30 Books in 30 Beach Days Day 14: "Winesburg, Ohio"
Though I now live in a city (hi, Boston), I am at heart a lover of the small town. So much so, in fact, that I wrote my college thesis on modern fiction in American small towns (hi, Gilead). In doing research for that thesis, I stumbled upon the classic collection of stories all set in one quintessentially American town: Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson.
Neither quite a novel nor just a collection of loosely intertwined stories, Winesburg, Ohio is a short story cycle that features the same characters, voice, tone, and, of course, setting in the titular town in Ohio, modeled after Sherwood’s childhood home.
The most prominent character in the stories is George Willard, and the reader follows along as he grows up alongside his townsmen, some of whom will stay there forever, adding to the compost of Winesburg’s life cycle, and some of whom will, like George, eventually move on. It’s an interesting vehicle for a coming of age story, but it’s one that paints the fullest possible portrait of George’s life and his role in this small, insular society.
Something interesting about Winesburg, Ohio is the way it exposes its characters senses of loneliness, even as they coexist in an almost claustrophobically small cross-section of land. The stories are as much about characters coming to understand one another and forge connections with each other as they are about characters coming to know themselves.
Rating: 4/5
