All the Days and Nights: The Collected Stories [Paperback]

William Maxwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1995

From the American Book Award-winning author of Ancestors and Time Will Darken comes a masterful collection of stories, spanning more than 50 years--a tour of a world that engages readers entirely, and whose characters command the deepest loyalty and tenderness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Maxwell, a longtime New Yorker editor as well as an award-winning novelist, presents stories spanning more than 50 years.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"William Maxwell's tales, long and short, have the elusive ability to reveal us to ourselves, taking us beyond the frozen moment of perfection and guiding us gently into the wonder of uncertainty" Erica Wagner, The Times; "A writer of awesome stature" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times; "Maxwell's sensitive prose is the good and careful tool of an artist who is always doing exactly what he means to do" Eudora Welty --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage International Ed edition (October 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679761020
• ISBN-13: 978-0679761020
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Bible, March 6, 2003

By 

Mark "markalexander100" (Oxford, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the Days and Nights: The Collected Stories (Paperback)

This, like the Bible, is a book of two halves: one long and relatively weighty, the other short and attractively simple.
The first part is Maxwell's collected stories, chosen to represent a period of time stretching from the thirties to the nineties. These all, to varying degrees follow the trademark Maxwell approach of hovering on the edges of fiction and biography. Some (The Man in the Moon, Billie Dyer) appear to be straight non-fiction, while in others the elements of fiction are stronger. All, however, are powerful evocations of the human landscape of Maxwell's childhood, or of the experiences of later life.
The second part of the work is a collection of what Maxwell calls "improvisations": fables or fairy stories which contrast strikingly with his more familiar naturalistic pieces. The connecting thread is his moving clarity of vision. Most of these stories are only a few pages long, but they combine humour and humanity in a way which makes them a permanent part of the reader's mind.
All the Days and Nights is a wonderful book, which for those familiar with Maxwell's longer works offers, in the best sense, more of the same. Or, for those new to the author, the improvisations in particular are an enticing and accessible introduction to one of America's best 20th century writers.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful portraits of ordinary life, April 6, 1999

By 

Daniel Juliano (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the Days and Nights: The Collected Stories (Paperback)

These short stories are best read slowly. They contained lovingly detailed characters, characters that require you to spend the time to get to know them. Maxwell examines some rather ordinary people in their ordinary life struggles. But he does so insightfully and lovingly. The "improvisations" at the end of the book are rather unique, and their genesis (improvised bedtime stories to his wife) mesh perfectly with the themes of the rest of the stories.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars powerful images, December 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Days and Nights: The Collected Stories (Paperback)

I've read this book at University as I'm doing a Master on Translation. My teacher is the "official translator" of this book in Spain, so she asked us to translate a couple of short stories: "The Sound of Waves" and "All the Days and Nights". I have to say that I've liked it very much. It's amazing how Maxwell can make us see those images he has in his mind by words in a very clear way. I'm reading now the rest of the stories, but I can tell I have discovered one of my favourite authors!!!