Customer Reviews

The Old Man at the Railroad Crossing and Other Tales (Nonpareil Books)

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One of the most beautifully written collection of stories I have ever read. Maxwell is a master of the short story form, and these brief tales feel as if they are suspended in an enchanted, slightly melancholy, time and space.

William Maxwell not only was a distinguished (though generally underappreciated) American writer of fiction, he was also the fiction editor at "The New Yorker" for forty years. I therefore assumed that this book of twenty-nine tales or stories would contain the sort of contemporary and intellectually hip short stories that I associate with "The New Yorker". But no, they almost all are fairy tales (like those of the Brothers Grimm) or fables (like those of Aesop). As such, they are not my genre, and I probably am not an ideal reviewer for this book. With that caveat, I will say that Maxwell's prose is graceful and charming, but the tales themselves are little more than fluff; sadly, for me, they were not a rewarding use of my reading time.

Here is an abridged version of Tale Number 8, "The half-crazy woman": "Once upon a time there was a half-crazy woman who lived off the leavings of other people." Most people avoided her, so she talked to stray dogs, willow trees, and the like. One autumn evening, when she was particularly uneasy, she talked to her pig, to the fire in her hearth, to the loaf of bread baking in the oven, and to the roof over her cottage. From each, she sought and received assurances that they would not die or abandon her. But when she was in the attic to talk to the roof, she noticed a musty smell that she soon realized was the smell of Death. So she asked him, "Death, you won't ever leave me, will you?" Death, too, assured her that he would always be present. She then went downstairs, scratched the pig's back with a stick, ate a slice of the warm loaf of bread, and sat by the fire, now contented. "The house was still. And the half-crazy woman knew for the first time what it is to have peace of mind." The end.

If that appeals to you, THE OLD MAN AT THE RAILROAD CROSSING contains twenty-eight other tales much like it.

Amazing book of short stories, Inspired, magical, moving... The story of the blue finch .... the woman who complained .. et al.... moving, wonderful, prefect...