genre, writers who wrote weird story with profuse of oral and visual language. I found William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Ann Porter, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, etc. And began to read their work, although slowly.
According to Wikipedia's explanation: One of the most notable features of the Southern Gothic is "the grotesque" — this includes situations, places, or stock characters that often possess some cringe-inducing qualities, typically racial bigotry and egotistical self-righteousness — but enough good traits that readers find themselves interested nevertheless. While often disturbing, Southern Gothic authors commonly use deeply flawed, grotesque characters for greater narrative range and more opportunities to highlight unpleasant aspects of Southern culture, without being too literal or appearing to be overly moralistic.
English is not my first language, I studied in Chinese school when I was a kid, therefore it's quite difficult for me to read book in English, but I manage to finish The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, it gave me some kind of confidence to read English literature. The experience also opened a gate for me, it was as if, I had learn the correct spell and speak "Open sesame" loud and found myself stood in front of a treasure cave.
That is why I choose some of the Sounthern Gothic writer's short story to be part of my 2010 reading challenge. I read a book called February House three years ago, it tells the story of Carson McCullers, W.H.Auden, etc. they rent a house and live together, it a sort of literary community project. Among some of the people who appeared in the their community life are Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles.
I read a few Paul Bowles' short story a few years ago, and found it quite exotic and tragic in a way. I'm currently reading Jane Bowles' Collected Works, and intrigued by her writing, will write more about it after I finish the book.
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