The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

published	2006 by Scribner
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0743289463 (isbn13: 9780743289467)
ebook
pages	432
description	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 ficti...more [close] 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. [close]
date added	01-10-07 edit book

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Ian rated it:

11/10/07

Read in December, 2007

i kind of just want to copy one of her stories and so that's what i'm going to do. her stories are pretty short and this may be the shortest of them all. it's called:

"The Man in Bogata"

The police and emergency service people fail to make a dent. The voice of the pleading spouse does not have the hoped-for effect. The woman remains on the ledge -- though not, she threatens, for long.

I imagine that I am the one who must talk the woman down. I see it, and it happens like this....more i kind of just want to copy one of her stories and so that's what i'm going to do. her stories are pretty short and this may be the shortest of them all. it's called:

"The Man in Bogata"

The police and emergency service people fail to make a dent. The voice of the pleading spouse does not have the hoped-for effect. The woman remains on the ledge -- though not, she threatens, for long.

I imagine that I am the one who must talk the woman down. I see it, and it happens like this.

I tell the woman about a man in Bogota. He was a wealthy man, an industrialist who was kidnapped and held for ransom. It was not a TV drama; his wife could not call the bank and, in twenty-four hours, have one million dollars. It took months. The man had a heart condition, and the kipnappers had to keep the man alive.

Listen to this, I tell the woman on the ledge. His captors made him quit smoking. They changed his diet and made him exercise every day. They held him that way for three months.

When the ransom was paid and the man was released, his doctor looked him over. He found the man to be in excellent health. I tell the woman what the doctor said then -- the kidnap was the best thing to happen to that man.

[then three little stars follow along with three more sentences which i omit for copyright reasons.]

Her writing is the best I've come across in a while -- "in my head there's a balcony I fall off of when I speak."

Not only is she telling a story but she's also feeling it with you, for example, from "The Most Girl Part of You": "Since his mother died I have seen him steam a cucumber thinking it was zucchini. That's the kind of thing that turns my heart right over."

Maybe she's a sentimentalist, maybe she's beautiful, but when i read her i find myself wondering, how would one know the difference?

She's also gotten my thinking a lot about irony and I wonder, really, doubt, whether it exists at all. Maybe the real trick to irony is to not be ironic at all, just to believe something crazy or to believe it in a way that everyone thinks, "oh, that must be ironic." Let the reader do your ironizing for you...
...less

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Paul rated it:

07/02/08

Read in July, 2008

Read about Amy Hempel and you'll hear a lot of references to Carver, Gordon Lish, Barry Hannah, Ann Beatie, Lydia Davis, etc. Sure, she studied under Lish, and she's definitely minimalistic, but I find the Carver comparison a little misleading. Carver will begin a story with a sentence like, "I had a job and Patti didn't." Or, "Sandy's husband had been on the sofa ever since he'd been terminated three months ago." Bam. Conflict. Story unfolds from there. Hempel's sense of con...more Read about Amy Hempel and you'll hear a lot of references to Carver, Gordon Lish, Barry Hannah, Ann Beatie, Lydia Davis, etc. Sure, she studied under Lish, and she's definitely minimalistic, but I find the Carver comparison a little misleading. Carver will begin a story with a sentence like, "I had a job and Patti didn't." Or, "Sandy's husband had been on the sofa ever since he'd been terminated three months ago." Bam. Conflict. Story unfolds from there. Hempel's sense of conflict, on the other hand, is more subtle and implicit than anything I've ever read. You'll be a quarter way through a story before you realize that the only real conflict is this very slight sense of unrest in the protagonist, which unrest is only revealed through the subtlest subtleties of the narrative voice. It's kind of insane.

Her sentences are just really, really good, and the overall effect of her stories on your psyche is very strong. They're never overly sad, though, or overly emotional or overly anything. Even Carver can't boat this.

There are maybe one or two pieces in here that fall a bit short, meaning you just sort of shrug and move on to the next, but overall it's a consistently stunning collection. I do think it's stunning. I should say that certain specific moments in a few stories absolutely screamed Lydia Davis to me, though the connection was occasional and brief. The two are like second cousins, not sisters.

"My mother gave away my dogs; when she died, she died with cats. A calico cat sat tucked like a hen on her chest, as though it were hatching her death."

I thought that was a pretty cool image. Pretty stunning. At one point she describes as couch as "toast-colored." I thought that was pretty good, too.

