A Valentine for Ryan by Cole Parker

[Rutabaga]

This piece also touched me.  It is another great example of a short-form piece where no words go to waste.  Many things are just suggested; there is an element of the first chapter of Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury."

 

R

[Cole Parker]

Ah, you've mentioned a book I never could read.  What was the first chapter, about 250 pages long, and rambling and not making much sense?  I think it takes someone with more patience than I have to read that.  Funny, because much of Faulkner's writing I'm very fond of.  Just not this one.

C

[Rutabaga]

The first chapter, we eventually learn, is from the point of view of Benjy, and the rambling nature is explained by his disability.  

R

 

[Cole Parker]

Yeah, but it didn't make it any easier to read!  I read for pleasure, and wasn't enjoying that at all.

C

[colinian]

On 3/4/2018 at 11:43 AM, Cole Parker said:

Yeah, but it didn't make it any easier to read!  I read for pleasure, and wasn't enjoying that at all.

C

Cole, a book that has (a tenuous) relationship to Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" is Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson's "The Sound & the Furry". It's easy to read, and it's funny science fiction with an important fantasy element. You can search for it on Amazon by searching books for "the sound & the furry by poul anderson" and look at the dust jacket illustration then at the price (it's only available as a hardbound book).

I have a mint copy that my granddad gave me for my 12th birthday.

Colin 

[Cole Parker]

Poul Anderson was a sci-fi writer way, way, way back when I was a teen.  Asimov, Bradbury, Brown—I loved Fredric Brown—Clark, Heinlein, guys like that.  I haven't heard or seen that name in years.

C