false 43440 7 Like the title says, here are 40 short works culled from across Barthelme's career. Along with the similarly titled <i>60 Stories</i>, this book provides one of the best samplings currently in print of Barthelme's unrivaled humor, his melancholy, the poetry of his line, and his considerable intellect. It includes pieces such as the famous "Sentence," (a single, several-page-long, unfinished sentence), "The Flight of Pigeons From the Palace," one of the writer's illustrated stories, and "Overnight To Many Distant Cities." 395326 1987 Forty Stories (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) total:636|5:4|4:3|3:1|2:0|1:0| 636 2775 879 52 3 1 false false Mon Aug 04 12:25:44 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 17 13:47:29 -0700 2009
"We do not have your secrets and that is what we are after, your secrets. Our first secret is where we are. No one knows. Our second secret is how many of us there are. N...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 22:35:42 -0700 2007 Sat Dec 08 18:36:47 -0800 2007 chablis
jaws
the new owner (yes, i know you're published in the new yorker, i know new yorkers have their heads up their own asses, but stop whining, dude, stop whining)
departures (see complaint 1, below)
the wound (can you be 'too surreal'? i don't know ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Dec 18 19:49:19 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 19:50:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 29 12:56:59 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 13:03:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 20:52:34 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 10:43:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 31 14:09:59 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 14:18:11 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 09:51:53 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 05:27:09 -0800 2008 twenty stories or maybe even twenty five stories. The thing, I learned, about absurdity is sometimes it comes together into something not absurd which makes you go, "oh," and other timees it n...more...]]> 0 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 20:24:53 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 30 14:04:24 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Fri Aug 29 12:06:39 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 08:05:34 -0700 2008 pre-read: Usually when you find a pile of books in a box on the sidewalk, it's filled with poo, like self-help finance books and new-age crap about death and Oprah book club novels. So imagine my surprise when, underneath The Artist's Way and Lovely Bones, I found this book! It must be a sign.
...more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 25 17:17:16 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 09 16:59:35 -0700 2009
No, not really.

I've been on a short-story marathon lately (bought a bunch of collections over the past few years--usually on sale--and finally decided to, y'know, read a few), and of the t...more...]]> 4 0 false true Tue Apr 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 22 20:54:47 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 13:54:37 -0700 2008
The first story is about several people (no descriptions given) who decide that their mutual friend C...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu Sep 13 22:19:10 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 13 22:28:05 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Fri Sep 25 11:39:18 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 11:39:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 11:52:01 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 07:54:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 02 16:17:57 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 25 12:13:20 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1993 Sun Dec 09 15:30:31 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 09 15:39:29 -0800 2007
Many of the stories in this collection show Barthe...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 23 02:39:16 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 24 03:57:36 -0800 2008
Brent once read one of these things aloud to Casey, stopping at moments to show him the pictures. They both laughed and laughed. That gratifies me.

I loaned this bo...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jun 11 09:22:13 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 09:27:42 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 23 18:17:18 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 18:18:18 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Feb 04 20:26:51 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 20:28:06 -0800 2009