Customer Reviews

FORTY STORIES.

5 star:		(8)
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3 star:		(2)
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During Barthelme's lifetime, I think many readers thought that his work would permanently alter the short story form. He achieved such powerful effects; his stories were so funny, so moving, so original and offbeat, and yet so deceptively simple and effortless-seeming. I certainly expected that other writers would come along and produce similar stories, since he had shown how it should be done, and we would be innundated with Barthelme-like fiction. But I don't think that's really happened. There have been imitators, of course, but they've been mostly embarrassingly flat, replacing the master's edgy brilliance with silly incoherence. Barthelme defies all imitators; his stories continue to stand as one-of-a-kind monuments, written in a truly singular voice by a truly singular talent, to urban life in the late 20th century. Read them. I particularly love "The Genius," with its poignant and yet absurd portrait of the world's most brilliant man, and "At the Tolstoy Museum," with its hilarious drawings of the great author's supposedly gargantuan coat, etc. It's funny because it's (somehow) true, like all of his work. "40 Stories" is the best introduction to Barthelme, so if you don't know him, this is the place to start.

This collection has many great short stories within it. Often, within this book, Barthelme shows himself to be an extremely creative and insightful writer. "Jaws" is a good example of this. Basically, it's a story about how people deal with their dissatisfaction in relationship; how lovers cope with significant others' inevitable inability to meet all their (the lovers') expectations. It follows a workers at a local A & P while he mediates the relationship of two customers (who are married to each other). He acts as a sort of counciler in their marriage. The interaction between the couple is extremely humorous, and yet very sad (as, I suppose, dysfunction can often be). It's an excellent piece of work, and it deals with a common theme throughout this collection: The dissatisfaction of couples in long-lasting relationships. "Chablis," "The Genius," and "Paul Klee..." are also all excellent short stories. They exhibit Barthelme's ability to be humorous and yet still get at an interesting/serious point (that is, not lose himself in zaniness).

After such praise, however, I must admit that this collection isn't without flaw. Out of the forty stories that are included in this book, I felt that about ten of them could have been pruned away. These stories (for example, "On the Deck," and "Blue Beard") seemed unfulfilled, and worse, overwritten. These, perhaps could have used a little more focus on content rather than style. It's true with almost any collection of short stories that not all of them are good, enjoyable, or interesting (that is, not all of them will catch your imagination). However, with this book there seemed to be quite a few of those. So despite the fact that many of the stories in this collection are great, I'm only giving it three stars.

I would recomend this to anyone in search of a humorous, challenging read. I would also, recomend this to someone who is interested in cutting edge, stylized short stories (after all 25-30 of them in this collection are very good). Many of the short stories in this collection are written in an unusual manner. For instance, "The Bodygaurd" is compose almost entirely of questions. I'm also of the opinion that those of you who like both Kurt Vonnegut jr. and Thomas Pynchon would find this collection interesting.

I agree with every word of the previous review, but think we shouldn't overlook Barthelme's cutting wit. His style of often sarcastic and edgy humour is possibly the most intellectually stimulating out there. It's one thing to be creative, but to not only purvey a state of mind-expansion in your reader but make him/her smile or laugh while doing so deserves kudos. "The Baby" and "Porcupines" are perhaps his finest examples in this regard... brilliant. My dinky little review doesn't quite do this man justice, just pick this book up for starters then graduate to the slightly more challenging "60 Stories" when the hooks are planted.

Just over ten years ago a deeply righteous hombre with a handle to match--Omnipot, tray bong, non?--wrote right here on Amazon a nifty little five-star review of Mister Barthelme's Forty Stories. So here's the thing: the dude's opening paragraph mirrors so exactly what I myself wanted to say about my own recent encounter with the approximately fantastic Donald Barthelme that I'm going to go ahead and reprint the whole thing and hope Mister Pot doesn't sue me:

"I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and couple three times was even a little sad and one two times was made pensive with head on hand till I laughed and laughed and laughed and finished the story and read it again and laughed and laughed and laughed..."

