14 Stories (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) [Paperback]

Stephen Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction | Publication Date: May 2, 2002

Stephen Dixon's stories and novels have an original, immediately recognizable sound and feel –a weird blend of Franz Kafka and Frank Capra. Readers of his previous work will find in 14 Stories that same wry, inventive, knife-edged humor that has come to characterize his distinctive style. With an adroit use of language and a keen eye for the quirky, offbeat side of human nature, Dixon creates a world as viewed through a fish-eye lens–slightly distorted and off-center, yet recognizable and often familiar.

14 Stories is part comedy, part tragedy, part social comment and part spoof. But most of all it is a highly entertaining series of all-too-plausible vignettes that shows off Stephen Dixon's remarkable talent at its best.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Dixon's stories, strengthened by their unity, almost have a novel's ability to develop character, to suggest a life outside the confines of the plot.

(Boston Globe )

Mr. Dixon wields a stubbornly plain-spoken style; he loves all sorts of tricky narrative effects. And he loves even more the tribulations of the fantasizing mind, ticklish in their comedy, alarming in their immediacy.

(New York Times )

These stories make a highly satisfying collection, not only for their evident craftsmanship but also because of the discriminating intelligence which underpins them.

(Times Literary Supplement )

About the Author

Stephen Dixon has published more than 125 short stories and is the award-winning author of over a dozen books, including the collections Long Made Short and All Gone, available from Johns Hopkins.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (May 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801872057
• ISBN-13: 978-0801872051
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,432,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Dixon is the author of twenty-seven works of fiction including, most recently, Phone Rings and Old Friends (both published by Melville House). His novels Interstate and Frog were both finalists for the National Book Award. Frog was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His work has received the O. Henry Award, the Best American Short Stories award, the Pushcart Prize, The American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, and he has been a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a real crowd pleaser!, October 20, 2005

By 

Robert Nagle "idiotprogrammer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 14 Stories (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Paperback)

I loved this book, even though I had to teach it to an undergraduate literature class..at JHU where Dixon also teaches/taught.

Dixon writes a ton of stuff, and he belongs to the category of author who is coming out with more and more and more.

I haven't read more recent stuff (Steve, please give us a breather!), but I'm sure it's equally inspiring/zany/experimental/hit-or-miss/frantic/existential/eclectic.

But getting back to this volume. My students, who normally resented having to read books by profs at their university, just loved this little volume to death, and so did I. These stories were light-hearted, easy to read, clever and full of memorable lines and characters.

I really have no basis for declaring it to be the best of Dixon's s.s. collections, but it's the best out of the ones I'd encountered pre-1995.

BTW, the joke of the book is that the volume actually contains 13 (not 14) stories.