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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780743289467 |
Powells.com Staff Pick
I read The Collected Stories in order, over the course of a single week. My long overdue introduction to Amy Hempel — it was a very good week, indeed. By the time I finished I'd penciled five names onto the back of the last page: friends who'll soon be getting a copy in the mail.
It would not be unfair to call Hempel a writer's writer, but it might be
misleading — she's a reader's writer, too. Some of her stories contain
only a few lines; few run longer than ten or twelve pages. None rely on
high-concept mechanics or lofty language. She demands very little of her
readership, and then delivers in spades. Hempel has been called a
miniaturist — fair enough — but if her stories tend to be small in
scale, they drill as deep as fiction goes. Emotionally charged,
fantastically precise, an Amy Hempel story is a miracle of articulation.
Recommended by Dave, Powells.com (See all of our Staff Top 5s of 2006)
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)
"Few fiction writers are as intensely admired by their peers as is Hempel, though she's never published a novel. Her reputation rests solely on the four landmark collections of short fiction gathered here....Although leavened by a wry rue, Hempel's is a hard-boiled sensibility, and each of her stories — many only a few pages long, and one of which consists of a single sentence — will leave the reader shaken..." Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic Monthly review)
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
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 Americanfiction 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.
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Synopsis:
Synopsis:
With her inimitable compassion and wit, Hempel introduces characters who make choices that seem inevitable, and whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience.
For readers who have known Hempel's work for decades and for those who are just discovering her, this indispensable volume contains all the stories in Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, and The Dog of the Marriage. No reader of great writing should be without it.
About the Author
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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venusinfauxfurz, May 1, 2007 (view all comments by venusinfauxfurz)
This book is worth every penny. There are more perfect sentences in this book than anything else that's been published lately.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780743289467
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Scribner Book Company
- Introduction:
- Moody, Rick
- Illustrator:
- Moody, Rick
- Author:
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- Social life and customs
- Subject:
- United states
- Subject:
- Short Stories (single author)
- Subject:
- Stories (single author)
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Publication Date:
- May 2006
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- YES
- Pages:
- 409
- Dimensions:
- 9.24x6.36x1.25 in. 1.45 lbs.
