Time to Go (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) [Paperback]

Stephen Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction | Publication Date: November 28, 2001

In Time to Go, the author of the highly acclaimed 14 Stories, Long Made Short, and All Gone has written a dazzling book of eighteen interlocking pieces. Part short story collection, part novel, Time to Go moves from despair to hope, from the passing of things—time, relationships, businesses, chances—to the coming of marriage, stability, family, a new life. It is a book that can be in turn frightening and funny, touching and tough—and one that is, on occasion, all these things at once.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Mr. Dixon wields a stubbornly plain-spoken style; he loves all sorts of tricky narrative effects. And he loves even more the tribulations of the fantasizing mind, ticklish in their comedy, alarming in their immediacy." -- New York Times, reviewing a previous edition or volume

Review

Mr. Dixon wields a stubbornly plain-spoken style; he loves all sorts of tricky narrative effects. And he loves even more the tribulations of the fantasizing mind, ticklish in their comedy, alarming in their immediacy.

(New York Times )

[Dixon's] stories, strengthened by their unity, almost have a novel's ability to develop character, to suggest a life outside the confines of the plot.

(Boston Globe )

[Time to Go] emphatically establishes him as one of the short story's most accomplished if quirky practitioners.

(Time )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (November 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801869668
• ISBN-13: 978-0801869662
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,512,321 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

4.0 out of 5 stars Every page a surprise, February 17, 2006

By 

shanarufus (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time to Go (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Paperback)

Stephen Dixon has not been high on my list of must read authors; just never got around to him with all the competing books dragging me hither and yon. At my library, someone had put this old-ish book of short stories on a rack near the checkout and on a whim I took it home. Holy moly, was this a surprise. There are maybe 15 or 18 stories and all of them in either larger or smaller doses have recurring characters. How and when they recur is a continuing surprise. That's only one interesting fact. Another interesting fact is that the stories are written in almost stream-of-consciousness when the narrator is thinking/speaking out loud, and when there is a dialogue going on, the reader is not always 100% sure who is saying what. It does not detract--it makes for a thrilling ride of a read. Fact number 3 is that only one story out of the whole stew didn't sustain the pace, the thrill, the excitement for this reader. My favorite contemporary short story writers are Sherman Alexie, Annie Proulx, Rick Moody, Andrea Barrett, Joseph Epstein, Nadine Gordimer, David Bezmozgis and Aleksander Hemon, to name a few. I namedrop those names so y'all can know where I'm coming from. I emailed the library to thank the anonymous library worker for putting that book out and I thank the universe privately for putting me in that spot where I could see it.