Synopses & Reviews
An energetic collection celebrating the bold writers at the forefront of todays literary worldfeaturing stories, essays, and poems from Americas greatest literary journal” (Time)
For more than half a century, the Paris Review has launched some of the most exciting new literary voices, from Philip Roth to David Foster Wallace. But rather than trading on nostalgia, the storied journalreconceived in 2010 by editor Lorin Steincontinues to search outside the mainstream for the most exciting emerging writers. Harmonizing a timeless literary feel with impeccable modern taste, its pages are vivid proof that the best of todays writing more than upholds the lofty standards that built the magazines reputation.
The Unprofessionals collects pieces from the new iteration of the Paris Review by contemporary writers who treat their art not as a profession, but as a calling. Some, like Zadie Smith, Ben Lerner, and John Jeremiah Sullivan, are already major literary presences, while others, like Emma Cline, Joshua Cohen, and Ottessa Moshfegh, will soon be household names.
A master class in contemporary writing across genres, this collection introduces the must-know voices in the modern literary scene.
Review
"...But just when you're ready to howl in frustration at the anthologification of the book world-
I've seen the best minds of my generation, live blogging about recipes that inspire them-along comes
The Book of Other People...Other People collects 23 pieces by a who's who of 21st-century geniuses and wunderkinds, from Dave Eggers to Edwidge Dandicat...Smith sent her contributors just one instruction: Make somebody up."
-USA Today
"Truly hip."
-The Boston Globe
"Whether they are old-fashioned narratives, playful improvisations or comic- strip-like tales told in pictures, these stories force us to re-evaluate that old chestnut "Character is destiny." They remind us that an individual's life is itself a narrative with a beginning, a middle and at least the intimations of an end. And they showcase the many time-honored techniques that writers use to limn their characters' predicaments, from straight-up ventriloquism to the use of unreliable narrators to a "Rashomon"-like splitting of perspectives."
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"From its strange, graphic-novelesque cover-an array of cartoonish sketches of odd-looking faces in profile, stacked like ladder rungs-to its uncommonly eye- catching lineup of contributors, "The Book of Other People," a 2008 paperback from Penguin Books, is extraordinary."
-Charlotte Observer
"If you only read one book, make it this dazzling selection of short stories..."
-Eve Magazine UK
"...Some of the wittiest and wisest stories you'll read all year..."
-Elle UK
"Character provides the thematic key to these stories, all new to this collection, from some of our finest younger contemporary fiction writers.
Editor and contributor Smith (On Beauty, 2005, etc.) invited 22 other authors, many of them (like her) better known for novels than short fiction, to write a story inspired by the creation of a character. "The instruction was simple," she writes in her introduction, "make somebody up." Yet the stories correspond to no consensus about the role of character in fiction, or a return to realism, or the responsibility of fiction to mirror society. To the contrary, what Smith believes the stories show is that "there are as many ways to create 'character' (or deny the possibility of 'character') as there are writers." The title of each story comes from the name of a character or type ("The Monster") with the selections sequenced alphabetically. Many of the writers, including Smith, come from the McSweeney's and/or Believer literary circle (Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida, Heidi Julavits, Chris Ware, Nick Hornby et al.) and most of the contributions range from the short to the very short (Toby Litt's "The Monster" is a four-page paragraph). With proceeds benefiting 826 New York (a nonprofit organization for the inspiration and development of student writing), none of the writers were paid for their work, with the results sometimes more playful (and occasionally slighter) than one has come to expect from them. Jonathan Lethem's Dickensian titled "Perkus Tooth" offers a hilarious dismissal of rock critics. A.L. Kennedy's "Frank" provides an existential parable about a man who isn't who he thinks he is. Though many of the stories have a first-person perspective, the narrator is rarely the title character, and some of the challenge for the reader can be determining whom a story is really about. In Colm T-ib"n's "Donal Webster," the name of the title character is never even mentioned, leaving the reader to guess who is addressing whom.
