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A review by poisonenvy
Prose for Discussion by E.W. Buxton
2.5
Normally with short story collections, I like to write reviews for each individual story contained, and then I rate the book based in the average rating of each story. Since this book contains 81 short stories, I decided to forgo that habit (and honestly, the book probably would've been rated lower if I hadn't).
This, I understand, was some sort of English textbook in the 60s, probably for high school students. Which made me extra distressed when I'd come across stories that were very blatantly sexist (the entire point of the stories were about how inferior women were) and many that were likewise racist (in that 60s "look how progressive we white writers are while we think of any excuse to use racial slurs" kind of way).
Many of the stories were excerts from longer novels/writings, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. There was far more non-fiction than I was expecting. Many of the stories/non-fiction pieces were just flat out boring.
But there were some stories that were actually pretty good, both onces that I've already heard of/read, and ones that were brand new to me. And even more stories that were fine. So I don't feel like these last 2.5 months at all!
This, I understand, was some sort of English textbook in the 60s, probably for high school students. Which made me extra distressed when I'd come across stories that were very blatantly sexist (the entire point of the stories were about how inferior women were) and many that were likewise racist (in that 60s "look how progressive we white writers are while we think of any excuse to use racial slurs" kind of way).
Many of the stories were excerts from longer novels/writings, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. There was far more non-fiction than I was expecting. Many of the stories/non-fiction pieces were just flat out boring.
But there were some stories that were actually pretty good, both onces that I've already heard of/read, and ones that were brand new to me. And even more stories that were fine. So I don't feel like these last 2.5 months at all!