MetaChat - "The Harvest," by Amy Hempel.

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

08 March 2007

"The Harvest," by Amy Hempel. Why did I not know about her until this week...→[More:]And why did it take a stumbled-across years-old article by overrated no-talent hack Chuck Palahniuk for me to learn about her?

Was I just not paying attention at some point?

post by: dersins at: 20:12 | 12 comments

Maybe it's just me, but "The Harvest" is the most overwritten thing I've read in quite a while.

posted by paulsc 08 March | 20:56

Really paulsc? I liked it a lot.

Thanks for the story dersins. I haven't heard of Hempel either.

posted by LoriFLA 08 March | 21:02

She's a genius. Read eveything.

posted by rainbaby 08 March | 21:06

Also like Chuck.

posted by rainbaby 08 March | 21:07

Palahniuk is okay, but this woman is wonderful! I'm definitely going to check out her stuff.

dersins, have you read any Lorrie Moore?

posted by Specklet 08 March | 21:49

And there you go again, paulsc. You just can't help making a deflating comment in every post you read...

posted by Specklet 08 March | 21:57

Why did I not know about her until this week...

because you spend too much time on the Internet and not enough at your local independent bookstore where the nice people working there would have advised you to check out Hempel's outstanding work?

having said that, Palahniuk is not that bad, not his older stuff at least. and, unlike other hacks, he takes writing seriously, good for him.

posted by matteo 08 March | 22:27

I really liked this, dersins. Thanks for posting it. I also liked this of hers (link found at the wiki article).

posted by deborah 08 March | 22:51

Maybe it's just me, but "The Harvest" is the most overwritten thing I've read in quite a while.

It's just you. It's the fact that it's underwritten that makes it so fucking good.

dersins, have you read any Lorrie Moore?

I haven't. Where should I start?

posted by dersins 09 March | 01:47

She's a genius. Read eveything.

Yeah, I bought her collected stories today (even though it's still in hardcover and I haven't had a job since September)...

because you spend too much time on the Internet and not enough at your local independent bookstore

...at Powell's the single best independent bookstore in the English speaking world, where I spend way too much of both my time and my money.

posted by dersins 09 March | 01:58

Lorrie Moore: read Anagrams. And Birds of America. Beautiful beautiful writing.

And I walk past Powell's two times a day and it takes ALL of my will power to not give them my paycheck...

posted by Specklet 09 March | 04:39

Burroughs is a Hempel fan, too. Don't know what that has to do with the Chuck factor, but I find it possibly related. I do say read everything, because she is not a prolific writer - the collected stories out this year is a slim volume. And yes, "underwritten" would be the way to describle her stuff.

I will put Lorrie Moore on my list, never heard of her.

posted by rainbaby 09 March | 06:55

← OMG Spud Bunny! || per photo fried-ay suggestions, how about: →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN