I'm disappointed and vexed by this book. The ending didn't feel open-ended; instead it felt incomplete which is altogether worse. There was such promise to this writer and the main story of the book "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe." The arrangement of the stories didn't sit well with me. "Ballad" takes up almost half of the book so everything following it felt inferior. All of the short stories read like scenes, not complete stories. The plot didn't go anywhere and hardly anything happened. I enjoy slow plots as a rule so the fact that I couldn't enjoy this is saying something. I try not to expect much from short stories, but when you compare this selection to other great works in the genre, it is lacking.



This is what specifically bothered me in "Ballad":

1. Why was Cousin Lymon so enamored with Marvin Macy? His later association with Macy made it seem impossible that he ever cared about Miss. Amelia.
2. Why did Lymon go to so much trouble to befriend Amelia if all he ended up doing was abandoning that friendship? It made little to no sense.
3. Is Miss. Amelia a feminist ahead of her time or a witless, spineless woman who exists unhappily? One moment she seemed courageous and intelligent and the next she was barely a functioning person. Her life felt like a series of random decisions. Is she a metaphor?
4. At seventy-two pages, all that really happens is Lymon coming to town, a cafe being popular, Macy coming back to town, there's a fight and Lymon and Macy leave town again. Miss. Amelia then never leaves her cafe for the rest of her life. Why does no one in town seem to be a realistic or real person???