Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

In the song "Eleanor Rigby" the Beatles asked, "All the lonely people/Where do they all come from?"

Winesburg, Ohio tells their stories. This is a series of very short sketches, unified by the location of the people and a recurring character, George Willard, a young reporter for the town's newspaper. Sensing that George might be the one person who could understand them, lonely people seek him out to try to communicate their hopes and dreams, their longing to be understood. George doesn't fully understand them either, but he listens and he remembers. And that is important.

This is a sad book, because it captures the longing we all feel for a connection, another person who will really understand us. It is written in a straight-forward style, with short, to-the-point sentences. I believe Hemingway learned some lessons about writing from Sherwood Anderson.

This review does little to capture the strange beauty of this book. As I write about it, it sounds boring and depressing, but it is not. Winesburg, Ohio fully deserves its place on the Modern Library Top 100 list (#24).