Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

If I told you this was a collection of free form poetry, you might stop reading immediately. So I won’t; it is so much more intricate than that. Masters introduces us to 244 inhabitants of Spoon River. Each person gets the opportunity to tell their story; the preacher, the widow, the deacon, the shopkeeper, the school teacher, the harlot, the wronged lover. These stories span the spectrum of the human experience. Each character speaks with great candor. And why not? They’re dead. The stories are told through a series of epitaphs.

Masters does not romanticize the lives of Spoon River’s citizens. There are hard accusations, challenges, startling confessions, scandals are exposed and dark humor abounds.   The lives of the characters are woven together in a way familiar to novel readers. After only a few pages the reader will start to draw family and relationship connections. The reader meets a character, then several pages later perhaps, meets the spouse, child, victim or lover of the previous character, giving a new perspective. Each monologue gives a depth to the collective story of Spoon River.

Some of my favorites are Margaret Fuller Slack, Lucinda Matlock, Fiddler Jones, Franklin Jones, Barney Hainsfeather.

(Proud SRC participant)

Comments

[Wendy]

This sounds like a very interesting book!