My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
All the Days and Nights: The Collected Stories
From the American Book Award-winning author of Ancestors and Time Will Darken comes a masterful collection of stories, spanning more than 50 years--a tour of a world that engages readers entirely, and whose characters command the deepest loyalty and tenderness.
Paperback, 432 pages
Published
October 31st 1995
by Vintage
(first published January 15th 1995)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
236)
Collected stories spanning more than 40 years by the former fiction editor of the New Yorker. Maxwell grew up in a small town in Illinois and returns there in many of his pieces. Much of his fiction is quasi memoir (perhaps more than quasi). According to the back cover, his primary aim was "a Flaubertian one: to evoke the texture of human experience" which is a fair description of the stories in this book, which take place in Illinois, Europe, and New York City. The exception are t...more
Wayne
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
lovers of short stories
Recommended to Wayne by:
my Mum's maiden name - Maxwell
Shelves:
americana,
short-stories
PRE-READ:
I bought this a couple of years ago because I had never heard of William Maxwell and because my mother's family are the Mad and Mighty Maxwells.
These collected stories range over the period from 1939 to 1992, so it will be interesting to note any consistencies or changes in whatever areas - style, themes, locations etc.
70 pages into it and so far so good.
POST-READ:
The Autobiographical Stories : Their nostalgia and the raking o...more
William Maxwell's collection of short stories is special. The stories have a quality of simplicity while simultaneously containing profound truths about life and relationships. Each story touches on aspects of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States which stirred memories of growing up in that era. One of my favorite is the sound of the newspaper thumping as it hit the front porch when the delivery boy rode by, tossing the paper with practiced expertise. That is just one of many sensory expe...more
The first story in this collection, "Over the River" is a must-read. Much of the story takes place at night, which is fascinating, what happens in public spaces and domestic spheres while most of the world is sleeping. Maxwell seems to have no restrictions, no strict rules, about point of view, and this narrative freedom is refreshing and worth examining.
I almost gave this four stars, based solely on the 21 fables at the end of the book. But then, by the end, I fell in love with the fables too. As for the other stories in the book, they are quintessential 20th century American fiction, my favorite period/cultural source of literature.
Stories where nothing much happens aren't very interesting.
These are really exquisite stories. Narrative events and characters reappear serially across the collection in slightly different guises. Readers familiar with Maxwell's fiction will recognise similar settings, events, characters; much of this work is autobiographical. These are not remarkable for their formal inventiveness, but for their close observation of detail, their patience, their depth of psychological characterisation.
This is one of my favorite overall short story collections... read it as an undergrad, and it's no less awesome now! "Over by the River," "Love," and "What Every Boy Should Know" are among the best short stories I've ever read.
WM is a "quiet writer". He assumes that the reader is a reasonably grown-up and intelligent person. I really don't remember this book(2 years ago) but I assume it deserves this rating.
The Man in the Moon is surely one of the most beautiful short stories of all time. Every time I think there can't be a better story, there's a better story!
Been working on this one for a while.
really delightful short stories
Patty
marked it as to-read
Zachary
is currently reading it
Pamela
marked it as the-wishlist
Carol
marked it as to-read
Craig Bostick
marked it as to-read
Briana Ross
marked it as to-read
Kecia
marked it as to-read
Tyler Dobrowsky
is currently reading it
Kelley Tackett
marked it as to-read
Maria
marked it as to-read
Kelly Jocius
added it
KJ
marked it as tbr-2012
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American novelist, and fiction editor at the New Yorker. He studied at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Maxwell wrote six highly acclaimed novels, a number of short stories and essays, children's stories, and a memoir, Ancestors (1972).
His award-winning fiction, which is increasingly seen as some of the most important of the 20th ...more
More about William Maxwell...
His award-winning fiction, which is increasingly seen as some of the most important of the 20th ...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
