"A Perfect Day for Bananfish" by J.D Salinger

Richard Ford mentions in his intro to the Granta selection that he was unable to include the following story because of the anal-retentiveness of the Salinger Estate. One wonders if they're still so finicky post-mortem. A brief Google-search confirms this may be the case.

So who knows how long the reading I've made of this story will stay on here until J.D's legal rottweiler (Pam Malpas) decides to drop me a line.

Looking forward to getting some mail from the esteemed Harold Ober Associates Incorporated,  425 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

(Pam, please address all correspondence to theshortstorybookclub AT gmail.com. Cheers.)

[Download a reading of the story]

The Granta Book of the American Short Story, Edited by Richard Ford

As I'm something of a sucker for American short story writers, I thought I'd nail our colours (though not necessarily red, white, and blue) to the mast and suggest we get our club a-rockin' and a-rollin' with this superb selection by Richard Ford.

Oodles and oodles of good stuff to be savoured and talked about. Classics and stories-on-the-verge-of- becoming-classics. It also trounces the Joyce Carol Oates Oxford collection, I would suggest, which I find to be a somewhat overtly well-meaning, and didactic affair.

The Ford selection is however, a big fat collection, and I know that one of the undeclared aims of our group is not to have to feel the ponderous heft of Literature weighing down upon us from month to month as we submit to the pleasures of short fiction. So please feel free to read a couple of pieces only; whatever takes your fancy really.

As opposed to novels, which I would expect to hook me in a chapter or two, I usually don't force myself to read much beyond the second page of a story that's not exciting me. However, saying that, there is the odd tale that has won me over on page three or four. Few and far between though. The whole raison d'etre of the form (God bless it) is to grab you from the offset.

More about the September Meet Up and future books we'll be exploring can be found here.