That was me to a total tee too, right down to the last laugh. Seriously, that's the whole nine yards in a single nutshell right there, O-Dog, you sum up in extra fine what a confounded pleasure it is to be shot full of magic bullets by this particular Don. Kudos to yudos in any case, Omnipot, I literally could not have put it better myself. All I can add I guess is even if the rest of you punters out there only end up reading a couple of these sublime flash fictions try to make sure the ones you choose include The Genius, Sinbad, especially Sinbad, Chablis, Construction, Lightning, RIF, and Letters to the Editore--mini masterpieces each one, massy minor triumphs in comic brevity. This dude Donald indubitably knew wherefore his Sam and knew wherefore what's more his Flann too the cheeky old devil and these wide open channels condense here to sometimes thrillingly familiar effect. In The Explanation, for instance, a zippy little page-turner composed entirely of questions and answers and illustrated to boot with a big black square, Donny Boy even manages to miraculously conflate his two rightly revered Irish forebears into one hysterical question: "Is the bicycle dead?" Brilliant. Just in case I'll mention the stupendous Sinbad one more time coz this lethally funny word weapon had me in the crosshairs from the opening salvo. One last thing: skip the utterly charmless introduction by super sap Dave Eggers, it adds precisely nothing to the otherwise wacky and wonderful proceedings and seems animated mostly by a grotesque self-consciousness laced with the lamest light touch this side of Dave Barry. Oof sez I. Remember in The Simpsons when a bespectacled Radioactive Man was about to be engulfed in a giant wave of green toxic sludge and he yells out, "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!"? Well Eggers here is the goggles. Or should that be are the goggles? Who cares, yank and flitter this witless dweeb's feeble farking flapdoodle and go directly to the straight dope by Don B. This wickedly funny wordy gurdy man is the prose equivalent of The King Biscuit Flower Hour and his shorty shorts are perfect jets of the purest japery--like the great Omnipot sez, read 'em and laugh and laugh and laugh...

Bartheleme's work energizes creativity. It is playful in a way that beat writers never achieved. By letting images and thoughts run loose, he inspires creativity in the mind of readers. You do not need to take creative writing classes to learn how to write-you simply have to let your stories come out of what your imagination wants to say. This is the enlightenment that Bartheleme inspires. And reading this collection will vastly improve anyone's writing. It's complex, but never difficult and its effects are always surprising. He was as original and inspiring to writing as Jimmy Hendrix was to music. You will like this book.

Donald Barthelme is one of the very few masters of the short short story. The only others that come to mind are Saki, Borges, and Franz Kakfa. Few of the stories in this collection extend past three pages. All are marked by the same virtues evident throughout the collection: surreality, inventiveness, enormous humor, a sensitivity to our collective culture. Some have commented on the collection being uneven. Perhaps. But the stories are quite diverse, and I suspect that what some find uneven is actually their diversity, some of them appealing more to one's particular bias more than others.

This is a great collection for shaking up your perception, for making you reconceptualize the short story form. Anyone liking these stories should go on to try some Saki (the author, not the beverage). Although not as surreal as Barthelme, his stories are just as short, just as funny, and just as delightful.

As an aspiring writer, these stories by Barthelme give me hope that experimental literature still thrives in this sound byte-, laugh track-, talking head-prompted, fast-paced MTV culture of ours. For the most part, the stories take a level of patients foreign to the average reader, but are so creative, so clever, so breathtaking (to sound cliché)--and let's not forget: short (most average 6ish pages)--and so on that before you even have a chance to let one story sink in, you're already well into the next. Which, I might add, is a good thing. The stories challenge but, unlike contemporaries who mimic Barthelme's style, are not challenging in such a way as to detract or distract. They stick with you long after you've read them and, like Eggers says in his introduction, it's hard for someone who writes to make it through a page without being struck by an idea of their own. Inspiring stuff.

The Marx brothers and origami have an affair. They name the bastard Donald barthelme.

While very challenging and insightful, I found many of the stories to be superficially "cute" and a little self-indulgent. Not as satisfying as I thought it would be.

I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and couple three times was even a little sad and one two times was made pensive with head on hand till I laughed and laughed and laughed and finished the story and read it again and laughed and laughed and laughed...

See, laughter is good, and much dependent on our not-knowing when the laugh is coming, thus producing a "chuckle." A "funny feeling."

Oh, DB, please, please Come Back, so that I may once more laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh.........