I found William Saroyan on the first day of 2022. Since that day, I feel down William Saroyan’s rabbit hole. I watched a bunch of videos about him, listened to podcasts, and read his short stories. I ordered a bunch of the early edition of his book via eBay(the 1940s). They have fantastic cover designs and felt super close to them. They will be an excellent addition to my fiction library, which already includes my favorite writer, Tobias Wolff, Paulo Coelho, Leonard Cohen, Raymond Carver, Haruki Murakami, and others. ( I try to only buy fiction hardcopies, I read nonfiction via Kindle App on my dedicated iPad for this)
The way he wrote his short stories is related to any immigrant’s life. He was born and raised in Fresno (2.5 hours drive to San Francisco), and her family was Armenian from Bitlis, Turkey. So you can easily understand the old Anatolian cultural values and norms are his writing structure.
He was a humanitarian who lived between 1908-1981. Won Oscar and Pulitzer. As a first-generation immigrant early 1930s, I think we can learn so much from him. You should check out his Wikipedia to learn more.
If you want to start to read his early/late short stories, It is a great collection. If you have US Amazon Kindle Account or are living in the USA, let me know (email me). Your first Saroyan on me!