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72nd out of 100 books
—
46 voters
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories
In this collection of short stories, originally published in 1974, Grace Paley "makes the novel as a form seem virtually redundant" (Angela Carter, London Review of Books). Her stories here capture "the itch of the city, love between parents and children" and "the cutting edge of combat" (Lis Harris, The New York Times Book Review). In this collection of seventeen stories,
...more
Paperback, 216 pages
Published
September 1st 1985
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(first published 1974)
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Jan 05, 2011
Jessica
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
i DARE you to read this book if you have a penis; i bet you will like it
I am here to tell you that I have never read Chekov, and I don't think I've ever read Grace Paley either. Hot damn.
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Okay, so now I've read some Grace Paley (and a little Chekov too, actually), and I'm not sure what I'd expected, but this wasn't it. I think what surprised me about these stories was that they were so cool. I don't mean measured and even and emotionally restrained, I mean cool, they were cool, they were COOL stories! I mean yeah, of course they're dated I guess, being as they were...more
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Okay, so now I've read some Grace Paley (and a little Chekov too, actually), and I'm not sure what I'd expected, but this wasn't it. I think what surprised me about these stories was that they were so cool. I don't mean measured and even and emotionally restrained, I mean cool, they were cool, they were COOL stories! I mean yeah, of course they're dated I guess, being as they were...more
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What a strange collection of stories. This wasn't at all what I expected, although I'd always heard about Grace Paley in conjunction with others of my favorite writers (esp. Donald Barthelme). I don't know why I picked up this book today--I think it was a mention of her name in a Bookforum article that I read while I ate lunch and watched the snowstorm--but it was just right. I've been thinking about writing lately and about all of the not-writing I've been doing, and maybe this is just the kick...more
It's not often that my enjoyment of a book flags from beginning to end as much as it did with Grace Paley's Enormous Changes at the Last Minute. It's attributable, probably, to her unmistakable voice that tends to become a little laborious by the book's end. That is, the surprise and excitement wears away after the first few stories, and I'm left wanting a little more. They're bold, yes, but they also become a little samey.
I recognize this assessment is a little harsh, and probably unpopular. An...more
I recognize this assessment is a little harsh, and probably unpopular. An...more
Grace Paley’s stories are quirky, a little odd—the way she manipulates the language is a little out there, and I will always be fond of the puzzlement that comes over me when I’m reading her—especially her shorter work (two to four pages). These in particular had the feel of parables, surreal ones. Short but they manage to be meandering. Of course, that language of hers, her skewed worldview (haha), injects the stories with more than those few pages. It gets addictive–I admit to thumbing through...more
Apr 11, 2011
Caitlin
added it
It wasn't until this class that I came upon Grace Paley, and what had I been missing. Paley is without a doubt one of my new favorite authors who I plan on reading everything she's written in the next few months. She has such a strong female voice of her own, something I aspire to, and doesn't hold back on edgy subject matters. Her writing style is not a normative narrative voice generally and there's a lot to learn from her sense of humor, timing with characterization and her choice words.
In E...more
so grace paley has been on my reading list forever, so long that by the time i finally found this book at the iliad (o all thanks to the almighty iliad), i didn't even remember any longer why she had ended up on my reading list in the first place. so it was strange and unexpected to read these and see, strangely enough, that they were exactly 'up my alley' or whatever, because what i've always been really interested in in fiction is interaction, conversation, really tiny scenes of conversation t...more
It took me a couple stories to get into Paley's style - dialogue without quotations, frank, packed sentences. This collection is so fresh and funny and sad and serious, it has made me think a little more about what I want to say in my own fiction, to look at the world a little more widely and try, try to see it just as it is. Paley captures a very quickly changing New York - and America - with her mostly unwed mothers raised in socialist households and trying to raise good citizens in a Vietnam...more
Feb 25, 2009
Kirsten
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
lovers of bold, unconventional stories.
Recommended to Kirsten by:
Elizabeth
Elizabeth bought me the old-school Virago edition of this collection published in the 60's. There's a little sticker inside the front cover that says 'From the collection of Angela Carter.' Totally awesome.
