Eighteen stories, most of them novella-length, are collected here. They formthe basis of Brodkey's reputation as a great 20th-century American writer andspan three decades.
Stories in an Almost Classical Mode
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A voice all too rarely heard, Brodkey's exalted reputation is based on one collection of short stories published 30 years ago ( First Love and Other Sorrows ) and occasional stories that have appeared in magazines since that time. This collection of 18 stories, while perhaps slaking temporarily the thirst of Brodkey aficionados, will at the same time contribute to the excitement and speculation with which his novel in progress continues to be anticipated. These stories are freighted with a magnificence of language that reveals Brodkey's singular ability to convey the truth and complexity of a moment in time, frequently as seen through the eyes of a child. In "On the Waves," an estranged father travels to Venice with his 7-year-old daughter, hoping to amuse her. But she is disappointed, telling him, "Nothing here is sincere except the water." ' "Innocence," is a powerful and raw narrative that is essentially about a single act of sexual intercourse, providing a sustained high level of purely sexual intensity with explicit and evocative language. Most of the more recent stories, including the title story and the hauntingly beautiful "His Son, in His Arms, in Light, Aloft," are variations on the theme of an acutely sensitive young boy coming to consciousness in an adoptive household that is choked by the emotional cross-currents of a sick and angry mother, with whom he is deeply involved, and a more distant and inconsistent father. There is a delicacy and a sadness to Brodkey's exquisitely rendered narratives. The connecting thread that runs through these stories is an almost cinematic sense of overview, of witnessing, as though each scene has been chosen for the light it can throw on a larger whole that we can't quite see. For all the authority and vision evident in Brodkey's writing, taken together these stories have a tentative air about them, as though the author cannot commit himself to this vision, this version. The pleasure of reading Brodkey in this form is great, but the sureness of the sustained rhythm of a novel is where ultimately he will triumph. BOMC alternate
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Since 1958, when he published a book of short stories called First Love and Other Sorrows , Brodkey has become something of a mystery man. The present volume collects, in chronological order, magazine work of the past three decades. The stories are "classical" only in the sense that they avoid trendy experimentation: there isn't a trace of minimalism, metaficiton, or magic realism. Brodkey's subject is the Sturm und Drang of human relationships, especially sexual relationships. Acutely sensitive, intensely analytical, he writes with "the authority of being on one's knees in front of the event" (to quote one of his characters). No matter what the situation, the narrative voice is invariably eloquent and intelligenttoo much so, at times. An important book, but one best sampled in small doses. Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On Building a Personality,
By Charlie Corsair "Charlie Corsair" (Burke, VA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stories in an Almost Classical Mode (Paperback)
Brodkey breaks so many rules of narration in this collection of stories that he can be judged aptly by no standards other than his own. Unfortunately, this means that much of his genius is often overlooked. questedj@aol.com writes that _Stories in an Almost Classical Mode_ focusses too much on the pain of Brodkey's childhood and adolescence, and its appeal therefore is solely "prurient." I disagree. In _A Story in an Almost Classical Mode_, for example, we see not only his mother's cruelty and madness as she physically and emotionally degenerates. We see the portrait of a boy who must figure out how--against incredible odds--to build his personality, one part at a time. This is his genius. So many of us take the world for granted; our personalities guide us through and allow us to filter out what is harmful or unimportant. Brodkey's protagonists, for the most part, lack this ability--thus, they must constantly be in a state of flux, of becoming, rather than being.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Great American Writer That Never Was,
By louienapoli "louieb" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stories in an Almost Classical Mode (Paperback)
Brodkey is murky, cloudy, discursive, brilliant, static, and often boring--in this collection, not in his First Love and Other Stories, written before he became a literary cult figure. If you've never read him, this is probably the best of his late fiction. Profane Friendship and Runaway Soul are all but unreadable. This Wild Darkness, which was edited by his wife, possibly for intelligibility, is a fantastic memoir and meditation on living and dying. I'd recommend, for a good blast of Brodkey the fiction writer, First Love and also Almost Classical Mode. The former presentes lucid, moving, beautifully written stories. The latter offers mandarin, inaccessible prose that seems to be trying to capture the mind as it oscillates from thought to thought, feeling to feeling. The result is a weird, involuted, sometimes compelling collection.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor Follow Up to "First Love and Other Sorrows",
By Hibs "Hibs" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stories in an Almost Classical Mode (Paperback)
I'm reminded of the Native American character in the Jim Jarsmuch movie, "Dead Man" whose name is something along the lines of "He who talks alot but says very little." I read First Love and Other Sorrows before this and was outraged that more people hadn't heard of this guy. Brodkey was around 25 or 26 when that first collection was published and sadly he hadn't learned much in the 20 or 30 intervening years. Except how to overwrite. Can't remember the title but there was one story about a guy trying to give a woman an orgasm that may have the most mechanical and unintentionally funny descriptions of sex this side of Norman Mailer. A weird combo of Updike and Mailer at their pompous "great writer" worst. Even so, even bad Brodkey has its moments.
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