Be Specific About Books In Favor 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
Present Epithetical 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 |
Interpretation 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.Rating Epithetical Books The Collected Stories
Ratings: 4.26 From 6401 Users | 612 ReviewsAppraise Epithetical 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 honestyI workshopped a story about a dog in one of my fiction writing classes at school last semester, and several people informed me that I needed to read Amy Hempel. They told me that she wrote these great stories that always had dogs in them. They always have dogs in them? I asked. That's like her trademark?And while I was busy sort of mocking this idea, one of my friends pointed out that I had written a story about a dog, and I found myself out of excuses.And wow, am I ever glad that I read the
Because I typically fall asleep or become distracted after a few pages of reading, short stories are ideal for me. In addition to that, a well-read friend of mine recommended this book to me, so I was really looking forward to exploring it. My excitement did not last long, however. I've read about four of her stories now, and I'm still wondering when things are supposed to become interesting. The book has been given plenty of awards and good reviews, but I can't quite seem to figure out why.
Am I the only reader who doesn't take pleasure in reading Amy Hempel? She is always praised for writing "the perfect sentence," for the way she distills a story to its poetic essence, for writing precise little gems. (Some stories are less than two pages long.) How can I describe my aversion? Is it that I feel like I'm being toyed with? That Hempel's spareness is a literary exercise? There's a chill in her writing that comes from that spareness, I think. There was one story that was superb, "In
Annie Dillard writes in one of her books about a young student approaching his famous writer/professor. "So you think I can be a great writer?" asks the student. "I don't know. Do you like sentences?"" answers his teacher. I thought about this as I read Amy Hempel's book because I paused after so many sentences while reading. Paused not only for "wow" but paused also for "mmm" and paused also for "ouch", like when the sentence evoked the memory of hurt (to you or by you). If you like to write,
It was hard for me to read this book without constantly thinking about the agonizing amount of work that had to go into every single sentence. I kept picturing this frowny-faced, chain-smoking woman slumped over a typewriter desperately trying to warp every word to express exactly what she wanted. The end result was appropriately rewarding.
I tried to like her stories, but after making it about a third of the way through this book, I gave up -- something I rarely do. The writing just seemed too affected, too deliberately offhand. Try as I might, I simply could not connect with her characters, and I simply could not relate to the universe they inhabited. A quick example: In one story, a character is said to hurl his wife's false teeth "like a discus." Sorry, that is simply not believable, and seems to have been written by someone
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