While the quality inevitably varies, the spirit of the anthology is that reading should be fun rather than work. -Kirkus Reviews
Review
"This is the anthology I've been looking for, for my Craft of Fiction class---the range and the types of stories included, the wide diversity of authors and traditions, the combination of experimentation and classics---this all makes for an exciting, useful, and enriching book for my students, and myself. Best of its type!" Don Skiles, Chabot College, CA
Synopsis
"A dispatch from the front lines of literature." The Atlantic
The Unprofessionals is an energetic collection celebrating the bold writers at the forefront of today s literary world featuring stories, essays, and poems from America s greatest literary journal (Time)
For more than half a century, the Paris Review has launched some of the most exciting new literary voices, from Philip Roth to David Foster Wallace. But rather than trading on nostalgia, the storied journal reconceived in 2010 by editor Lorin Stein continues to search outside the mainstream for the most exciting emerging writers. Harmonizing a timeless literary feel with impeccable modern taste, its pages are vivid proof that the best of today s writing more than upholds the lofty standards that built the magazine s reputation.
The Unprofessionalscollects pieces fromthe new iteration of the Paris Reviewby contemporary writers who treat their art not as a profession, but as a calling. Some, like Zadie Smith, Ben Lerner, and John Jeremiah Sullivan, are already major literary presences, while others, like Emma Cline, Benjamin Nugent, and Ottessa Moshfegh, will soon be household names.A master class in contemporary writing across genres, this collection introduces the must-know voices in the modern literary scene."
Synopsis
A stellar host of writers explore the cornerstone of fiction writing: character The Book of Other People is about character. Twenty-five or so outstanding writers have been asked by Zadie Smith to make up a fictional character. By any measure, creating character is at the heart of the fictional enterprise, and this book concentrates on writers who share a talent for making something recognizably human out of words (and, in the case of the graphic novelists, pictures). But the purpose of the book is variety: straight "realism"-if such a thing exists-is not the point. There are as many ways to create character as there are writers, and this anthology features a rich assortment of exceptional examples.
The writers featured in The Book of Other People include:
Aleksandar Hemon
Nick Hornby
Hari Kunzru
Toby Litt
David Mitchell
George Saunders
Colm Tand#243;iband#237;n
Chris Ware, and more
Synopsis
Following the immense success of The Art of the Tale, Daniel Halpern has assembled the next generation of short-story writers—those born after 1937—to create a companion volume, The Art of the Story. Attesting to the depth, range, and continued popularity of short fiction, this collection includes seventy-eight contributors from thirty-five countries. The Art of the Story combines the best of the established masters as well as the fresh, new voices of writers whose work has seldom been translated into English.
Synopsis
A collection of stories-some well known, some more obscure- capturing some of the best storytelling of this golden age of nonfiction.
An anthology of the best new masters of nonfiction storytelling, personally chosen and introduced by Ira Glass, the producer and host of the award-winning public radio program This American Life.
These pieces-on teenage white collar criminals, buying a cow, Saddam Hussein, drunken British soccer culture, and how we know everyone in our Rolodex-are meant to mesmerize and inspire.
About the Author
Since its founding in 1953, the
Paris Review has been Americas preeminent literary quarterly. The magazine introduced readers to the earliest writings of Jack Kerouac, Philip Roth, T. C. Boyle, V. S. Naipaul, Ha Jin, Jay McInerney, and Mona Simpson, among many others. The
Paris Review was edited by George Plimpton until his death in September 2003, after which he was succeeded by Philip Gourevitch. Lorin Stein was named editor in April 2010.
Lorin Stein joined the Paris Review as its third editor in 2010. He was previously an editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Steins reviews of fiction and poetry have appeared in the New York Review of Books, Harpers, the London Review of Books, the New Republic, and The Salon Guide to Contemporary Fiction. During Steins tenure as editor, the Paris Review has won two National Magazine Awards. He lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
The Art of the Story
Preface
Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghana
A Gift from Somewhere
Hanan Al-Shaykh, Lebanon
The Keeper of the Virgins
Julia Alvarez, United States
Amor Divino
Martin Amis, England
The Immortals
Reinaldo Arenas, Cuba
The Glass Tower
Margaret Atwood, Canada
Wilderness Tips
Toni Cade Bambara, United States
Gorilla, My Love
Russell Banks, United States
My Mother's Memoirs, My Father's Lie, and Other True Stories
Nicola Barker, England
G-String
Julian Barnes, England
Evermore
Richard Bausch, United States
Aren't You Happy for Me?
