The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel [Paperback]

Amy Hempel (Author), Rick Moody (Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: September 18, 2007

Amy Hempel is a master of the short story. This celebrated volume gathers together her complete work -- four short collections of stunning stories about marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation.

With her inimitable compassion and wit, Hempel introduces characters who make choices that seem inevitable, and whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience.

For readers who have known Hempel's work for decades and for those who are just discovering her, this indispensable volume contains all the stories in Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, and The Dog of the Marriage. No reader of great writing should be without it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Hempel's four collections of short fiction are all masterful; while readers await the follow-up to last year's acclaimed The Dog of the Marriage, this compendium restores the full set to print. The first of Hempel's books, Reasons to Live (1985), is justly celebrated by Rick Moody in his preface as a landmark of its era's "short-story renaissance"; it introduces Hempel's unmistakable tone, where a "besieged consciousness," Moody says, hones sentences to bladelike sharpness "to enact and defend survival." The second, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990), is the main reason to buy this book: used copies are scarce, and the collection contains stories like "The Harvest." Hempel's genius, whether in first or third person, is to make her characters' feelings completely integral to the scenes they inhabit; her terse descriptions become elegantly telegraphic—and telepathic—reportage, with not a word wasted and not a single fact embellished. Her great subject is the failure of human coupling, and she charts it at every stage: giddy beginnings, sexy thick-of-its, wan (or violent) outcomes, grim aftermaths. Seeing it laid out kaleidoscopically in this volume is an awesome thing indeed, and a pleasure lovers of the short story will not want to deny themselves. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* With the publication of her first book of short stories, Reasons to Live (1985), Hempel earned a strong position in the vanguard of the minimalist school of fiction writing, in vogue at that time and especially significant in the short story genre. Her three succeeding collections of stories, the most recent being The Dog of the Marriage (2005), maintained her high stature as a short story writer. She generally continued to compose tightly hewn stories despite the fact that minimalism as a stylistic movement was shrinking around her like a drying riverbed. The stories from her previous collections are gathered here into a single volume, and her achievement in the form is now boldly obvious. She has never imitated, never been just a somewhat anonymous member of a pack of talented storywriters. She is an original, having found--and kept--her unique way of expressing her not so much cut-and-dried as deeply penetrating vision. As the 70-page story "Tumble Home" testifies, Hempel can write longer than usual for her, and certainly that interior monologue by a patient in a mental institution is arresting in its pristine tracing of a pattern of thought. Nevertheless, she is at her best by far in the short, highly imagistic, sparely plotted, stiletto-keen slice of narrative that in her hands glistens in its sheerness, and for that she has made short story history. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Printing edition (September 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743291638
• ISBN-13: 978-0743291637
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasant Surprise December 29, 2006

By A. Harrell

Format:Hardcover

I am embarrassed to say that before I read Amy Hempel's "The Collected Stories", I did not know anything about her. If Hempel's writing is considered "minimalist", she certainly manages to pack a wallop in the words she carefully uses. I would not classify Hempel's writing as "minimalist"; her view of the world from the inside out is powerful and intriguing. The stories frequently deal with grief and sadness. Each word is carefully chosen. The emotions that Hempel's use of language elicits are palpable and powerful: they often seem to strike a cord of unexpected and frightening familiarity. The book is expansive and the stories in this collection grow on you. To have all of these stories in one volume, the reader has the opportunity to witness the evolution and growth of a writer. Hempel's stories seem to grow sadder as she matures as a writer; but, at the same time they flower ever so beautifully as her perception deepens.
As I was reading this collection I found myself anxious to return home from work so I can sneak another peek at one of these delicious tales. I am delighted to have found this treasure. I am dazzled by Hempel's art. If you buy this collection, you will not be disappointed.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Short and not necessarily sweet December 18, 2006

By Shashi Jivan

Format:Hardcover

Amy Hempel's short stories are short -- not because she doesn't have much to say, but rather she can say much in fewer words and with more impact. As I read through this collection, I became more aware of how she chooses her words and how deeply powerful they become. The simplicity and power of her stories are in their directness, and in re-reading several of them I was struck once again by a sense of wonder. Not all of them are sweet, but they will strike you in one way or another.

44 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Short Stories, Very Good May 20, 2006

By C. Hutton

Format:Hardcover

Amy Hempel has published four volumnes of short stories which are collected together here for the first time. Written over the past twenty years, the actual stories are quite brief (three pages for many and the novella's would be short stories by any other writer). She is inside the head of her narrators in a stream of consciousness style that is short on plot and long on exploration of feelings. Given that "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom" (1990) is out of print and the other three paperbacks would cost $35 at Amazon, "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel" is a bargin at $17. And the stories stay with you long after you read them.