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briandice's review against another edition
4.0
I am so glad that I came to Donald Barthelme by way of Charles Baxter. And after reading Barthelme's short fiction, I understand more fully why Dave Eggers felt like a thief after reading Barthelme following the publication of his fiction. He's an original, a genre defining giant, and his writing just doesn't give a shit whether or not you get it (admittedly several stories, I didn't) - he's plowing forward without you.
"Some of us had been threatening our friend Colby" (found here for free http://www.jessamyn.com/barth/colby.html) is genius. The opening line to "Bluebeard" is so great - I don't want to ruin it by typing it here. I agree with other people that Barthelme isn't for everyone; but if you are a fan of the short fiction genre, and you want to experience one of the godfathers of the craft in the late 20th century, I highly recommend this book.
"Some of us had been threatening our friend Colby" (found here for free http://www.jessamyn.com/barth/colby.html) is genius. The opening line to "Bluebeard" is so great - I don't want to ruin it by typing it here. I agree with other people that Barthelme isn't for everyone; but if you are a fan of the short fiction genre, and you want to experience one of the godfathers of the craft in the late 20th century, I highly recommend this book.
lookhome's review against another edition
3.0
I read this in spurts over the course of the last few months. There are a few "fine tales" in here, The palace at four am, at the tolstoy museum, Blubeard, the Educational Experience & The Baby.
It contains a wide range of stories but it is widely inconsistent.
I disliked far more stories than I liked and I just barely finished it. However, the stories' short length makes for great bedtime reading...At least they allow your eyes to decompress from a compute screen.
A quote on the jacket of my editon said "He can sound like S.J. Perelman or Groucho Marx one mins and like hugo or Kafka the next", so its bound to attract different tastes and different preferences.
As a result, know that you will love, hate and ultimately feel very little throughout the various stories.
A friend gave me a copy of the book and I read it because I saw somewhere that David Foster Wallace likes him. I read The balloon, which is the specific short story Wallace mentions. It's much better than anything in this book.
Read at your own risk of lost time...
It contains a wide range of stories but it is widely inconsistent.
I disliked far more stories than I liked and I just barely finished it. However, the stories' short length makes for great bedtime reading...At least they allow your eyes to decompress from a compute screen.
A quote on the jacket of my editon said "He can sound like S.J. Perelman or Groucho Marx one mins and like hugo or Kafka the next", so its bound to attract different tastes and different preferences.
As a result, know that you will love, hate and ultimately feel very little throughout the various stories.
A friend gave me a copy of the book and I read it because I saw somewhere that David Foster Wallace likes him. I read The balloon, which is the specific short story Wallace mentions. It's much better than anything in this book.
Read at your own risk of lost time...
nhcfriedman's review against another edition
5.0
Just delightful. Highlights:
Chablis
Concerning the Bodyguard
Jaws
The New Owner
Engineer-Private Paul Klee Misplaces an Aircraft between Milbertshoffen and Cambrai, March 1916
Bluebeard
Departures
Visitors
The Wound
At the Tolstoy Museum
The Temptation of St. Anthony
Some of Us Have Been Threatening Our Friend Colby
Sakrete
Most of the others have lovely redeeming features too.
Chablis
Concerning the Bodyguard
Jaws
The New Owner
Engineer-Private Paul Klee Misplaces an Aircraft between Milbertshoffen and Cambrai, March 1916
Bluebeard
Departures
Visitors
The Wound
At the Tolstoy Museum
The Temptation of St. Anthony
Some of Us Have Been Threatening Our Friend Colby
Sakrete
Most of the others have lovely redeeming features too.
edboies's review against another edition
5.0
God, I read this book so long ago. I just came upon another copy and I can't wait to read it again.
captainsilv's review against another edition
1.0
I honestly have no idea what this book is about.
A collection of short stories that make no sense whatsoever. Shrug.