It's amazing what Paley can accomplish with such economy: absurdity, tragedy, sly comedy. She's also an amazing channeler of voices: New York comes alive as a raucous chorus. "Conversations With My Father," which I had read before, is still my favorite story in the collection, as she engages i...more
It's amazing what Paley can accomplish with such economy: absurdity, tragedy, sly comedy. She's also an amazing channeler of voices: New York comes alive as a raucous chorus. "Conversations With My Father," which I had read before, is still my favorite story in the collection, as she engages i...more
I started this book on a wrong foot, bleary eyed on a night train with half a brain working. I stopped and googled the author, for I was not aware of the name Grace Paley, and listened to her read her own poetry. What a discovery! I restarted the book, and was immediately drawn in by her written voice. Favorite passages:
"As for you, fellow independent thinker of the Western Bloc, if you have anything sensible to say, don't wait. Shout it out right this minute. In twenty years, give or take a spr...more
"As for you, fellow independent thinker of the Western Bloc, if you have anything sensible to say, don't wait. Shout it out right this minute. In twenty years, give or take a spr...more
Donald Barthelme once affectionately called her a troublemaker, but I don't know that it's strictly true.
I think she just understood that trouble was never trouble at all--trouble is just everything that actually matters (the blood and money stuff that comes with caring)--and that we could do with a lot more of it.
I think she just understood that trouble was never trouble at all--trouble is just everything that actually matters (the blood and money stuff that comes with caring)--and that we could do with a lot more of it.
Dec 14, 2007
Libby
marked it as to-read
I just got this in the mail via Bookmooch. Yay! I have heard tell that Grace Paley--who writes about urbane Jewish girls, ahem--doesn't care about plotting. She is more interested in what she calls "movement." Obviously, we're meant for each other.
This is the first book I ever read of Grace Paley. I had no idea what I had been missing. I remember sitting in college, devouring her books like a hungry child, hoping one day to only be half as great as this book was.
Seventeen memorable stories in less than 200 pages,
most guaranteed to get the adrenalin and other precious
bodily fluids pumping. (Did for this reader, anyway.) A
father begs his writer-daughter to just write plain,
straightforward stories again. She gives him a quick
(paraphrase:) "See Jane. See Spot. See Spot run. Run,
Spot, run" and he says "No,no, you know that's not what
I mean. You left out all the things Turgenev knows to
put in." (Real quote now:) "That's the trouble with stories.
People...more
most guaranteed to get the adrenalin and other precious
bodily fluids pumping. (Did for this reader, anyway.) A
father begs his writer-daughter to just write plain,
straightforward stories again. She gives him a quick
(paraphrase:) "See Jane. See Spot. See Spot run. Run,
Spot, run" and he says "No,no, you know that's not what
I mean. You left out all the things Turgenev knows to
put in." (Real quote now:) "That's the trouble with stories.
People...more
this book was like meeting a stranger pal on the curb, having a heart-to-heart affirming that bastards are part of life then going about your business.
"wants" is one of my all-time favorite stories. this is a collection full of mothers and children and politics and change. it is a quick, but engaging read.
This was the next stop on my quest to read the short story masters. I'd been hearing great things about Grace Paley for a long time so was quite pleased to discover a copy of this book at the Book Thing. While I thought it was an overall good read, I definitely enjoyed some of the stories more than others. Paley's characters are often single mothers living in NYC, and I wasn't always able to connect with them. She definitely had a distinct style, and her prose reflects a careful attention to cho...more
Jun 14, 2011
Justin Jaeger
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Dialogue Students and Advanced Short Story Enthusiasts
Recommended to Justin by:
NPR's Bookworm
I think it would be difficult to declare any book the "quintessential" New York book. In fact, I'm not sure I can even really fathom the number of books and stories I've read in my life that involve the city. Because of that, I think that it's best to call Enormous Changes at the Last Minute a splendid representative of the Big Apple. I'm an imperfect judge however. I've never visited, but it feels appropriate for me now to be able to review Grace Paley's collection of short stories as I travel...more
In "Conversations with My Father," the narrator's father wants her to tell a simple story about simple people, like a story by de Maupassant, and she says, "I would like to try to tell such a story, if he means the kind that begins: 'There was a woman ...' followed by a plot, the absolute line between two points which I've always despised. Not for literary reasons, but because it takes all hope away. Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life."
