The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel [Hardcover]

Amy Hempel (Author), Rick Moody (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2006

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel gathers together the complete work of a writer whose voice is as singular and astonishing as any in American fiction. Hempel, fiercely admired by writers and reviewers, has a sterling reputation that is based on four very short collections of stories, roughly fifteen thousand stunning sentences, written over a period of nearly three decades. These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With compassion, wit, and the acutest eye, Hempel observes the marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation in an uneasy America.

When "Reasons to Live, " Hempel's first collection, was published in 1985, readers encountered a pitch-perfect voice in fiction and an unsettling assessment of the culture. That collection includes "San Francisco," which Alan Cheuse in "The Chicago Tribune" called "arguably the finest short story composed by any living writer." In "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, " her second collection, frequently compared to the work of Raymond Carver, Hempel refined and developed her unique grace and style and her unerring instinct for the moment that defines a character. Also included here, in their entirety, are the collections "Tumble Home" and "The Dog of the Marriage." As Rick Moody says of the title novella in Tumble Home, "the leap in mastery, in seriousness, and sheer literary purpose was inspiring to behold.... And yet," he continues, ""The Dog of the Marriage, " the fourth collection, is even better than the other three...a triumph, in fact." "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel" is the perfect opportunity for readers of contemporary American fiction to catch up to one of its masters. Moody's passionate and illuminating introduction celebrates both the appeal and the importance of Hempel's work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Hempel's four collections of short fiction are all masterful; while readers await the follow-up to last year's acclaimed The Dog of the Marriage, this compendium restores the full set to print. The first of Hempel's books, Reasons to Live (1985), is justly celebrated by Rick Moody in his preface as a landmark of its era's "short-story renaissance"; it introduces Hempel's unmistakable tone, where a "besieged consciousness," Moody says, hones sentences to bladelike sharpness "to enact and defend survival." The second, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990), is the main reason to buy this book: used copies are scarce, and the collection contains stories like "The Harvest." Hempel's genius, whether in first or third person, is to make her characters' feelings completely integral to the scenes they inhabit; her terse descriptions become elegantly telegraphic—and telepathic—reportage, with not a word wasted and not a single fact embellished. Her great subject is the failure of human coupling, and she charts it at every stage: giddy beginnings, sexy thick-of-its, wan (or violent) outcomes, grim aftermaths. Seeing it laid out kaleidoscopically in this volume is an awesome thing indeed, and a pleasure lovers of the short story will not want to deny themselves. (May)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* With the publication of her first book of short stories, Reasons to Live (1985), Hempel earned a strong position in the vanguard of the minimalist school of fiction writing, in vogue at that time and especially significant in the short story genre. Her three succeeding collections of stories, the most recent being The Dog of the Marriage (2005), maintained her high stature as a short story writer. She generally continued to compose tightly hewn stories despite the fact that minimalism as a stylistic movement was shrinking around her like a drying riverbed. The stories from her previous collections are gathered here into a single volume, and her achievement in the form is now boldly obvious. She has never imitated, never been just a somewhat anonymous member of a pack of talented storywriters. She is an original, having found--and kept--her unique way of expressing her not so much cut-and-dried as deeply penetrating vision. As the 70-page story "Tumble Home" testifies, Hempel can write longer than usual for her, and certainly that interior monologue by a patient in a mental institution is arresting in its pristine tracing of a pattern of thought. Nevertheless, she is at her best by far in the short, highly imagistic, sparely plotted, stiletto-keen slice of narrative that in her hands glistens in its sheerness, and for that she has made short story history. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First edition. edition (May 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743289463
• ISBN-13: 978-0743289467
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasant Surprise, December 29, 2006

By 

A. Harrell "[e-mail]" (Denver, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (Hardcover)

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.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short and not necessarily sweet, December 18, 2006

By 

Shashi Jivan (Berkeley, CA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (Hardcover)

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.

42 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Short Stories, Very Good, May 20, 2006

By 

C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (Hardcover)

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.