Book
Around this time of the year, it’s easy to suffer from sugar shock. Chocolate in heart shaped boxes crowd window displays, Hallmark cards beckon, and Meg Ryan’s greatest hits seem to take over my television. I’m not saying down with romance; in fact, I love romance, I just tend to like mine with a grain of salt. Hear me out. Salt, in food terms, serves to intensify flavors. It brings out all the nuances and makes you appreciate the food more. Ok before this thought gets out from under me, I’d like to address a collection of love stories written for those who like their romance with a little salt. My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekov to Munro is a collection of 27 short stories edited by Jeffrey Eugenides. I think it can best be described in the editor’s own words:
When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it. But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full possession. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births, feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name… It is perhaps only in reading a love story (or in writing one) that we can simultaneously partake of the ecstasy and agony of being in love without paying a crippling emotion price.
Included in this anthology are works by Joyce, Faulkner, Kundera, Chekhov and many others. It is the literary equivalent of dark chocolate or straight espresso—bittersweet and satisfyingly good. But for those that like their romance sweet and their chocolate sweeter, you can feel good about purchasing this collection because all proceeds go directly to fund nationwide free youth writing programs offered by 826 Chicago.
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