John Sayles: The Anarchists’ Convention and Other Stories (New York: Avalon/Nation Books, 1979)

I knew John Sayles as a novelist. A couple of years ago I read his monumental book about Alaska, Moment in the Sun. It is a triumph and a read worthy of the size of the book. Some long novels don’t have a story that is big enough. Sayles left me wanting more. I dissevered his short stories by chance. Sometimes I don’t take the time to follow authors. I have so many books that I want to read that I just let them pass. Somehow I just didn’t check into what Sayles had written. Then one day, fishing for blog topics, I thought, “I wonder if anarchists have meetings, or if that would be too much organization for them.” I googled the topic and up came Sayles collection of short stories. A quick trip to Amazon.com, a couple of clicks and the book was on its way.

Having read his novel, I didn’t realize what a wonderful and delightful sense of humor he has. This book had me laughing and engaged from story to story. It is, simply, delightful.

Sayles is not only capable of the big stories. He’s also got a lot of smaller stories to tell. And they are worth reading!