When reality is surreal, only fiction can make sense of it.
In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote “The Decameron”: one hundred nested tales told by a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence while waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 million people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fables.
In March of 2020, the editors of The New York Times Magazine created The Decameron Project, an anthology with a simple, time-spanning goal: to gather a collection of stories written as our current pandemic first swept the globe. How might new fiction from some of the finest writers working today help us memorialize and understand the unimaginable? And what could be learned about how this crisis will affect the art of fiction?
These twenty-nine new stories, from authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Edwidge Danticat, and David Mitchell vary widely in texture and tone. Their work will be remembered as a historical tribute to a time and place unlike any other in our lifetimes, and offer perspective and solace to the reader now and in a future where coronavirus is, hopefully, just a memory.
In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron: one hundred nested tales told by a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence while waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 million people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fables.
The Decameron Project is a modern reworking of Boccaccio’s The Decameron, containing 29 stories specially commissioned by The New York Times Magazine. It tells the story of lives lived during a modern plague, the Covid-19 pandemic.
The New York Times Magazine editors created The Decameron Project with a simple, time-spanning goal: to gather a collection of stories written as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. How might new fiction from some of the finest writers help us memorialise and understand the unimaginable? What can be learned about how this crisis will affect the art of fiction?
These 29 new stories, from authors including Margaret Atwood, Andrew O’Hagan, Colm Toibin, Kamila Shamsie, Rachel Kushner and David Mitchell vary widely in texture and tone. Their work will be remembered as a historical tribute to a time and place unlike any other in our lifetimes, and offer perspective and solace to the reader now and in a future where coronavirus is, hopefully, just a memory.
I know that many readers do not want to be reminded about the current pandemic. Many readers prefer to lose themselves in fiction that takes them away from our current situation. When I was told about The Decameron Project, I knew that I wanted to read it. Not least because it contains stories from some of my favourite authors, including Margaret Atwood and Kamila Shamsie, but also because I find it interesting to see other people's perceptions of our current times. Whilst these stories are fiction, each one of them makes reference, in some way to the situation that we all find ourselves in.
Unlike most collections of short stories, there wasn't one of these that I didn't enjoy. This is such an eclectic collection, from such a wide variety of authors. Some are translated from other languages, they take place all over the globe, and in Atwood's case, feature unearthly beings.
Averaging around ten pages each, although some are much shorter, and there are a couple of longer stories, this is a collection that truly celebrates a diversity of writing whilst showing how one event, that unites us all, can be dealt with in so many different ways.
Reading The Decameron Project whilst still in the middle of this ever evolving situation is a strange experience. In years to come, people will read this collection who were not part of it. It will become a part of our history, but for now, it's relevant and a reflection on humanity.
These stories are not filled with negativity or doom, although there's a sense of despair throughout. I smiled and nodded many times. I felt some hope and I felt as though I was part of a community - being able to relate to people in other countries, in different situations. We are all facing the same issues in some way or another.
A collection of stories to savour and to reflect upon. This was an interesting reading experience. My aim is to now put this on the shelf, and then re-read it when we actually get through this.
Table of Contents:
"Preface" by Caitlin Roper
"Introduction" by Rivka Galchen
"Recognition" by Victor LaValle
"A Blue Sky Like This" by Mona Awad
"The Walk" by Kamila Shamsie
"Tales from the LA River" by Colm Toibin
"Clinical Notes" by Liz Moore
"The Team" by Tommy Orange
"The Rock" by Leila Slimani
"Impatient Griselda" by Margaret Atwood
"Under the Magnolia" by Yiyun Li
"Outside" by Etgar Keret
"Keepsakes" by Andrew O'Hagan
"The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase" by Rachel Kushner
"The Morningside" by Tea Obreht
"Screen Time" by Alejandro Zambra
"How We Used to Play" by Dinaw Mengestu
"Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan" by Karen Russell
"If Wishes Was Horses" by David Mitchell
"Systems" by Charles Yu
"The Perfect Travel Buddy" by Paolo Giordano
"An Obliging Robber" by Mia Cuoto
"Sleep" by Uzodinma Iweala
"Prudent Girls" by Rivers Solomon
"That Time at My Brother's Wedding" by Laila Lalami
"A Time of Death, The Death of Time" by Julian Fuks
"The Cellar" by Dina Nayeli
"Origin Story" by Matthew Baker
"To the Wall" by Esi Edugyan
"Barcelona: Open City" by John Wray
"One Thing" by Edwidge Danticat
No comments:
Post a Comment