Ethan Frome

Last week, at the public library, on the free-table, I saw a copy of Ethan Frome.  Being that I've never read it, I picked it up and brought it home.  Last night, I started to read it.

It's really quite good and not as hard to follow as I was dreading.  I've read some awfully heavy things this summer, Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" and "The Name of the Rose" kept me busy through most of June.  I had to look up all sorts of things for Pendulum and Wikipedia became my good friend (Wiki to friends, that is).

Then I read some Amanda Cross which is a pen-name for Carolyn Gold Hieilbrun.  She wrote non-fiction under her own name.  She used the pen-name to protect her status in academia.  She was a very rich writer of the English language and sometimes plowing through her writing style was a challenge for me.

So next to those two authors, Edith Wharton is proving to be a real treat.  Her writing style thus far has been a refreshing breeze.  I may borrow some of her other books from the library.

Or I may try Eudora Welty.  She went to college in Columbus, the next town over to the east.  In fact, there are some talks ongoing, regarding changing Mississippi University for Women to something including Welty and excluding "women" in the name.  This is mostly due to the fact that men have been being admitted to the institution since the 70's.

Or perhaps I ought to try Thomas Lanier Williams III (Tennessee Williams).  His birth-place is Columbus.  The home is now the site of the welcome center.

Or ought I to give my attention to William Faulkner?  After all, he is a nobel prize winner.  I've visited his home in Oxford, just a few miles from my guy's place.  Faulkner was born in New Albany, just half an hour or so from Oxford, home of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).  He died in Byhalia, a small town southeast of Memphis, northwest of Oxford.

Or maybe you can recommend some good reads...?