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Contributors | November 10, 2009

Zachary Lazar: IMG Evening's Empire



Without knowing it, I'd always had two unspoken arrangements with the world. The first was that I would not trouble it with unpleasant conversation... Continue »
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More copies of this ISBN:

The Paris Review Book of People with Problems

by Paris Review

The Paris Review Book of People with Problems Cover

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The Paris Review Two-time National Magazine Awards Nominee, The Paris Review, offers Powell's readers an exclusive subscription offer — the best deal around. Click here for details.

The Paris Review has introduced the important writers of the day. Adrienne Rich was first published in its pages, as were Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Mona Simpson, Edward P. Jones, and Rick Moody. In addition to the focus on original creative work, The Paris Review's Writers at Work interview series offers authors a rare opportunity to discuss their life and art at length.

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The Paris Review asks: who hasn't survived a tax audit, a snowstorm, a break-up, or presided over a murder?

The next addictively clever Paris Review anthology is not a self-help manual; rather it is a wicked elaboration on the human effort to overcome — and instigate — trouble. Throughout these pages you will find men plagued with guilt, women burdened by history, scientists bound by passion, mothers fogged with delusion, and lovers vexed with jealousy. In the theme that encompasses every life, no protagonist — or reader! — is exempt.

Among those to appear:
- Annie Proulx
- Andre Dubus
- Norman Rush
- Charles Baxter
- Wells Tower
- Julie Orringer
- Elizabeth Gilbert
- Ben Okri
- Rick Bass

Review:

"All fiction concerns people with problems — without them, after all, where's the plot? — but the characters in these 17 stories, originally published in the Paris Review between 1974 and 2004, have been dealt particularly bad hands. Some, like the junkie mother in Malinda McCollum's 'The Fifth Wall,' have screwed up their lives pretty thoroughly, while others appear to be merely drifting along, like the therapist in Charles Baxter's 'Westland.' The tone shifts from story to story: Joanna Scott traces the beginnings of a psychoanalyst's obsession with a patient in the neutral language of a case history, while Elizabeth Gilbert continually ups the farcical stakes as she spins a yarn about a violent nightclub owner, his magician daughter and their rabbit. Other contributors include Denis Johnson, Mary Robison, Rick Bass and Norman Rush. Charlie Smith's tale of drunken buddies who hook up with a naked woman on a canoeing trip is the only real misstep, coming off like a parody of stories of rural dysfunction. But this is overall a strong anthology of tales of trouble. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"[A]n expert collation of professional-managerial angst." San Francisco Chronicle

Synopsis:

The next addictively clever Paris Review anthology is not a self-help manual; rather it is a wicked elaboration on the human effort to overcome — and instigate — trouble. Among those to appear are Annie Proulx, Norman Rush, Elizabeth Gilbert, Rick Bass, Andre Dubus, and Julie Orringer.

Synopsis:

"The Paris Review" asks: who hasn't survived a tax audit, a snowstorm, a breakup, or presided over a murder? The next addictively clever "Paris Review" anthology is not a self-help manual; rather it is a wicked elaboration on the human effort to overcome--and instigate--trouble. Contributors include Annie Proulx, Andre Dubus, Norman Rush, and others.

About the Author

The Paris Review has published the work of Gabriel García Márquez, Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, Michael Chabon, and Jack Kerouac, among many others. They celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 2003.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Stephin Merritt

A Borderline Case by Joanna Scott

The Wamsutter Wolf by Annie Proulx

The Dream Vendor's August by Ben Okri

The Brown Coast by Wells Tower

When She Is Old and I Am Famous by Julie Orringer

The Hermit's Story by Rick Bass

Snow by James Lasdun

The Fifth Wall by Malinda McCollum

Instruments of Seduction by Norman Rush

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

Likely Lake by Mary Robison

Westland by Charles Baxter

Birthmark by Miranda July

Audit by Richard Stern

The Famous Torn and Restored Lit Cigarette Trick by Elizabeth Gilbert

Widow Water by Frederick Busch

Crystal River by Charlie Smith

Contributors

Acknowledgments


Product Details

ISBN:
9780312422417
Author:
Paris Review
Publisher:
Picador USA
Editor:
The, Paris Review
Author:
The Paris Review
Author:
The, Paris Review
Subject:
Anthologies (multiple authors)
Subject:
Conduct of life
Subject:
Psychological fiction, American
Edition Description:
Bilingual
Publication Date:
August 2005
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
384
Dimensions:
7.60x5.76x.99 in. .77 lbs.

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