Donald Barthelme was one of the most influential and inventive writers of the 20th century. In this volume of unpublished and previously uncollected stories, he transforms the absurd and strange into the real in his usual epiphanic, engaging, and richly textured style. The stories delve further into themes that often interested Barthelme: the perils of the unfulfilled existence; the relationships between politics, art, sex, and life; and the importance of continuing to ask questions even though we are unable to learn the answers. This collection will delight both old fans and new readers.
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From Publishers Weekly
Along with Kurt Vonnegut, Barthelme (1931–1989) was one of the great 20th-century American absurdists. The 45 stories in this collection include stories Barthelme himself excluded from his two major collections, Sixty Stories and Forty Stories, and little that went previously unpublished. Packed with whimsical facts, Emma Green Is 81, which was the lead story in Barthelme's first book, concerns the verbose narrator's testy desire that Emma continue to finance the Journal of Tension Reduction, of which he is the editor. In Pandemonium, the story Barthelme was working on when he died, two unidentified voices finish each other's sentences as they lament that their staging of the Eve myth has been eclipsed by a sporting event. Barthelme registered the sexual revolution and the feminist response, both of which he treated via an ironic use of stereotypes: in Perpetua, a woman walks out of her marriage to a put-upon, unprepossessing, baffled man named Harold. And typical of several humorous riffs is Marie Marie, Hold on Tight, concerning a protest staged against the human condition outside a church. Even the lesser of Barthelme's funhouse mirrors reflect the world's tragicomic essence. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine supplement for those who already own the original books,
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This review is from: Flying to America: 45 More Stories (Hardcover)
This volume of 45 stories completes the canonization of Donald B. If you already own each of his individual works, then this would be the only way to squeeze out a little more of his unique word magic. The rubric "previously uncollected" draws a surprising number of stories from *Come Back, Dr. Caligari* (1966), DB's first book of stories. If you haven't read that, go directly to Caligari, since his profound, twinkling, knowing humor is on perfect display, and the number of stories from Caligari excluded from either 60 Stories or 40 Stories may reveal Barthelme's own self-doubt regarding his freshman effort. If you already own the original books, some interesting items can be found: his first published story (many characters draw their names from typefaces, besides the beloved Baskerville); a couple of unpublished stories in various stages of polish; and several stories that are not in any of the collected volumes. Although the book description claims to include *Sam's Bar*, with illustrations by Seymour Chwast, the actual published version does NOT include that story.
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Henry Mackie, Miss Angel Craw, Ellen West, William Elderly Baskerville, Florence Green, Edward Asher, Sunny Marge, Viennese Opera Ball, Paradise Before the Egg, Henry James, Annual Report, Miss Jawart, Carola Mitt, The Police Band, New York, Famous Writers School, The Sea of Hesitation, Fru Schmidt, Basil From Her Garden, Hold On Tight, Josef Albers, Picture History of the War, Constantine Cavity, Good God, Swedish Army Browse Sample Pages:
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man standing outside the window, magic bone Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Henry Mackie, Miss Angel Craw, Ellen West, William Elderly Baskerville, Florence Green, Edward Asher, Sunny Marge, Viennese Opera Ball, Paradise Before the Egg, Henry James, Annual Report, Miss Jawart, Carola Mitt, The Police Band, New York, Famous Writers School, The Sea of Hesitation, Fru Schmidt, Basil From Her Garden, Hold On Tight, Josef Albers, Picture History of the War, Constantine Cavity, Good God, Swedish Army Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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