A collection of short stories that make no sense whatsoever. Shrug.
margaret_adams's review against another edition
Read for a writing friend who told me “[Barthelme’s] stories are so funny you can read them aloud at parties,” and then refused to invite me to the kinds of parties where people read Barthelme out loud; he later covered by saying something about how he’d only said you can read them aloud at parties but that didn’t mean he actually went to parties where people read Barthelme out loud. After having read forty of Barthelme’s stories now, I think that willfully fixating on this syntactical misconstruction is an appropriate authorial tribute. I want Barthelme read out loud at social functions and I feel robbed!
With less Barthelme-themed-petulance: this book had also just popped up on another friend’s syllabus for a flash fiction class he was teaching, in the same pile as Atwood’s The Tent and Saunder’s Tenth of December , the kind of company that recommends any book, in my opinion.
I couldn’t read too many of these stories in a row without feeling worn out--Barthelme is exhausting as only the rambunctiously intelligent can be (the urge to get the author a Labrador so he’ll stop writing and run around outside is as strong as it is to read his stories out loud at parties). Still. My favorites were “Chablis” (“My wife wants a dog. She already has a baby. The baby’s almost two. My wife says that the baby wants the dog.”) and “Jaws,” about a wife who bites her husband when conflict arises. From “Jaws”:
Barthelme has the ability to nail humor, absurdity, and truthfulness in one go. It’s like he’s just waiting for these three things to line up in a row like an eclipse, and then BAM, he’s got another killer flash fictions.
Other favorites: “Engineer-Private Paul Klee Misplaces and Aircraft Between Milbertshofen and Cambrai, March 1916,” “Bluebeard,” “Sakrete,” and “The Baby.”
With less Barthelme-themed-petulance: this book had also just popped up on another friend’s syllabus for a flash fiction class he was teaching, in the same pile as Atwood’s The Tent and Saunder’s Tenth of December , the kind of company that recommends any book, in my opinion.
I couldn’t read too many of these stories in a row without feeling worn out--Barthelme is exhausting as only the rambunctiously intelligent can be (the urge to get the author a Labrador so he’ll stop writing and run around outside is as strong as it is to read his stories out loud at parties). Still. My favorites were “Chablis” (“My wife wants a dog. She already has a baby. The baby’s almost two. My wife says that the baby wants the dog.”) and “Jaws,” about a wife who bites her husband when conflict arises. From “Jaws”:
“Verbal presentations, with William and Natasha, are no good. So many terrible sentences drift in the poisoned air between them, sentences about who is right and sentences about who works hardest and sentences about money and even sentences about physical appearance--the most ghastly of known sentences. That’s why Natasha bites, I’m convinced of it. She’s trying to say something. She opens her mouth, then closes it (futility) on William’s arm (sudden eloquence). I like them both, so they both tell me about these incidences and I rationalize it and say, well, that’s not so terrible, maybe she’s under stress, or maybe he’s under stress. I neglect to mention that most people in New York are under some degree of stress and few of them, to my knowledge, bite each other."
Barthelme has the ability to nail humor, absurdity, and truthfulness in one go. It’s like he’s just waiting for these three things to line up in a row like an eclipse, and then BAM, he’s got another killer flash fictions.
Other favorites: “Engineer-Private Paul Klee Misplaces and Aircraft Between Milbertshofen and Cambrai, March 1916,” “Bluebeard,” “Sakrete,” and “The Baby.”
stewreads's review against another edition
4.0
3.75 stars.
Barthelme continues to confound, if not amaze, in this collection. Much like in Sixty Stories, these very short stories are episodic, absurd to the point of incomprehension, hilarious, and extraordinarily well-written. However, Forty Stories seems to be composed mainly of the leftovers from the 5-star feast that the other collection is, and some ideas fall flat. In short, this is a very good companion collection, but I wouldn't recommend it on its own.
Barthelme continues to confound, if not amaze, in this collection. Much like in Sixty Stories, these very short stories are episodic, absurd to the point of incomprehension, hilarious, and extraordinarily well-written. However, Forty Stories seems to be composed mainly of the leftovers from the 5-star feast that the other collection is, and some ideas fall flat. In short, this is a very good companion collection, but I wouldn't recommend it on its own.