THE WHOLE THING EXPLAINED:
September 20, 2010
The Subtly Southern Reader is a work in progress; designed to introduce to you, through an audio file that I have recorded; readings of " short stories" by some masters of the art. So far, you will find over twenty selections on this site within the three tabs you will find at the top of the page.
The first installment of stories can be found on the tab bar above as Eleven Days with Cheever, a collection of eleven of John Cheever's more than sixty stories written between 1947 and 1975 and found in his 1978 Pulitzer Prize winner. Cheever is certainly entertaining; but more importantly, so masterful at getting you to take notice of relationships. In his stories; you may meet someone you know, someone may meet you . You may meet yourself.
The second tab is "A Smatterin"; a collection of selected stories from some old favorites like O'Henry and Truman Capote, with some written by folks we may not know so well. Ten stories in all; each one a gem.
The third tab is one story, the story I was led to find, then share; the one that needs to be heard and the one that validates my spending so much time at this computer! THE DISPLACED PERSON by Flannery O'Connor will rock you. From the collection that made her famous, this is the story of US as we were then; and probably are still so now. The story and the characters seem to remain the same, only the objects and subject matter changes with each generation.
It is not uncommon for me to read ten stories before I find one that meets a simple criteria 1) needs to be completed in thirty minutes (two fifteen minute parts) or less 2) needs to have "character" and/or interesting presentation, 3) cannot be vulgar, gratuitously insulting or contain explicit sexual content; and 4) Since I do this for my own entertainment; I have to like the story.
I sincerely hope you like them too. If they are worthy of sharing ... let your friends know about the site.
Lyndon Ashworth
The Subtly Southern Reader
[email protected]