Customer Reviews

The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor (FSG Classics)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my favorite compilation of short stories. The best are Dean of Men, At the Drugstore, Miss Leonora When Last Seen, and First Heat, which is the best fictional representation of the political mind ever written. The stories represent the many faces of the shifts in the Southern and American cultures that have troubled and consumed us for most of the century. To know thyself, know Peter Taylor.

There's no denying that Taylor is a very good writer of short stories, but this selection will not do, for the serious reader, scholar, or intrigued novice. There is no documentation whatsoever! One does not know, for example, when these stories were written, where they were first published, who made the selection and on what basis. The last complaint is made even more egregious by the misleading title: this book does not "collect" all of Taylor's stories. Certainly, a preface or introduction would have been helpful. And what's with the photo of a southern plantation on the cover? These stories are set in a post-bellum, mostly urban South. Peter Taylor deserves better than this shoddy, sloppy presentation. So do his readers.

I came shamefully late to the short stories of Peter Taylor, after years of hearing the praise of friends for Taylor's work and reading countless critical encomiums. A lot of reviewers on this page complain that this volume of collected stories doesn't contain one or more of their favorite Taylor stories (even though the back cover plainly states that this represents only the work Taylor published from 1940 to 1969, whereas he lived until 1994). Personally, I think this book is a wonderful introduction to Taylor's stories, and it whets my appetite to explore his work further.

The name of Chekhov is cited too often to praise the short-story writers who came after him, but Taylor is one of the very few who merits the comparison (the Canadian Alice Munro is another). Taylor has a remarkable ability to capture the nuances of human nature--particularly those which cause people to misunderstand each other completely--and record them in impeccably pellucid prose. His particular territory as a writer is the upper South in the days between the Depression and the Civil Rights Act, and he makes it as vivid as any in the history of American fiction. "Reservations" is a funny, bittersweet tale of a couple on their honeymoon, their wedding night foreshadowing the entire future path of their marriage. The title character of "The Fancy Woman" sets herself up for myriad humiliations as she clings to the hopeless expectation that her wealthy lover will marry her. "1939" depicts two college boys whose dreams of romance and literary glory come crashing down during one Thanksgiving weekend. Interspersed between these stories are the marvelous depictions of Southern culture in flux, including "A Wife of Nashville," "What You Hear From 'Em?" "Cookie," and "Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time." This isn't the only book by Peter Taylor you'll ever need, but to those just coming to his work, it's a revelation.

Peter Taylor's work is powerful, intriguing. He writes about the Changing South in the early and middle parts of the twentieth century. However, calling Taylor a Southern Writer is like saying Chekhov would only appeal to Russians. Taylor is a wise, wise teller of tales, someone who can observe and think as lucidly as he can describe. These are stories of humanity and desire, and well worth your time. To put it bluntly, if you like literary fiction, check out Taylor.

I'll also add that the Old Forest, a story of his NOT included here, is probably one of the greatest stories ever written. And this is the problem. This book does not collect all of Taylor's stories, doesn't even come close. The book appears to be a reprint of an earlier "collected" that was published in the middle of Taylor's career (and which he oversaw). This means whole BOOKS of stories do not appear here, including his most mature masterpieces, which were only to appear late in his career, after the original publication date.

But I'll stand by a strong recommendation for this book. If you've never read Taylor and are interested, this is as good as any place to start because it has a number of amazingly good stories. But if you're already a fan and want to read them all, just go back and buy all of his books and skip this one.


Final note: For those debating the term "collected" stories. Collected IS different from complete, but not entirely. A telling example is Faulkner, who has equally large volumes of "collected" and "uncollected" stories. Collected means stories that were put into collections by the author; this is opposed to those uncollected works that were published in literary journals or magazines but were never put all together by the author under one spine/cover. A Complete stories would include every story that had been published or perhaps even written by the author. Sometimes an author might have grown from early efforts that made it into journals and so chose not to "collect" those early stories (or perhaps those stories written for a buck mid-career). So, I believe this was a true collected when it first came out, including every story from Taylor's early collections (and Taylor at the very least did the selection and editing). But for FSG to publish the book under that title now is not only wrong, but also misleading since there were many more stories that Taylor "collected" after the original publication date of this volume.

Peter Taylor is a master stylist, writing taught, compelling Southern fiction. It is surprising he's not more widely read.

"Collected Stories" is a standard name for books that aren't complete - that don't include all of a writer's work. Those are called "The Complete Short Stories of AUTHOR."

The reviewer who mentioned Taylor's "taught" stories may have meant "taut" - that is, not "instructed" but rather "tight" or "tense" (referring to the quality of his writing - not necessarily the content or subject matter).

Taylor is a Southern writer and I love Southern writers. Must read.