The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze: And Other Stories (New Directions Classic) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Horizontally wakeful amid universal widths, practising laughter and mirth, satire, the end of all, of Rome and yes of Babylon, clenched teeth, remembrance, much warmth..." (more)
Key Phrases: little brown snake, fiction room, San Francisco, New York, Theodore Badal (more...)

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Product Description

A timeless selection of brilliant short stories that won William Saroyan a position among the foremost, most widely popular writers of America when it first appeared in 1934.With the greatest of ease William Saroyan flew across the literary skies in 1934 with the publication of The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories. One of the first American writers to describe the immigrant experience in the U.S., Saroyan created characters who were Armenians, Jews, Chinese, Poles, Africans, and the Irish. The title story touchingly portrays the thoughts of a very young writer, dying of starvation. All of the tales were written during the great depression and reflect, through pathos and humor, the mood of the nation in one of its greatest times of want.

About the Author

William Saroyan (1908-1981), famous for a long and voluminous career, burst upon the literary scene in 1934 with his celebrated short-story collection of The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze. He went on to write novels, along with some sixteen story collections, and plays including The Human Comedy and The Time of Your Life, for which he won the Drama Critics Circle and Pulitzer Prizes. He lived and wrote about "the archetypal Armenian families who inhabit "Saroyan Country", in and around Fresno, California. [And yet with their] unpredictable charm and wacky spontaneity...his characters overflow with so much human comedy that they transcend all ethnic boundaries, as in the stories of I.B. Singer" (Chicago Tribune).

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081121365X
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213653
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,242 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It was the best book I read in the right time., August 12, 1998

By A Customer

I think there are not many books, that can change your life. This is one of them. I was sixteen when I read this book for the first time. I was not very happy in that time and I was rather confused by life but it has changed. In these short stories I could read about thoughts and feelings, that were similar to mine, but I had not be able to express them. But angle of wiev was new. It made me to live in spite of the world.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creatively crafted -- never a dull moment., December 15, 1998

By A Customer

Saroyan has a rare sense of language usage and introduces thoughts and ideas causing you to stop and realize how the grind of everyday life can be refreshing, moving, and humorous. His writings represent a slice of life in everyday America as well as amusing insights into the wacky right braininess of a writer. Once you get through the first chapter and can stand up again, the rest of the book is one deeper-than-real-life-story after another. Like Edith Wharton, Saroyan has a command of the craft of writing that seems lost in today's works.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saroyan's first book of stories., October 6, 1998

By A Customer

A masterful work. Most of them written in a thirty day period, in which Saroyan promised to send the editors od Story magazine a story a day for thirty days. He proceeded to do this and this book made Saroyan an instant celebrity.

Saroyan eventually went on to win the Pulitzer for his play "The Time of You Life", but turned it down.

This book was a stunner when it first appeared. The simple yet poetic language ran against the trend of the times.

Saroyan is a nearly forgotten genius, yet his influence is evident in even his enemies, like Ernest Hemingway.

Buy this book, read it, and then give it to somebody. They will thank you and so will I.