The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Gerald Grant, the Hannah Hammond Professor of Education and Sociology, Emeritus at Syracuse University and author, most recently, of Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh.His entry begins:
Tobias Wolff's collection Our Story Begins, just out in paper, is the book I can't put down. Wolff deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon him. He really is the American Chekhov, only funnier. Take "Her Dog," for instance, in which a widower reluctantly walks his late wife Grace's dog who constantly berates him:Read an excerpt from Hope and Despair in the American City, and learn more about the book at the Harvard University Press website.
"And when they kicked me off the beach, remember that? No way you were going to get stuck back here. No, Grace had to walk me inthe swamp while you walked along the ocean. I hope you enjoyed it...
"You ignored her. She would call your name and you would go on reading your paper, or watching TV, and pretend you hadn't heard. Did she ever have to call my name twice? No! Once and I'd be there, looking up at her, ready for anything. Did I ever want another mistress?
"... [No! But] you did. You looked at them in the park, on the beach, in other cars as we drove around."[read on]
Writers Read: Gerald Grant.
--Marshal Zeringue
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