Movies: Seventeen Stories [Paperback]

Stephen Dixon (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: North Point Pr; First Edition. pb original edition (November 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865471290
• ISBN-13: 978-0865471290
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,389,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Dixon is the author of twenty-seven works of fiction including, most recently, Phone Rings and Old Friends (both published by Melville House). His novels Interstate and Frog were both finalists for the National Book Award. Frog was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His work has received the O. Henry Award, the Best American Short Stories award, the Pushcart Prize, The American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, and he has been a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a great intro to an underrated writer, April 26, 2004

By 

Ben Keefe (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Movies: Seventeen Stories (Paperback)

This was the first of Dixon's books I picked up (quite by chance) about six years ago, and it's what initially got me hooked on this idiosyncratic, one of a kind writer. I recently reread some of the stories, and enjoyed them just as much the second time. The stories here predate Dixon's foray into the obsessive, long paragraphs that would distinguish his trademark style in novels such as "Frog", "Interstate" and "Gould". The pieces in "Movies" deal with isolation, paranoia and absurdity in a bleak, nameless urban landscape that could be the New York City of a parallel universe, or perhaps one of Beckett's nether regions. The characters face their respective situations with such neurosis that it is at times unbearable. There's always a kind of gallows humor on hand, and Dixon manages to make us laugh at the same time that he forces us to cringe. The title story, in particular, is darkly hilarious. Highly recommended for fans and students of Kafka, Beckett or even Woody Allen and Bergman. Great stuff.