Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories (Vintage Contemporaries) [Paperback]

Steven Millhauser (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 10, 2009 | Series: Vintage Contemporaries

Thirteen darkly comic stories, Dangerous Laughter is a mesmerizing journey that stretches the boundaries of the ordinary world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Phenomenal clarity and rapacious movement are only two of the virtues of Millhauser's new collection, which focuses on the misery wrought by misdirected human desire and ambition. The citizens who build insulated domes over their houses in The Dome escalate their ambitions to great literal and figurative heights, but the accomplishment becomes bittersweet. The uncontrollably amused adolescents in the book's title story, who gather together for laughing sessions, find something ultimately joyless in their mirth. As in earlier works like The Barnum Museum, Millhauser's tales evolve more like lyrical essays than like stories; the most breathlessly paced sound the most like essays. The painter at the center of A Precursor of the Cinema develops from entirely conventional works to paintings that blend photographic realism with inexplicable movement, to—something entirely new. Similarly, haute couture dresses grow in A Change in Fashion until the people beneath them disappear, and the socioeconomic tension Millhauser induces is as tight as a corset. Though his exaggerated outlook on contemporary life might seem to be at once uncomfortably clinical and fantastical, Millhauser's stories draw us in all the more powerfully, extending his peculiar domain further than ever. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Pulitzer Prizeâ€"winner Steven Millhauser (Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer) has focused his attention in recent years on the novella and short fiction. The author culls his latest collection from stories published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and other venues over the last decade. Any collection drawn from such diverse sources and compiled over a period of time will strike some readers as disconnected. All critics welcome Millhauser’s return and compare the best of these stories (“Here at the Historical Society,” for example) to the work of Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges. Less popular are “The Tower,” about a literal Tower of Babel that struggles to rise, and other stories that embrace Big Ideas. Overall, Dangerous Laughter is a strong effortâ€"“not just brilliant but prescient” (New York Times Book Review)â€"and reading these stories is like picking up the “best of” collection of your favorite band: good memories, catchy hooks, and always something new in the familiar.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (February 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030738747X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307387479
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #777,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars WOW! April 27, 2008

By Joan B. Hillo

Format:Hardcover

I'm not going to synopsize the stories since that has been well done by the other reviews. This book has actually been a thrill for me, someone who is not a fan of short stories, because I have never been exposed to so many great stories with this particular slant. One story that really drew me to it was the man who stopped speaking; I don't know why, but I must have read that 8 times while reading the entire book. One reviewer said that s/he had to read all the stories at one sitting, but I was just the reverse. I loved these so much that I only allowed myself 3 stories and a re-read of the man who stopped talking at each sitting.

After reading the first 2 stories I logged onto Amazon and ordered everything by this author.

I suggest you buy this book. I feel certain that you won't be bored.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Left of Center March 28, 2008

By K. L. Cotugno VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As in all of his work, Steven Millhauser creates worlds that are just to the left of the center of reality. Each story has a haunting quality that is impossible to quantify, and each keeps you wanting to know more about the inhabitants of his world. Some are thinly veiled allegories, some not so obtuse metaphors, but every one of these 13 stories makes the reader think more about his own world and his perception of it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Let us go back to a time . . . August 15, 2009

By Buzz Advert

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a very strong collection that some less than flattering reviewers have correctly described as repetitive and lacking characters. Were one to read a single story from this collection, it would have a very different effect than a person going through the whole book. This might sound obvious; however, readers who need more character-driven stories are going to be repelled by the collection, whereas they might be able to grant a writer this approach for a single story. The stories are more like imaginative histories either without characters or with characters that are not really the main point. Each story tends to be built around a single fanciful obsession. There are aspects of Poe, Shirley Jackson, Borges, and Hawthorne's short stories in these. The stories begin with disembodied narrators, such as, "After the Age of Revelation came the Age of Concealment," "We here at the Historical Society are tireless in pursuit of the past," or "During the course of the many generations the Tower grew higher and higher until one day it pierced the floor of heaven." After reading a number of such stories, a story such as "The Tower," which comes in the second half of the book, feels already played out before it begins--though it proves, after one gives it a chance, to have a pretty interesting premise. Readers will have a higher opinion of the collection if they cherry-pick stories; however, based on reading other reviews I can tell there's little consensus on which stories to pick!

In my opinion, "Dangerous Laughter" contains a number of excellent stories that can support repeated readings. "Cat 'N Mouse," which stands quite apart from the rest of the stories--except in that it recounts the history of a consuming rivalry--is very amusing and fun. I loved it too when the narrator goes into each animal's psychological state. To me, the other best stories are "The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman," "History of a Disturbance," "The Other Town," "A Precursor of the Cinema," and "The Wizard of West Orange." Another reviewer said "The Other Town" didn't quite cut it; however, it is a fabulous allegory for representation and art. (Some may dismiss it as too ready made for a graduate seminar in post-structuralism where simulacra rolls too easily off of everyone's Baudrillard-loving tongue.)

The weakest stories, I think, are "The Room in the Attic," which just asks for too much suspension of disbelief, and "Dangerous Laughter." Both stories attempt to foreground character more but come off as too artificial--an amusing outcome for a book with so many fantastical conceits.

For readers who like the historical approach, see Jim Shephard's "Like You'd Understand Anyway." His stories are based on real history, however, and Shephard is very comfortable navigating character motivations.