By: Sherwood Anderson
Published: 1919
Audiobook Read by: George Guidall
My rating: Interesting
I decided to listen to this book for two reasons. First, when I listened to The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Ray gave credit to this book as being part of his inspiration. Second, I live just fifteen minutes from the real town of Winesburg, Ohio in the heart of Amish Country. I was slightly disappointed to discover it was not about our Winesburg but was about a fictitious town that Sherwood just happened to call Winesburg. Oh well. :(
It seems that George Willard is destined to learn the strangest things about the people in his little town. As a journalist for the local newspaper, people seem eager to tell him their stories. We learn all kinds of things about the townsfolk, some of it quite interesting, some of it rather odd or even bizarre! We also learn quite a lot about George himself and get to see snapshots of him as he grows up, matures, and finally becomes a man, ready to face the wide, wide world.
This was kind of an odd book for me. I liked some of the stories but others were kind of out there. The quality of the writing is very good and I followed along quite well but now and then I found myself wondering what the point was! The picture of life in the late 1800s - early 1900s was quite interesting and as always when I listen to a book from this era I found myself wishing to live back then!
I listened to the audiobook read by George Guidall. It was a complete coincidence that he was also the one to do the last book I listened to but I was far from crestfallen! Like I said then, he has become my favorite narrator! He has a wonderful voice and is so expressive that I feel like I'm right there in the story itself!
Overall, this is an interesting book but not one I would rush out to get. If you like little "slice of life" stories, this collection might be of interest.
