Synopses & Reviews
Review
"So immediately sensual are the details in these stories—Kay Boyle writes with such vibrance—that you will almost have to remind yourself that the times in which they are set are now historical in a different sense from when the stories were published first. But the author's awareness of the historical importance of her times does affect the mood of the stories, most of which take place during the thirties and forties in Europe. One might expect her characters to be victims of circumstance. They are not. Their examples affirm the possibility of personal victory even during an age of extremes, the extremes of heroic virtue and shamefulness. These characters, ranging from the most ordinary to perhaps the most eccentric, are at their best—are most human, in fact, when they accept their responsibilities as individuals. It is their acceptance of responsibilities— which, however ordinary, are morally awesome—that gives to them and this collection their purposeful strength." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
Boyle, 50 Stories. An eloquent testament to the possibilities of living and writing.
Synopsis
Kay Boyle's Fifty Stories is an eloquent testament to the possibility of living and writing with passion and honor. In Paris in the twenties, in Austria before and after the Anschluss, in New York, in occupied Germany, in California, Boyle has been an inspiration both as an exquisite stylist and as a chronicler of the nuances of human experience.