In the fall, we like to read in public.  On the veranda of a popular bicyclists’ watering hole, you will see artists tattooed with snakes (Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man), a weary physician’s assistant (Tracy Kidder’s Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People), a disheveled lawyer on the take (John Grishim’s The Firm), a very old congressman (Advise and Consent), and a teacher whose colleague was arrested by ICE (Isabel Allende’s In the Midst of Winter).

I have chosen two remarkable books to read in public this fall: Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever and Other Stories and Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.  You can savor one of Wharton’s short stories in a sitting and muse on the perfection of style and structure.  I am a fan of  “Xingu,” her short story about the “cultured” women of a Lunch Club who are excited about meeting an author. Funnily, it is the member who has not read the book who creates an impression. 

Kiran Desai’s new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year, is a poignant, charming, funny family saga. Kiran writes about two families in India, centering on Sonia and Sunny, two young people who have lived in the U.S. and traveled widely. The two have an affair in India, travel to Italy, adore each other, and yet fail to marry.  Over the space of 670 pages, we are increasingly fascinated by their parents’ choices but we don’t forget Sonia and Sunny. Will they marry? 

Short stories vs. humongous family saga?  Your choice!