Short Story Book Club

This is a short story book club, by which we mean not collections of short stories, but rather books that are meaningful but short, usually under 250 pages. We read the book, then come and have a spirited conversation. Book discussions are places to explore ideas, to talk about how we felt about interesting or baffling or somewhere-in-between books. They are testing grounds for thought, and this discussion group is no different.  

We have ordered eight copies of Damned if I Do for the discussion, for book discussion members to take home. There are also copies of the book on mel.org, which can be found here. 

This month we will be reading: 

Damned If I Do, an exceptional new collection of short stories by Percival Everett, author of the highly praised and wickedly funny novel Erasure and James, winner of the 2024 National Book Award. 

A cop, a cowboy, several fly fishermen, and a reluctant romance novelist inhabit these revealing and often hilarious stories. An old man ends up in a high-speed car chase with the cops after stealing the car that blocks the garbage bin at his apartment building. A stranger gets a job at a sandwich shop and fixes everything in sight: a manual mustard dispenser, a mouthful of crooked teeth, thirty-two parking tickets, and a sexual-identity problem.

Percival Everett is a master storyteller who ingeniously addresses issues of race and prejudice by simultaneously satirizing and celebrating the human condition.