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The Stories of Richard Bausch
A 2004 PEN/Malamud Award winner, this collection celebrates the work of American artist Richard Bausch -- a writer the New York Times calls "a master of the short story." By turns tender, raw, heartbreaking, and riotously funny, the many voices of this definitive forty-two-story collection (seven of which appear here for the first time) defy expectation, attest t
...morePaperback, 672 pages
Published
November 9th 2004
by Harper Perennial
(first published 2003)
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Nicole Gadbois
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This guy is a great writer, and an interesting man. I had the opportunity to meet him at college. He taught me something valuable about writing. He said that most writers make the mistake of only writing about their experiences. He said it is important to take the feeling of those experiences that have defined your life and write a million stories from those feelings.
Bausch can be hit or miss, as this volume amply demonstrates. I'd recommend his two best individual collections, "The Fireman's Wife" and "Rare & Endangered Species," over this one. You'll have fewer weak stories to wade through.
Closer to 3.5; quite good. His style didn't completely work for me, unfortunately, though I could tell he is a very fine writer. The stories I found most effective were 'Glass Meadow', 'Someone to Watch Over Me', 'What Feels Like the World', 'Old West' and assorted others.
I've read Richard Bausch's "Valor" elsewhere, and this seems like something I'd enjoy. I noticed he had a penchant for being able to communicate the difficulty in communicating. That is, um, a hard road to hoe.
I happened upon this book at a used bookstore, not sure why it called out to me, but somehow it did. And boy am I glad. By far one of the best short story collections I have ever read. Truly on par with the likes of John Cheever. The truth is that most people are not heroes, they simply are people.
Every writer should read the stories in this collection. I've never read his novels, but Bausch is a master of the short story form.
I enjoyed the stories in this collection, but honestly, I think it is perhaps best to not read through this as one would a novel. This being a library book, I felt obligated to get it read and attempt to return it by the due date. These stories all deal with sad or emotional moments and I felt a little relieved dropping it in the return slot in the library. On to happier stories.
I will definitely read more by Bausch though. Even in the shorter stories he had a way of pulling me in af...more
I will definitely read more by Bausch though. Even in the shorter stories he had a way of pulling me in af...more
Jimmy
added it
the sadness in top form. still the sadness though.
He's underread and undertaught. A complete master of the quiet short story where everything's at stake, but you don't notice it until you're a paragraph past. Stories like "Letter to the Lady of the House," "Valor," "Par," and "Aren't You Happy For Me?" are more true than any nonfiction ever written. If it's true that we read fiction to be transported someplace else, Bausch proves the very best fiction can turn your gaze inward and make you wonder if you'r...more
scott
added it
The stories collected here were written over some twenty years, and so reading them together made for a fun comparison. Some of the stories are riskier than others, and some of the stories are more straight- forward ("Someone to Watch Over Me" at one end and "The Fireman's Wife" at the other). With one exception, all of them are ambitous and beautifully made ("Old West" didn't work for me, but 43/44 stories is pretty impressive)
This guy is a great writer. He's like a gentile Roth, in a sense. Moderately and accessibly American, in a way that other excellent writers (Barry Hannah, Brady Udall...) are not, because of their particularized intensity (not because Bausch lacks intensity--he doesn't at all, or because these others are not beautiful).
Bausch is a "southern" writer who writes about the rest of us too.
Bausch is a "southern" writer who writes about the rest of us too.
Although the book is hefty, it is worth the effort. RB captures the vulnerability, humor, and autonomy of experience we humans face. The stories reminded me of Raymond Carver in their insight but are not as bleak. I plan to read more by the author.
I didn't actually finish this book of short stories. Each story was very well-written and I wanted all of them to be novels instead. Somewhere along the way I lost interest. Maybe it was during the move? I've never been a big fan of short stories.
Wonderful stories. RB can make resignation seem like a noble and positive thing. When so much art is about expansive limitlessness, it's nice to read something artful, but grounded within the mundane and everyday-ness of real life.
"Immediately upon finishing the collection, Drew found himself wondering why he left all of his Raymond Carver in America. Then he remembered."
Some of my favorites: "Someone to Watch Over Me" "Nobody in Hollywood""what Feels Like the World" "1-900"
Raymond Carver reincarnated. Great dialogue that advances plot and deepens character. Good pacing.
I really love his writing. Most of these stories will really stay with you.
i give this a 4 entirely for the story "letter to the lady of the house".
Best collection of short stories I've read in the past 2 years...
A very gifted short story writer...more to come after I finish!
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Richard Bausch was born in Ft. Benning, Georgia. He was educated in the public schools in and around Washington, D.C., and after two failures to maintain a standing in college, served a stint in the Air Force, after which he returned to university studies, first in Virginia and then at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. He is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of stories, including the nov...more
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