Customer Reviews

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

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I am embarrassed to say that before I read Amy Hempel's "The Collected Stories", I did not know anything about her. If Hempel's writing is considered "minimalist", she certainly manages to pack a wallop in the words she carefully uses. I would not classify Hempel's writing as "minimalist"; her view of the world from the inside out is powerful and intriguing. The stories frequently deal with grief and sadness. Each word is carefully chosen. The emotions that Hempel's use of language elicits are palpable and powerful: they often seem to strike a cord of unexpected and frightening familiarity. The book is expansive and the stories in this collection grow on you. To have all of these stories in one volume, the reader has the opportunity to witness the evolution and growth of a writer. Hempel's stories seem to grow sadder as she matures as a writer; but, at the same time they flower ever so beautifully as her perception deepens.
As I was reading this collection I found myself anxious to return home from work so I can sneak another peek at one of these delicious tales. I am delighted to have found this treasure. I am dazzled by Hempel's art. If you buy this collection, you will not be disappointed.

Amy Hempel's short stories are short -- not because she doesn't have much to say, but rather she can say much in fewer words and with more impact. As I read through this collection, I became more aware of how she chooses her words and how deeply powerful they become. The simplicity and power of her stories are in their directness, and in re-reading several of them I was struck once again by a sense of wonder. Not all of them are sweet, but they will strike you in one way or another.

Amy Hempel has published four volumnes of short stories which are collected together here for the first time. Written over the past twenty years, the actual stories are quite brief (three pages for many and the novella's would be short stories by any other writer). She is inside the head of her narrators in a stream of consciousness style that is short on plot and long on exploration of feelings. Given that "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom" (1990) is out of print and the other three paperbacks would cost $35 at Amazon, "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel" is a bargin at $17. And the stories stay with you long after you read them.

Amy Hempel writes about what goes on in our imagination but we don't usually say out loud. She has an enchanting style, a unique point of view and a very intelligent approach and way of looking at otherwise average situations. I experienced a few laugh out loud moments reading this, recommended it to friends and family and they all recognized a similarity to my strange imagination and somewhat silly, introspective mind.

There's a reason the New York Times named it One of the 10 Best Books of 2006.

It's Hempel's voice:

Pretty, in that way that only a woman's voice can be.
Clear-eyed, without affectation of any kind.
Deeply insightful.
Compassionate.
A little sad.

If Emily Dickinson had been born 121 years later, she might have been Amy Hempel.

She can write about anything and make it interesting.

I think you'll like it.

As with most collections, instead of selections, the work of the author can be somewhat marginal. I would say that the first two collections, " Reasons to Live," and,"At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom," show an author with extreme talent, yet is still in the midst of finding her voice. "Tumble Home," and ,"The Dog of the Marriage," really show you what Hempel can do. She's very original so I struggle with thinking of a name to compare her with. Hempels' work reads like poetry. She is imagistic. She can be called minimalist, but no other minimalist I know of can pack a life into so few pages, with such grace. And she is always, ALWAYS, funny. I will say that she is not for most, her work should be read more than once, as often enough the true beauty of the story will not be accesible the first time. If you love Nora Roberts then steer clear of the Hempel! A true enjoyment to read.

I know it's a cliche, but some of these stories took my breath away. "In the Cemetery where Al Jolson is buried" is just extraordinary, but there are at least a half a dozen other stories which are just as good.

This book contains all four collections of short stories written by Hempel over the last 20 years and has been praised to the skies. At times, the critical ecstasy seems a little overwrought - this is a collection of previously published stories, not a selection, so it's not too surprising that not every story is a winner. However, Hempel is a remarkably gifted writer, who can make even a single-page story pack an emotional punch.

I found almost all the stories in the first two books very powerful. However, among the later stories several were irritatingly opaque, to an almost Faulknerian degree. If, after reading through a story three times, it's still unclear exactly who did what to whom, and when, that's a problem. The author has failed to meet a fundamental obligation to the reader. Some authors appear to relish this kind of deliberate opacity -- as a reader, I don't consider it a virtue.

Nonetheless, this is an extraordinary collection, and I recommend it highly.

Anyone who thinks minimalist writing died in the 1990s should read "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel," which takes us right up to Hempel's most recent collection of short stories, originally published in 2005. The short works of fiction here, representing the entire output of Hempel's career to date, are alive and beating with desire and yearning. Most of them, centering around confused young women on the verge of an emotional breakdown or epiphany, manage to be both heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. What a combination! And what a treat to finally have Hempel's stories all in one place! (On the down side, when read in one big batch, a few of the weaker entries stand out as near-parodies of Hempel's spare style, which might seem deceivingly simple or even intentionally literary.) Of interest: the war of words between minimalists and literary "maximalists" has heated up again, a decade after the battle spilled onto the letters pages of Harper's Magazine. In his introduction, writer Rick Moody, in a fighting mood, offers unqualified praise of Hempel's lean prose while getting in a cheap shot at "those big encyclopedic tomes that the boys, obsessed with the sound of their own voices, were frequently writing in the same period." Could he possibly mean David Foster Wallace?

I too discovered Hempel via Chuck Palahniuk, and although at her best she is very, very good -- packing a wallop into a dense little story that only hints at the backstory -- unfortunately I found 432 pages of her a bit too much. Her stories are perhaps best in isolation, where they can creep up on the reader unannounced.

After four novel-length collections of shorts, I began to feel her stories were like modern poetry, although written in prose. Each word is obviously carefully chosen, and the arc of the story is plotted to the split-second of reader realization, but most of them, almost all of them except the ones I've come to think of as the "very, very good" ones, ultimately dealt with subjects of no lasting emotional or psychological impact. They are fireflies in the night, dandelion seeds in the wind, smoke in the air, the lingering fragrance of a woman who left the room some time ago.

They are a pleasure to read in roughly the same way a well-crafted gun is a pleasure to hold, or a fine automobile is to drive. You can appreciate the craftsmanship... even as you dismiss the usefulness of having all that horsepower serving a need you really don't have.

You get the sense that Amy is just a writer with great instinct. She isn't phoney. She isn't putting on airs. She isn't bending over backwards to try to wow you, the reader. She just knows how to cut straight to the heart of the matter. She's my hero.