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Available
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Collection
Publication
Penguin Books (1987), Trade Paperback, 816 pages
Description
The years since World War II have seen an exciting resurgence of the short story. From Albert Camus to William Maxwell, from Amos Oz to R.K. Narayan, from Ann Beattie to Yukio Mishima - this incomparably rich and diverse collection attests to the vigor and excellence of the modern short story throughout the world. Daniel Halpern's marvelous anthology offers not only European and American but also Third World literature of the first rank (fully a third of the works are translated); and of the English-language stories, a considerable number are by Australian, African, and Asian writers. The eighty-one masterpieces Halpern has chosen include traditional forms, both of classical realism and of the extended fairy tale or fable, as well as the gossipy village banter of the traditional folktale and the outer bounds of surrealist fiction. Many of the stories are cast against an exotic setting; others are humorous and matter-of-fact; some are political, others entirely absorbed with private themes of the heart.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Mifune
Good thing I got through this relatively quickly (I still have Penguin's "The Art of the Story" to trudge through - a more current companion piece of international short stories).
So, out of eighty-one stories, I was almost always approving, somewhat floored, and rarely disappointed. I already know
But the biggest thing I probably learned here is that I've been missing out on some Mishima, which I immediately remedied by putting all of his books on my "to read" list.
Top Ten:
01. Hair Jewellery - Atwood
02. Spring in Fialta - Nabokov
03. Pariotism - Mishima
04. A Set of Variations on a Borrowed Theme - O'Conner
05. The Country Husband - Cheever
06. Children of Their Birthdays - Capote
07. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Borowski
08. First Love, Last Rites - McEwan
09. The Tryst - Oates
10. Little Whale, Varnisher of Reality - Aksenov
So, out of eighty-one stories, I was almost always approving, somewhat floored, and rarely disappointed. I already know
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I plan on using this for many future references. Sometimes a flailing read, though rarely, most of the best compilation short story books always eventually pick up their pace. Obviously, this one is no exception.But the biggest thing I probably learned here is that I've been missing out on some Mishima, which I immediately remedied by putting all of his books on my "to read" list.
Top Ten:
01. Hair Jewellery - Atwood
02. Spring in Fialta - Nabokov
03. Pariotism - Mishima
04. A Set of Variations on a Borrowed Theme - O'Conner
05. The Country Husband - Cheever
06. Children of Their Birthdays - Capote
07. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Borowski
08. First Love, Last Rites - McEwan
09. The Tryst - Oates
10. Little Whale, Varnisher of Reality - Aksenov
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LibraryThing member burritapal
As any anthology, there're some really good stories, and then we big flops. Some were so bad, I turned down the pages of the whole story, to show my disdain. I owned this book, so I could get away with it. Here are the stories that rated 4 Stars:
"Going to Meet the Man," James Baldwin
"Greasy Lake,"
"The Adulterous Woman," Albert Camus
"Order of Insects," William Gass
"The Mother," Natalia Ginsburg
"The Habit of Loving," Doris Lessing
"The Last Mohican," Bernard Malamud
"Patriotism," Yukio Mishima
"Talpa," Juan Rulfo
AND here's some meaningful quotes I liked:
From "Everything," Ingeborg Bachmann:
"I once read in a book the sentence: 'it is not heaven's way to raise its head.' It would be a good thing if everyone knew of this sentence that speaks of the hardness of heaven. Oh no, it really isn't heaven's way to look down, to give signs to the bewildered people below it. At least not where such a somber drama takes place in which it too, this fabricated 'above,' plays a part."
From "Why I Transformed Myself Into a Nightingale," by Wolfgang Hildesheimer:
"I might mention here that I did not arrive at the decision I made during the next year because I wanted to appear eccentric or unique in the eyes of others. It was more my growing awareness that I couldn't select a conventional, bourgeois profession without in some way interfering with other people's lives. The career of a bureaucrat seemed particularly immoral to me, but I rejected other, more accepted humanitarian careers as well. To me, the work of a doctor who could save human life through his interference was highly suspect, because it might be that the person he saved was an out-and-out scoundrel whose life hundreds of oppressed people fervently wished would end."