I'm not saying this is a book you should borrow from a friend, or check out from the library or something. I read the whole thing in just four days, but I think it's much better taken in parts. What I'm saying is this is a book you should purchase, quite honestly, like have it around the house, and read a few stories here and there. I've now read every Amy Hempel story that's ever been published, and I kind of wish that weren't the case. It's a good-looking book, too, so really. Do yourself a favor....less

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Brian rated it:

03/03/08

Read in February, 2008

I have a friend who once wanted to learn to play guitar. But, when he heard Jimi Hendrix play, he decided to give up the instrument because he couldn't imagine himself ever being able to play like that. Amy Hempel makes me feel the same way about writing--my fledgling attempts at writing fiction look clumsy and silly next to Ms. Hempel's elegant and delicate prose.

Ms. Hempel has a reputation for being a minimalist writer. Not being a literature major, I'm unsure of the exact definition of th...more

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Laura rated it:

06/24/08

This book is, seriously, my bible. I wish I could give it a million stars.

"I meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark." -Amy Hempel, from 'Three Popes Walk Into A Bar'

I love her and her brilliant...brilliant...brilliant stories. I am borrowing my copy so I can't mark it up. Instead, I was trying to write down the pages where there was something I liked...It looked like this-

pg 31, 33, 34, 35, 39, 40...and so o...more

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Adrianne rated it:

(review of isbn 0743291638)

04/04/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Adrianne by: Rick Moody, who for the record writes an annoying introduction.
recommends it for: Hemingway fans, people who hate Hemingway

This is one of those books that has you rereading sentences over and over again, not because you couldn't parse their basic meaning, but because you suspect that a second reading will glean another, more subtle bit of information. It will also make you want to own a dog. It will also have you falling in love with Amy Hempel and wanting to make her your bride, in a house on the countryside with a weedy garden and a swamp nearby.

I started reading God of Small Things within five minutes ...more

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Amy rated it:

07/06/08

Read in July, 2008

Amy Hempel's stories span a twenty year period and the theme that holds them all together is that they are told from a woman's perspective. It's easy to assume that Hempel is middle-aged; the stories about dogs, lovers, friends, family. However, it's not so easy to dismiss these stories. There's a great sense of longing and loneliness, but also of being good at being alone. Not exactly happy, but content with the way life has worked out, even if you never lived up to your supposed potential.

...more

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David rated it:

(review of isbn 0743291638)

12/30/07

bookshelves: anthologies-and-collections, read-in-2007

Read in October, 2007

I know it's a cliche, but some of these stories just took my breath away. "In the Cemetery where Al Jolson is buried" is just extraordinary, but there are at least a half a dozen other stories which are just as good.

This book contains all four collections of short stories written by Hempel over the last 20 years and has been praised to the skies. Deservedly so, IMO. Some of the stories are less than a page long, but they all pack a punch.

A couple of months later, and I'm downg...more

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Stefani rated it:

10/09/07

Read in October, 2007

Reading this book made me think of the difference between actual and felt temperature. I know these stories are brilliant, espcially the later collections, "Tumble Home" and "The Dog of the Marriage." I see & admire the chilling precision of the language, the wit, the uniqueness. In other words, I'm aware of the actual temperature, the fact that this is great writing. And yet, the spark wouldn't catch. I didn't feel as dementedly in love as, say, with d'Ambrosio's stories...more

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Charity rated it:

03/25/08

Read in March, 2008

I think I got spoiled by the end of the collection, so was being harder on it--I almost gave it four stars. Then I remembered how much and to how many people I gushed about this book when I first picked it up, and realized I just had to change it, since very few books get me that worked up. Her stories are simple but not simplistic, meandering, but with a destination. Everyone talks about her "sentences" and I have to admit that they are right. Her sentences are works of art in and of ...more

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Drej rated it:

(review of isbn 0743291638)

12/26/07

Read in December, 2007

Her sentences are clear and hard and sometimes heavy, like glass I-beams. That's a bad metaphor, because they aren't transparent; the sentences are the things you notice the most.

I first read Amy Hempel's story, "The Harvest," a while ago. I don't remember who told me about it. Someone in a writing group somewhere. I found it online and thought it was the most compressed, sharp blade of a story I'd ever read. I saved it somewhere on a now-defunct laptop. But now I've got the...more

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Paula rated it:

(review of isbn 0743291638)

08/01/08

bookshelves: autographed

Read in July, 2008

Hempel is known for her short-short fiction and, with two exceptions, this collection of stories showcases some of her best.

