50BC06 #7: Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules

50 Book Challenge #7
BOOK REVIEW: Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules
Edited by David Sedaris

This is a compilation of David Sedaris’ favorite short stories by literary greats such as Alice Munro, Flannery O’Connor and Dorothy Parker, just to name a few. With a crowd like this, you can expect stories that will leave you ever so slightly unsettled, such as Tobias Wolff’s "Bullet in the Brain" and Lorrie Moore’s troubling tromp through a pediatric cancer ward in "People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk." The stories seem to gather eccentric value as the book progresses. They are provocative and probably not best read right before bed. But Sedaris has indeed gathered the best of the best, and each of the stories represents an intricate piece of literary art.

Posted here 9/12/08, originally posted 3/2/06.

But there is another reason to buy this book. All the proceeds benefit 826NYC, an afterschool tutoring organization that also does community outreach by way of writing workshops for young people. Literature to help foster literature—it is a great idea and one worthy of support.