"World Party" - A Short Story by Rebecca Lee - From Bobcat and other Stories, 2012)

A while back I read and posted on two short by Rebecca Lee.  I really liked both of these stories, I was able to read them online.  I wanted to read more of her works but I could not find any more of her work online.  I hesitate to buy collection and anthologies of short stories as I am kindly given way more collections than can ever read and I keep getting more.  I suppose I could turn the offers of free books down but I like free books to much to do that and any book could be a masterwork.  I do look at every book I am given and I post on what works for me and The Reading Life. 

Recently I found that Rebecca Lee's collection Bobcat and other Stories was marked down from $10.95 to $1.95.  I have learned these mark downs are often short term so I bought the book.  I will be reading and perhaps posting on the stories in the collection I have not yet read.  

Lee writes about educated urban often academically employed people.  Those stories I have so far read center on women going through relationship turmoils and  dealing with issues arising from a divorce. Her wonderful portrayal of the reading habits of the peop,e in her stories, the role of the works they love in their lives is one of my favorite things about her work. 

I loved the opening segment of "World Party", set in a Canadian university, in which the narrator, a female professor of the classics, talks about teaching Ovid.  It for sure made me wanted to read him.  Much of the story is devoted to university politics.  There is often a certain otherworldliness to academics, caught up in sometimes petty seeming issues.  The big issue on the agenda is a protest group threatening a hunger strike over the investment policies of the university. Combined with this is a plot involving World Day at her seven year old son's school. 

I enjoyed this story a lot just like I did her other works. 

Mel u