The stories come from her books Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, and The Dog of the Marriage. What makes some of the stories so compelling is their elusive qualities: sort of knowing what's going on but not exactly being sure. It's a useful technique that allows readers to become part of the stories themselves and bring their own biases ...more

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Chelsea rated it:

05/03/07

Read in January, 2007

I think when I was younger I resisted reading short stories because (1) I tried to read every single Flannery O' Connor short story in the interest of thoroughness in 9th grade, for a biography report, and I sort of bottomed out and (2) well, duh, I am on this website, so obviously I like keeping track and showing off what I read, and short stories are not as impressive a feat.
But more recently I still skip the short stories because if they're any good, they're not long enough, and if they'r...more

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4 comments

Ginnie rated it:

01/23/08

bookshelves: short-stories

I had read these stories before either in magazines or in her previous collections, but this one I had to own. Possessiveness sometimes gets the better of me. As you might guess I think she writes wonderful short stories - maybe even the best appearing today.
And I am not too proud to suggest you read David's review here nor to quote from another Dave, a staff-member at Powell's Bookstore in a review that alerted me to this collection before publication,

It would not be unfair to call Hempel a writer's writer, but it might be misleading — she's a reader's writer, too. Some of her stories contain only a few lines; few run longer than ten or twelve pages. None rely on high-concept mechanics or lofty language. She demands very little of her readership, and then delivers in spades. Hempel has been called a miniaturist — fair enough — but if her stories tend to be small in scale, they drill as deep as fiction goes. Emotionally charged, fantastically precise, an Amy Hempel story is a miracle of articulation. ...more

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Eileen rated it:

01/13/08

Read in December, 2007

This is a book that many fiction writers have been waiting for for a long time, especially since Hempel's "Reasons to Live" has been out of print for a while. Essentially, this omnibus collection gathers together Hempel's four books of short fiction, including her most recent "The Dog of the Marriage." The book has been widely lauded in the press, but I will just say here that if you are looking to read some short stories by a master of minimalist fiction whose work is wryly ...more

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Dara rated it:

(review of isbn 0743291638)

08/14/08

Amy Hempel's short story "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" is one of my favorites of all time so I decided to read a whole collection of hers. Overall I enjoyed these stories that are mostly about somewhat quirky individuals struggling with everyday conflicts. The stories sometimes have some kind of twist that you don't pick up on right away- for example a story about a widower working through her grief for her husband ends up being more about her relationships with all of hi...more

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Kate rated it:

01/03/08

bookshelves: borrowed, storiesgraphicpoetryplays, usa_canada

Read in July, 2007

recommended to Kate by: Will

Although I suppose it is less mature, Reasons to Live was my favorite. Maybe it was just the overwhelming power of "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried." But I loved nearly all the stories in that book.

The Dog of the Marriage was my second-favorite. I loved the title story, and Offertory bowled me over - dazzling.

By comparison - and keeping in mind that I'm not much of a short story person - I wasn't terribly fond of At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom ...more

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Jenna rated it:

03/10/07

Read in March, 2007

Hempel has a way of making you aware of the mundane and fractured events of your life, taking stock in what normally wouldn't make the final edit of your "This Is Your Life" reel. I both get her and don't, connect with her narrators ( I use the plural, but they all seem to be fundamentally the same) and loathe them at the same time. I was amazed to read this collection, which includes stories from previous books spanning many years, and near the end feel like these stories were meant...more

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Lisa Rose marked it as to-read

06/14/07

bookshelves: to-read

NEW YORK TIMESS 10 BEST BOOKS 2006

Scribner, $27.50.
A quietly powerful presence in American fiction during the past two decades, Hempel has demonstrated unusual discipline in assembling her urbane, pointillistic and wickedly funny short stories. Since the publication of her first collection, "Reasons to Live," in 1985, only three more slim volumes have appeared - a total of some 15,000 sentences, and nearly every one of them has a crisp, distinctive bite. These collected stories ...more

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carolyn rated it:

02/12/08

Read in February, 2008

Contained within these pages are short stories that can make you stop breathing, sentences that I will remember forever and ever, that burned themselves into my brain the second I read them. I was AMAZED to learn that "In the Cemetary where Al Jolson is Buried" was the first piece of fiction she'd EVER written. It's beautiful and real, more real than this keyboard I'm typing on or the trees out my window. I will buy my own copy of this book and re-read these stories for the rest of ...more

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sally marked it as to-read

08/19/07

bookshelves: to-read

NYTimes says: A quietly powerful presence in American fiction during the past two decades, Hempel has demonstrated unusual discipline in assembling her urbane, pointillistic and wickedly funny short stories. Since the publication of her first collection, "Reasons to Live," in 1985, only three more slim volumes have appeared - a total of some 15,000 sentences, and nearly every one of them has a crisp, distinctive bite. These collected stories show the true scale of Hempel's achievement....more

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