A timeless selection of brilliant short stories that won William Saroyan a position among the foremost, most widely popular writers of America when it first appeared in 1934.With the greatest of ease William Saroyan flew across the literary skies in 1934 with the publication of The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories. One of the first American writers to describe the immigrant experience in the U.S., Saroyan created characters who were Armenians, Jews, Chinese, Poles, Africans, and the Irish. The title story touchingly portrays the thoughts of a very young writer, dying of starvation. All of the tales were written during the great depression and reflect, through pathos and humor, the mood of the nation in one of its greatest times of want.
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About the Author
William Saroyan (1908-1981), famous for a long and voluminous career, burst upon the literary scene in 1934 with his celebrated short-story collection of The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze. He went on to write novels, along with some sixteen story collections, and plays including The Human Comedy and The Time of Your Life, for which he won the Drama Critics Circle and Pulitzer Prizes. He lived and wrote about "the archetypal Armenian families who inhabit "Saroyan Country", in and around Fresno, California. [And yet with their] unpredictable charm and wacky spontaneity...his characters overflow with so much human comedy that they transcend all ethnic boundaries, as in the stories of I.B. Singer" (Chicago Tribune).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It was the best book I read in the right time.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze: And Other Stories (New Directions Classics) (Paperback)
I think there are not many books, that can change your life. This is one of them. I was sixteen when I read this book for the first time. I was not very happy in that time and I was rather confused by life but it has changed. In these short stories I could read about thoughts and feelings, that were similar to mine, but I had not be able to express them. But angle of wiev was new. It made me to live in spite of the world.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creatively crafted -- never a dull moment.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze: And Other Stories (New Directions Classics) (Paperback)
Saroyan has a rare sense of language usage and introduces thoughts and ideas causing you to stop and realize how the grind of everyday life can be refreshing, moving, and humorous. His writings represent a slice of life in everyday America as well as amusing insights into the wacky right braininess of a writer. Once you get through the first chapter and can stand up again, the rest of the book is one deeper-than-real-life-story after another. Like Edith Wharton, Saroyan has a command of the craft of writing that seems lost in today's works.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saroyan's first book of stories.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze: And Other Stories (New Directions Classics) (Paperback)
A masterful work. Most of them written in a thirty day period, in which Saroyan promised to send the editors od Story magazine a story a day for thirty days. He proceeded to do this and this book made Saroyan an instant celebrity.Saroyan eventually went on to win the Pulitzer for his play "The Time of You Life", but turned it down. This book was a stunner when it first appeared. The simple yet poetic language ran against the trend of the times. Saroyan is a nearly forgotten genius, yet his influence is evident in even his enemies, like Ernest Hemingway. Buy this book, read it, and then give it to somebody. They will thank you and so will I.
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Horizontally wakeful amid universal widths, practising laughter and mirth, satire, the end of all, of Rome and yes of Babylon, clenched teeth, remembrance, much warmth volcanic, the streets of Paris, the plains of Jericho, much gliding as of reptile in ab Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
little brown snake, fiction room Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, New York, Theodore Badal, Enrico Sturiza, Third Street, Marlene Dietrich, Kirk Minor, Number One Opera Alley, Los Angeles, Carl Street, Clara Bow, Miss Wissig, Southern Pacific, Simon Gregory, Poor Tom, Ezra Pound Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Horizontally wakeful amid universal widths, practising laughter and mirth, satire, the end of all, of Rome and yes of Babylon, clenched teeth, remembrance, much warmth volcanic, the streets of Paris, the plains of Jericho, much gliding as of reptile in ab Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
little brown snake, fiction room Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, New York, Theodore Badal, Enrico Sturiza, Third Street, Marlene Dietrich, Kirk Minor, Number One Opera Alley, Los Angeles, Carl Street, Clara Bow, Miss Wissig, Southern Pacific, Simon Gregory, Poor Tom, Ezra Pound Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
45
books
cite this book:
See all 45 books citing this book
- Saroyan: A Biography by Barry Gifford on 14 pages
- A Daring Young Man: A Biography of William Saroyan by John Leggett on 11 pages
- Remarkable Reads: 34 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading by J. Peder Zane on 5 pages
- The March of Spare Time: The Problem and Promise of Leisure in the Great Depression by Susan Currell on page 95, and Back Matter
- Shoot the Piano Player: Francois Truffaut, director (American Women Writers Series) by Peter Brunette in Front Matter, and page 154
See all 45 books citing this book
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