Specify Books In Pursuance Of The Collected Stories
| Original Title: | The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel |
| ISBN: | 0743289463 (ISBN13: 9780743289467) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Nominee (2007), Ambassador Book Award for Fiction (2007) |
Amy Hempel
Hardcover | Pages: 409 pages Rating: 4.26 | 6401 Users | 612 Reviews
Explanation As Books The Collected Stories
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel gathers together the complete work of a writer whose voice is as singular and astonishing as any in American fiction. Hempel, fiercely admired by writers and reviewers, has a sterling reputation that is based on four very short collections of stories, roughly fifteen thousand stunning sentences, written over a period of nearly three decades. These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With compassion, wit, and the acutest eye, Hempel observes the marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation in an uneasy America. When "Reasons to Live, " Hempel's first collection, was published in 1985, readers encountered a pitch-perfect voice in fiction and an unsettling assessment of the culture. That collection includes "San Francisco," which Alan Cheuse in "The Chicago Tribune" called "arguably the finest short story composed by any living writer." In "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, " her second collection, frequently compared to the work of Raymond Carver, Hempel refined and developed her unique grace and style and her unerring instinct for the moment that defines a character. Also included here, in their entirety, are the collections "Tumble Home" and "The Dog of the Marriage." As Rick Moody says of the title novella in Tumble Home, "the leap in mastery, in seriousness, and sheer literary purpose was inspiring to behold.... And yet," he continues, ""The Dog of the Marriage, " the fourth collection, is even better than the other three...a triumph, in fact." "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel" is the perfect opportunity for readers of contemporary American fiction to catch up to one of its masters. Moody's passionate and illuminating introduction celebrates both the appeal and the importance of Hempel's work.
Declare Regarding Books The Collected Stories
| Title | : | The Collected Stories |
| Author | : | Amy Hempel |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 409 pages |
| Published | : | May 9th 2006 by Scribner Book Company |
| Categories | : | Short Stories. Fiction. Literature |
Rating Regarding Books The Collected Stories
Ratings: 4.26 From 6401 Users | 612 ReviewsEvaluation Regarding Books The Collected Stories
There is some really terrific material in this collection; Hempel has a remarkable talent for refreshing turns of phrase and revealing details that lesser writers would never consider. At their best the stories exude sprightly spontaneity along with shrewd perceptions of human emotions and shortcomings. Hempel's voice is consistently wry, tough, and wise (but never self-important or excessively pessimistic). She's charming and disarming, yet unafraid of packing emotional punches; candid honestyThis is a book that many fiction writers have been waiting for for a long time, especially since Hempel's "Reasons to Live" has been out of print for a while. Essentially, this omnibus collection gathers together Hempel's four books of short fiction, including her most recent "The Dog of the Marriage." The book has been widely lauded in the press, but I will just say here that if you are looking to read some short stories by a master of minimalist fiction whose work is wryly funny and sad at the
"My heartI thought it stopped. So I got in my car and headed for God." So entered Amy Hempel into the book world, a master of the line to the point of hyper-intense concision. Hempel was one of the great short story writers of the 1980's whose career went beyond the popularity of form. When short stories weren't selling so well the in the 1990's, she tried to transform into a longer form writer, coming out with only the 80-page story Tumble Home, a good illustration of why that's not her
Amy Hempel writes intriguing, beautifully constructed sentences. Piecemeal they are pretty darn awesome. Here's the rub. I'm not sure if how one incredible sentence leads into another is coherent enough for me. I found a major disconnect. It's like being walked into a conversational corner, like recently when my sister in law compared the intrigues of Tupperware parties with Australian parliament. There may be true enough correlations, but I just couldn't get there. Either place.On the other
Her sentences are clear and hard and sometimes heavy, like glass I-beams. That's a bad metaphor, because they aren't transparent; the sentences are the things you notice the most. I first read Amy Hempel's story, "The Harvest," a while ago. I don't remember who told me about it. Someone in a writing group somewhere. I found it online and thought it was the most compressed, sharp blade of a story I'd ever read. I saved it somewhere on a now-defunct laptop. But now I've got the collection. Most of
Every story is a treasure - a puzzle box, or a quilt of memories - every sentence like an imperceptible razor.
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel is actually four books in one. The book pulls together the short stories published in Hempel's collections Reasons to Live (1985), At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990), Tumble Home (1997), and The Dog of the Marriage (2005). Hempel's writing is dark and often funny. Her imagery is always memorable ("her voice has lost weight"). And her observations (via her narrators) about her characters are always telling ("He could not wait to get rid of them so he
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