As someone who loves humorous and absurd short stories, I could see how Barthelme’s writing influenced many of my favorite writers. These stories were a delight to read. It is interesting to see the experimentation that the modern reader might take for granted, but was innovative when Barthelme wrote these stories. For short story lovers who want to read a writer at the top of their game.

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG

[Will post on instagram closer to publication date.]

I remember reading Donald Barthelme's Sixty Stories in college and thinking to myself, "Ah, this is what I've always wanted short stories to be." There was something about the rhythm of his work that struck me exactly right, almost like poetry, which can so vividly describe a world or a moment with only a few pages. And they were funny and clever. My three favorites---Me and Miss Mandible, The Captured Woman, and I Bought a Little City---also all seemed to offer trenchant existentialist takes that beautifully balanced insightful observations into the absurdity of the world with a real care for it.

The book, which draws together works from his first six short-story collections, is being reissued. And so it was interesting to revisit it. As LeGuin put it, "If a book told you something when you were fifteen, it will tell it to you again when you’re fifty, though you may understand it so differently that it seems you’re reading a whole new book." And, undoubtedly, I see some of the stories differently. But Barthelme's brilliance and craft still shine.