Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson

"The tales that Doctor Parcival told George Willard began nowhere and ended nowhere"

From the chapter "The Philosopher" in Winesburg, Ohio.

That quote is a good description of the collection of stories included in this classic novel. Winesburg is a country town in northern Ohio (probably northeast) in the early 1900's. Each chapter is the story of a different resident of the town. It's not their full story, just a vignette that brings them to the current time of the book.

Some characters only appear once, such as Louise Trunnion, Wash Williams, or Tandy Hard. Others reoccur, such as Helen White, Doctor Reefy, or Elizabeth Willard. The character who is the string tying the stories together is George Willard, the young newspaper reporter for the Winesburg Eagle. As different people's stories are told, they think about him in different ways.

This is a melancholy novel yet not the type to make you cry. Most of the older people in Winesburg are full of regrets and longings. Their lives haven't turned out the way they expected. This is shown forcefully through Elizabeth Willard, George's mother. Her mother had died when she was young and her father ignored her. As she grew into adulthood she longed for adventure. Instead, she ended up marrying her father's assistant at the hotel he owned. She never left the home she grew up in. Instead she had a son, then became sickly the rest of her life.

Winesburg, Ohio is the story of a small town that is dying. It had been prosperous, but now the young people have to go to Cleveland or Columbus to get ahead. There are few prospects outside of farming in the area. Yet farmers become merchants. Doctors quit practicing. Men and women take lovers that enervate or disappoint. Men fight their own demons.

This is a slice of life novel with no real beginning, although the end leads to a new beginning for one person in the book. It is a glimpse into people's lives and makes the reader compare their lives to his/her own. It's not a quick read although it is an easy read. Anderson's style of writing is very different from what we see and expect now.

You can check for this classic at your local public library.

Notice: Suggestive dialogue or situations that fit the time it was written

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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