From "A Friend and Protector," by Peter Taylor:
"That was the end of it for Jesse. And this is where I would like to leave off. It is the next part that is hardest for me to tell. But the whole truth is that my aunt did more than just show herself to Jesse through the glass door. While she remained there her behavior was such that it made me understand for the first time that this was not merely the story of that purplish black, kinky headed Jesse's ruined life. It is the story of my aunt's pathetically Unruined life, and my uncle's too, and even my own. I mean to say that at this moment I understood that Jesse's outside activities had been not only his, but ours too. My Uncle Andrew, with his double standard or triple standard - whichever it was - had most certainly forced Jesse's destruction upon him, and Aunt Margaret had made the complete destruction possible and desirable to him with her censorious words and looks. But they did it because they had to, because they were so dissatisfied with the pale unruin of their own lives. They did it because something would not let them ruin their own lives as they wanted and felt a need to do – as I have often felt a need to do, myself. As who does not sometimes feel a need to do? Without knowing it, I think, Aunt Margaret wanted to see Jesse as he was that morning. And it occurs to me now that dr. Morley understood this at the time."
"Going to Meet the Man," James Baldwin
"Greasy Lake,"
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T. Coraghessan Boyle"The Adulterous Woman," Albert Camus
"Order of Insects," William Gass
"The Mother," Natalia Ginsburg
"The Habit of Loving," Doris Lessing
"The Last Mohican," Bernard Malamud
"Patriotism," Yukio Mishima
"Talpa," Juan Rulfo
AND here's some meaningful quotes I liked:
From "Everything," Ingeborg Bachmann:
"I once read in a book the sentence: 'it is not heaven's way to raise its head.' It would be a good thing if everyone knew of this sentence that speaks of the hardness of heaven. Oh no, it really isn't heaven's way to look down, to give signs to the bewildered people below it. At least not where such a somber drama takes place in which it too, this fabricated 'above,' plays a part."
From "Why I Transformed Myself Into a Nightingale," by Wolfgang Hildesheimer:
"I might mention here that I did not arrive at the decision I made during the next year because I wanted to appear eccentric or unique in the eyes of others. It was more my growing awareness that I couldn't select a conventional, bourgeois profession without in some way interfering with other people's lives. The career of a bureaucrat seemed particularly immoral to me, but I rejected other, more accepted humanitarian careers as well. To me, the work of a doctor who could save human life through his interference was highly suspect, because it might be that the person he saved was an out-and-out scoundrel whose life hundreds of oppressed people fervently wished would end."
From "A Friend and Protector," by Peter Taylor:
"That was the end of it for Jesse. And this is where I would like to leave off. It is the next part that is hardest for me to tell. But the whole truth is that my aunt did more than just show herself to Jesse through the glass door. While she remained there her behavior was such that it made me understand for the first time that this was not merely the story of that purplish black, kinky headed Jesse's ruined life. It is the story of my aunt's pathetically Unruined life, and my uncle's too, and even my own. I mean to say that at this moment I understood that Jesse's outside activities had been not only his, but ours too. My Uncle Andrew, with his double standard or triple standard - whichever it was - had most certainly forced Jesse's destruction upon him, and Aunt Margaret had made the complete destruction possible and desirable to him with her censorious words and looks. But they did it because they had to, because they were so dissatisfied with the pale unruin of their own lives. They did it because something would not let them ruin their own lives as they wanted and felt a need to do – as I have often felt a need to do, myself. As who does not sometimes feel a need to do? Without knowing it, I think, Aunt Margaret wanted to see Jesse as he was that morning. And it occurs to me now that dr. Morley understood this at the time."
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Subjects
Language
Physical description
832 p.; 9.28 inches
ISBN
0140079491 / 9780140079494
Local notes
lr 4/10
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The Art of the Story : An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories by Daniel Halpern (editor)
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