Ann Beattie, United States
In Amalfi
T. Coraghessan Boyle, United States
Rara Avis
Robert Olen Butler, United States
Mr. Green
Peter Carey, Australia
The Fat Man in History
Angela Carter, England
The Courtship of Mr. Lyon
Raymond Carver, United States
Are These Actual Miles?
Patrick Chamoiseau, Martinique
The Old Man Slave and the Mastiff
Vikram Chandra, India
Dharma
Sandra Cisneros, United States
Never Marry a Mexican
Jim Crace, England
The Prospect from the Silver Hills
Edwidge Danticat, Haiti
Night Women
Lydia Davis, United States
The House Behind
Daniele del Giudice, Italy
All Because of the Mistake
Junot Díaz, Dominican Republic
Ysrael
Patricia Duncker, England
Betrayal
Duong Thu Huong, Vietnam
Reflections of Spring
Deborah Eisenberg, United States
The Girl Who Left Her Sock on the Floor
Nathan Englander, United States
The Twenty-seventh Man
Victor Erofeyev, Russia
The Parakeet
Péter Esterházy, Hungary
Roberto Narrates
Nuruddin Farah, Somalia
My Father, The Englishman, and I
Richard Ford, United States
Optimists
Eduardo Galeano, Uruguay
The Story of the Lizard Who Had the Habit of Dining on His Wives
Hervé Guibert, France
The Hammam
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Tanzania
Escort
Barry Hannah, United States
Midnight and I'm Not Famous Yet
Peter Høeg, Denmark
Portrait of the Avant-Garde
Pawel Huelle, Poland
Moving House
Kazuo Ishiguro, England
A Family Supper
Roy Jacobsen, Norway
Encounter
Edward P. Jones, United States
The First Day
James Kelman, Scotland
Remember Young Cecil
Hanif Kureishi, England
Intimacy
Torgny Lindgren, Sweden
The Stump-Grubber
Bobbie Ann Mason, United States
Wish
Colum McCann, Ireland
Everything in This Country Must
Ian McEwan, Wales
Pornography
Steven Millhauser, United States
Behind the Blue Curtain
Lorrie Moore, United States
Willing
Mary Morris, United States
The Lifeguard
Mohammed Mrabet, Morocco
The Canebrake
Bharati Mukherjee, India
The Management of Grief
Murathan Mungan, Turkey
Muradhan and Selvihan or The Tale of the Crystal Kiosk
Haruki Murakami, Japan
The Elephant Vanishes
Joyce Carol Oates, United States
Mark of Satan
Ben Okri, Nigeria
In the Shadow of War
Amos Oz, Israel
Where the Jackals Howl
Victor Pelevin, Russia
The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII
Francine Prose, United States
Talking Dog
Salman Rushdie, England
The Free Radio
Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria
Africa Kills Her Sun
Ingo Schulze, Germany
The Ring
Graham Swift, England
Learning to Swim
Antonio Tabucchi, Italy
A Riddle
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Kenya
Minutes of Glory
Tatyana Tolstaya, Russia
On the Golden Porch
Rose Tremain, England
John-Jin
Luisa Valenzuela, Argentina
Who, Me a Bum?
Edmund White, United States
Cinnamon Skin
Zoë Wicomb, South Africa
You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town
John Edgar Wideman, United States
Doc's Story
Joy Williams, United States
The Farm
Jeanne Wilmot, United States
Dirt Angel
Jeanette Winterson, England
The Green Man
Tobias Wolff, United States
The Night in Question
Can Xue, China
The Child Who Raised Poisonous Snakes
Banana Yoshimoto, Japan
Helix
Biographical Notes