Amazon.com: The KGB Bar Reader (9780688164089): Ken Foster: Books

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The KGB Bar Reader [Paperback]

Ken Foster (Editor)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)


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Book Description

September 1998
The KGB Bar Reading Series, originally conceived as a small literary series in a funky bar in New York City's East Village, has grown into a showcase for daring, lively writing that draws a response from listeners -- and readers -- and is quickly earning national recognition. Finally, fiction and nonfiction selections from the series are gathered together in this unique anthology.

This edgy, energetic collection represents more than twenty of today's best young writers. Kathryn Harrison, Rick Moody, Jennifer Egan, Michael Cunningham, Elizabeth Gilbert, Luc Sante, and others appear here with up-and-coming new voices. While some of these pieces have been published in magazines such as The New Yorker, GQ, Harper's, and Story, many were read first at KGB, and others are in print here for the first time.

This writing is often unpredictable, taking readers by surprise with the same anything-might-happen feel of the bar itself. (After all, the tenement that houses KGB once served as U.S. headquarters to the Ukrainian Communist Party.) This wholly original collection will appeal to readers eager to discover new favorites.


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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At first glimpse, the only thing that the authors represented in The KGB Bar Reader share is that they have all appeared at this East Village bastion of cooler-than-cool since its reading series began in late 1994. Below the surface, however, lurks a common theme, or so posits its organizer, Ken Foster: "There may be just one universal story: Someone loses something." And in this 28-piece collection, memory, innocence, love, and life all prove themselves slippery entities. Occasionally something equally valuable is found in the wake of such loss, and sometimes not--which is pretty much par for the course in this pu-pu platter of entries.

On the visceral side, Elissa Schappell, A.M. Homes, and Diane Lefer make unapologetic stabs for a gut reaction with their contributions on abortion, incest, and self-mutilation. Of course, if you're not in the mood for societal horror, then settle back with Kathryn Harrison's nine-page lesson in tick bursting. Yes, you read correctly: tick bursting. A few authors do weigh in with more nuanced gems. Rick Moody's "Demonology" is a haunting meditation on photography as an alternative to memory's imperfect hold on the past. And Meghan Daum's "Variations on Grief," the tale of a woman's maddeningly calm reaction to a close friend's death, is a compelling emotional shell game.

The KGB Bar Reader ends with an interesting compromise between these two tactics. Luc Sante's "His Confession"--a close cousin to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried--is a catalog of ways to die in contemporary society. The only thing more horrifying (and yet stunning) than the subject matter is the pokerfaced manner in which the tale is presented.

In the end, the primary reason for this collection's success is also the source of its greatest weakness. Given the varieties of approach and execution, you're sure to be less than enamored with a good chunk of it, and yet at the same time you're likely to find at least one piece that absolutely detonates in your consciousness. --Bob Michaels

From The New Yorker

"It's brutally quick, the way this happens, this falling in love with a writer's style. Part of the thrill...is realizing that there are other oddballs walking around out there, who look every bit as normal as you do, and that some of them know how to write. The best of these stories are too distinctive to suggest any trends, I'm happy to say...They send you in search of other work by these writers."

Product Details

  • Paperback: 321 pages
  • Publisher: Quill; 1st edition (September 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0688164080
  • ISBN-13: 978-0688164089
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,424,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ken Foster lives in New Orleans with his dogs, Brando, Zephyr, Douglas and Bananas. His work has appeared in The Believer, McSweeney's, Bomb, The New York Times Book Review, Time Out New York, The Village Voice and other publications. A collection of his short stories, titled The Kind I'm Likely to Get, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He has also been awarded fellowships to Yaddo, the Sewanee Writers Conference, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Wesleyan Writers Conference. He has edited two anthologies--The KGB Bar Reader and Dog Culture--as well as a special issue of the Mississippi Review. His most recent books are the memoir, The Dogs Who Found Me, and the collection, Dogs I Have Met. In 2008, he founded The Sula Foundation, which promotes responsible pit bull ownership in New Orleans.

 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Forget the O. Henry's and the Best American, etc., November 29, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: The KGB Bar Reader (Paperback)
I bought this after reading a great review in The New Yorker, and found the writing much more exciting than what I've found lately in the annual 'Best of' anthologies that come out every fall. Jacqueline Woodson's opening story "Fire" is stunning, and each piece that follows took me into another writer's world. This is what my friends will be getting this Christmas.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Frank, smart, funny fiction and nonfiction, December 16, 1998
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The KGB Bar Reader (Paperback)
Though individual pieces may seem forbidding, this collection coheres - with story after story giving you the momentum to read on. By the end, you reach short pieces that actually teach you how to live - something stories and memoirs rarely achieve, even for those of us who consider ourselves serious and openhearted readers. Here is an anthology for the long haul.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The best collection I've seen in a long time, November 6, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: The KGB Bar Reader (Paperback)
I spent an evening in the bathtub with this book, reading stories and essays at random, and every one I turned to got my interest immediately and kept me turning pages -- this is a collection of compelling, original voices, with dark humor sparking throughout. Lydia Davis's "Old Mother and the Grouch" sneaks up on you and pounces, Matthew Sharpe's "A Car" is hilarious and moving, Helen Schulman's "P.S." had me reading with -- literally -- bated breath, waiting to see what would happen next and loving her writing as I went, and Jennifer Egan's "XO" is a gem. I loved several other stories and essays too -- a fresh, fun, energetic bunch of pieces.
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