The Egg, And Other Stories

"The Egg, and Other Stories," which was published two years after the innovative, influential 1919 masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio, solidified Sherwood Anderson's reputation as a major American writer. Despite their narrative simplicity (similar in style to the work of Hemingway, who was highly influenced by Anderson's technique), "The Egg, and Other Stories" explores intriguing psychological depths, redolent with personal epiphanies, erotic undercurrents, and sudden eruptions of passion among seemingly repressed, inarticulate Midwesterners. Anderson, who was one of Hemingway and Faulkner's mentors, will surprise you if you haven't read Anderson before. His delicate use of pathos and delicious sense of humor feel so contemporary. "The Egg" seems to capture the American entrepreneurial spirit and its often discouraging results with an especially humorous irony. Faulkner was right--short stories require more of a writer, as every word must forward the author's intent, and Anderson's success in "The Egg, and Other Stories" proves that, like Hemingway, he may have been a better short story writer than novelist.