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The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel
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$27.50
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Manufacturer: Scribner
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743289467
ISBN: 0743289463
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2006-05-09
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel gathers together the complete work of a writer whose voice is as singular and astonishing as any in American fiction. Hempel, fiercely admired by writers and reviewers, has a sterling reputation that is based on four very short collections of stories, roughly fifteen thousand stunning sentences, written over a period of nearly three decades. These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With compassion, wit, and the acutest eye, Hempel observes the marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation in an uneasy America. 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 American fiction 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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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful eloquence
Comment: Amy Hempel has the ability tell a whole life in a few pages. Her stories are perfect.
Customer Rating:
Summary: HEARTBREAKING AND GUT-WRENCHING -- WHAT A COMBINATION
Comment: Anyone who thinks minimalist writing died in the 1990s should read "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel," which takes us right up to Hempel's most recent collection of short stories, originally published in 2005. The short works of fiction here, representing the entire output of Hempel's career to date, are alive and beating with desire and yearning. Most of them, centering around confused young women on the verge of an emotional breakdown or epiphany, manage to be both heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. What a combination! And what a treat to finally have Hempel's stories all in one place! (On the down side, when read in one big batch, a few of the weaker entries stand out as near-parodies of Hempel's spare style, which might seem deceivingly simple or even intentionally literary.) Of interest: the war of words between minimalists and literary "maximalists" has heated up again, a decade after the battle spilled onto the letters pages of Harper's Magazine. In his introduction, writer Rick Moody, in a fighting mood, offers unqualified praise of Hempel's lean prose while getting in a cheap shot at "those big encyclopedic tomes that the boys, obsessed with the sound of their own voices, were frequently writing in the same period." Could he possibly mean David Foster Wallace?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Prose Poems
Comment: I too discovered Hempel via Chuck Palahniuk, and although at her best she is very, very good -- packing a wallop into a dense little story that only hints at the backstory -- unfortunately I found 432 pages of her a bit too much. Her stories are perhaps best in isolation, where they can creep up on the reader unannounced.
After four novel-length collections of shorts, I began to feel her stories were like modern poetry, although written in prose. Each word is obviously carefully chosen, and the arc of the story is plotted to the split-second of reader realization, but most of them, almost all of them except the ones I've come to think of as the "very, very good" ones, ultimately dealt with subjects of no lasting emotional or psychological impact. They are fireflies in the night, dandelion seeds in the wind, smoke in the air, the lingering fragrance of a woman who left the room some time ago.
They are a pleasure to read in roughly the same way a well-crafted gun is a pleasure to hold, or a fine automobile is to drive. You can appreciate the craftsmanship... even as you dismiss the usefulness of having all that horsepower serving a need you really don't have.
Customer Rating:
Summary: FALLING DOWN THE CLIFF
Comment: Life is a runaway. The word is driving west on the Highway One, and the meaning fill all the lanes. No matter where you stand (leftside, righside, in the middle of the road) you will be run over. Crash Amy Hempel and fall down the cliff. Down into the honesty ocean. Down into the language of grief.
A friend from Spain recommend this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good story?-somethines
Comment: I like a good short story- more in the style of Damon Runyon or Edward Jones. Hempel's collection were what I would read for an English essay class rather then an enjoyable book of stories. I sometimes fell asleep or missed the story unless I re-read to find the necessary details. I'm still not sure I understand the story of the friend in the hospital. There were some good essays but some do not make a 5 star book. I had to work harder then I think I should with a book I am reading for enjoyment. Few stories hit a memory or made me ponder. I was honestly surprised at how many 5 star reviews she received and at how few readers were in the middle because there was not a commonality in the stories in my opinion. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I had picked it up at odd moments and read a small amount instead of reading it cover to cover. This would be my advise for future readers.
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