I loved the open destinies of mos...more
I loved the open destinies of mos...more
This collection contains one of my all time favourite stories - Wants. It's effectively a flash, about 800 words, but reads so richly you don't notice Paley's economy. Also a very funny story in places (especially if you resonate with a narrator who can never check off everything on her To Do list.)
Accused by her ex-husband of having no wants, no desires, the narrator realizes that although she just fumbled along, raising children, living life day by day, she did indeed have wants. But her aspi...more
Accused by her ex-husband of having no wants, no desires, the narrator realizes that although she just fumbled along, raising children, living life day by day, she did indeed have wants. But her aspi...more
My first Grace Paley experience, and an extraordinary read. She describes actions and thoughts and concepts in a way that is hugely all-encompassing yet so brief and bare. "They shouldn't put a flag in the middle of the chocolate pudding. It's ridiculous." I marked up my copy a lot so I can refer back to these beautiful and/or hilarious and/or very truthful passages later.
VERY important to read the note at the beginning of the book: "Everyone in this book is imagined into life except the father...more
VERY important to read the note at the beginning of the book: "Everyone in this book is imagined into life except the father...more
I had a creative writing professor in college who said Grace Paley wrote the "perfect" short story. I'm not sure what constitutes perfection in the short story realm, but hers are pretty amazing and she has written my favorite story of all time, "A Conversation with my Father" which has my favorite line of all time: "Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life". Thank you Grace!
Somehow I had never come across Grace Paley until recently. I'm glad I did, though her books were written before and during the rise of feminism, the portraits of women in these stories feel modern. She has an unsentimental yet feeling take on motherhood and is able to make vivid portraits from small moments.
Paley is one of the big short story writers I've heard referenced over and over again that I apparently missed out on. This was the only collection at the local library but it was a good one. Oh the decay and desperation of mid-to-late century city life in America!
Bearing a title too-perfect an embodiment of hysterial realism thirty years before the term was coined, Paley's brilliant second collection is encyclopedic in spirit if not length: an acidic, terribly funny vivisection of the twentieth century and all its woes, joys, and fears. Essential.
Jul 07, 2011
Maureen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Maureen by:
Jens Lekman
This collection of short stories from the 1970's immediately grabbed me. Paley writes with a certain ache, humor, and acidity that makes her difficult to compare to other writers. I find myself slowing down as the book ends, to try to make it last just a little longer. My only regret is that I didn't discover her sooner, though with her slight catalogue, it may perhaps be a good thing to have waited to savor her unique capabilities.
Nobody writes like Grace Paley. Idiosyncratic, at times mind-blowingly clever or funny, and without a resolution in sight. As with Carver, some stories all but end midsentence, blacking you out just when you thought you might be on to something, but that's all right. Slice-of-life stories like none I've ever read. Each story seems to require the reader to stumble for a page or two before catching the rhythm. But several times I found myself surprised at the end of a story that I'd struggled to g...more
Oct 13, 2009
Camilla
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
michelle s., sarah, carey
Recommended to Camilla by:
michelle m.
What a surprise. The first story (I think my favorite) contains an entire lifetime in 3 pages, and I don't mean a chronology. She manages to convey something complete through a few details, a single scenario. I want to read more of her.
There's a sense of Edward Hopper just below the surface here--with disconnected people against flat backgrounds finding footing or losing ground. New York, New York.
One of the most accomplished and most surprising short story writers of all time. A classic. Anyone who wants to know how to write dialogue should read Grace Paley.
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Grace Paley was an American short story writer, poet, and political activist whose work won a number of awards.
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“There is a long time in me between knowing and telling.”
—
22 people liked it
“I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library.
Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified.
He said, What? What life? No life of mine.”
—
6 people liked it
More quotes…
Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified.
He said, What? What life? No life of mine.”
