S-Town, the new podcast produced by the creators of Serial and This American Life, is being hailed a blockbuster and has had record downloads. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? In my humble opinion: YES! Its exploration of the troubled, but brilliant mind of John B. McLemore against the backdrop and characters of Woodstock, Alabama was absolutely riveting.
I finished listening to S-Town this past Saturday and was going through some pretty serious withdrawal. What could fill the John B. void? The answer: the short stories mentioned in the podcast!
A person’s reading choices can be very insightful windows into the psyche. And after reading short stories John B. gave S-Town host, Brian Reed, to read (as well as couple others mentioned in the podcast), I feel I have an even better understanding of how he viewed the world.
For those of you who want to prolong the S-Town experience, I highly recommend giving the stories a try. All are available for free online, so for your reading pleasure, I’ve included links to them below.
Short Stories Mentioned in S-Town:
“A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner
“The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant
“The Renegade,” by Shirley Jackson
“Berenice,” by Edgar Allen Poe (includes a downloadable audio recording)
“Brokeback Mountain,” by Annie Proulx
Enjoy!
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