Catching a Book Moment Here and There

God only knows when we find time to read at Cafe Drake, between our recently neglected hosting duties here in favor of near-constant condiment production over at The DP Chutney Collective. Still, those long-simmered chutneys sometimes afford us an hour or two of quality book time while stirring vats not dare left unattended (chutneys burn easily!) and our version of multi-tasking has led us to several amazing short story collections this Fall. Especially loved and recommended:

Collected Stories - Tennessee Williams (New Directions/Penguin)

The rare insightful preface (don't see many of those these days) by Gore Vidal whets one's appetite suitably for this delirious and vast range of lesser-known short fiction by America's greatest playwright (sorry, Eddie Albee, you're 1st runner-up in our eyes). Cafe Drake can't help identifying with Williams' cast of lost and damaged characters, many still glimpsing inspiring hope in the face of absurd tragedy. A playful and archly witty element intrudes in stories such as The Killer Chicken and The Closet Queen and The Inventory at Fontana Bella, while masterpieces of the form can be found via Two on a Party, Desire and the BlackMasseur , One Arm and Hard Candy. Truly not a second of Life could ever be considered wasted while consuming these tales.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower ( Macmillan)

We actually read this debut collection of stories last year but needed to return to it in October to whet our creative appetites, always sure to eventually translate to the kitchen in a perfect example of Life imitating/inspiring Art. The final and title selection is simply astonishing, on a level almost never encountered by a young, first-time author. Even better, Wells Tower is a resident of Cafe Drake's neighborhood so we'd love to make dinner for him one of these days!

American Salvage -Bonnie Jo Campbell (Wayne State University Press)

Less quirky than many of her contemporaries in the short fiction arena, Campbell lacks none of their precision at dissecting and transforming the banal details of everyday existence into something far greater than the sum of ordinary parts. Lots of Midwestern methheads and the working poor depicted here, elevated into angels of poetic prose and thus illuminating the inner and outer glory in even the most downtrodden of us all. 

Sourland - Joyce Carol Oates (ecco/HarperCollins)

Cafe Drake used to joke that our reading schedule couldn't even keep up with Oates' publishing schedule, so voluminous is her voracious imagination, meticulously displayed in any number of new books each year. Her very latest, this collection of stories culled from an eclectic array of literary magazines, is only slightly less dark than the usual trademark glimpses in to Hell on Earth but perhaps more resonant for all its jaundiced realism.