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God Was Here but He Left Early: Short Fiction
A short-story collection dramatizing the author's views of the human condition
- GenresShort Stories
268 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
8 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Irwin Shaw
264 books425 followersShaw was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants. Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for his novels, The Young Lions (1948) and Rich Man Poor Man (1970).
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw (died 2007), became a noted Hollywood producer. Shortly after Irwin's birth, the Shamforoffs moved to Brooklyn. Irwin changed his surname upon entering college. He spent most of his youth in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934.
Shaw began screenwriting in 1935 at the age of 21, and scripted for several radio shows, including Dick Tracy, The Gumps and Studio One.
Shaw's first play, Bury the Dead (1936) was an expressionist drama about a group of soldiers killed in a battle who refuse to be buried. During the 1940s, Shaw wrote for a number of films, including Talk of the Town (a comedy about civil liberties), The Commandos Strike at Dawn (based on a C.S. Forester story about commandos in occupied Norway) and Easy Living (about a football player unable to enter the game due to a medical condition). Shaw married Marian Edwards. They had one son, Adam Shaw, born in 1950, himself a writer of magazine articles and non-fiction.
Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Army and was a warrant officer during World War II.He served with an Army documentary film unit. The Young Lions, Shaw's first novel, was published in 1949. Based on his experiences in Europe during the war, the novel was very successful and was adapted into a 1958 film.
Shaw's second novel, The Troubled Air, chronicling the rise of McCarthyism, was published in 1951. He was among those who signed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo convictions for contempt of Congress, resulting from hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Falsely accused of being a communist by the Red Channels publication, Shaw was placed on the Hollywood blacklist by the movie studio bosses. In 1951 he left the United States and went to Europe, where he lived for 25 years, mostly in Paris and Switzerland. He later claimed that the blacklist "only glancingly bruised" his career. During the 1950s he wrote several more screenplays, including Desire Under the Elms (based on Eugene O'Neill's play) and Fire Down Below (about a tramp boat in the Caribbean).
While living in Europe, Shaw wrote more bestselling books, notably Lucy Crown (1956), Two Weeks in Another Town (1960), Rich Man, Poor Man (1970) (for which he would later write a less successful sequel entitled Beggarman, Thief) and Evening in Byzantium (made into a 1978 TV movie). Rich Man, Poor Man was adapted into a highly successful ABC television miniseries in 1976.
His novel Top of the Hill, about the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, was made into a TV movie, starring Wayne Rogers, Adrienne Barbeau, and Sonny Bono.
His last two novels were Bread Upon the Waters (1981) and Acceptable Losses (1982).
Shaw died in Davos, Switzerland on May 16, 1984, aged 71, after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw (died 2007), became a noted Hollywood producer. Shortly after Irwin's birth, the Shamforoffs moved to Brooklyn. Irwin changed his surname upon entering college. He spent most of his youth in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934.
Shaw began screenwriting in 1935 at the age of 21, and scripted for several radio shows, including Dick Tracy, The Gumps and Studio One.
Shaw's first play, Bury the Dead (1936) was an expressionist drama about a group of soldiers killed in a battle who refuse to be buried. During the 1940s, Shaw wrote for a number of films, including Talk of the Town (a comedy about civil liberties), The Commandos Strike at Dawn (based on a C.S. Forester story about commandos in occupied Norway) and Easy Living (about a football player unable to enter the game due to a medical condition). Shaw married Marian Edwards. They had one son, Adam Shaw, born in 1950, himself a writer of magazine articles and non-fiction.
Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Army and was a warrant officer during World War II.He served with an Army documentary film unit. The Young Lions, Shaw's first novel, was published in 1949. Based on his experiences in Europe during the war, the novel was very successful and was adapted into a 1958 film.
Shaw's second novel, The Troubled Air, chronicling the rise of McCarthyism, was published in 1951. He was among those who signed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo convictions for contempt of Congress, resulting from hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Falsely accused of being a communist by the Red Channels publication, Shaw was placed on the Hollywood blacklist by the movie studio bosses. In 1951 he left the United States and went to Europe, where he lived for 25 years, mostly in Paris and Switzerland. He later claimed that the blacklist "only glancingly bruised" his career. During the 1950s he wrote several more screenplays, including Desire Under the Elms (based on Eugene O'Neill's play) and Fire Down Below (about a tramp boat in the Caribbean).
While living in Europe, Shaw wrote more bestselling books, notably Lucy Crown (1956), Two Weeks in Another Town (1960), Rich Man, Poor Man (1970) (for which he would later write a less successful sequel entitled Beggarman, Thief) and Evening in Byzantium (made into a 1978 TV movie). Rich Man, Poor Man was adapted into a highly successful ABC television miniseries in 1976.
His novel Top of the Hill, about the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, was made into a TV movie, starring Wayne Rogers, Adrienne Barbeau, and Sonny Bono.
His last two novels were Bread Upon the Waters (1981) and Acceptable Losses (1982).
Shaw died in Davos, Switzerland on May 16, 1984, aged 71, after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 1, 2010
Irwin Shaw has loomed large in my consciousness, mainly for films I have seen based on his novels and plays. This is the first collection of his prose I have read, and it is really a wonderful introduction to reading him. These pieces are referred to as short novels, but even the longest feels more like a short story than a novel. Each is written in a cool, detached, and understated fashion, yet each leaves an indelible sense of the inner humanity of its characters. He has a wonderful imagination, and several of the pieces seem so fresh and innovative as story ideas I am surprised not to have heard more about them before discovering this book. There is an underlying seriousness beneath even the most lighthearted of the stories, and every one left me thinking and mulling over these cameo images of lives, mostly isolated in their thoughts, characters who resonate with me despite having, on the surface, very little in common with me. An excellent reading experience.
April 6, 2022
More and more I am coming to believe that short stories are the best form of fiction, when the writer is good at least. And Irwin Shaw is no hack.
"Where All Things Wise and Fair Descend" is perhaps the best piece of literature I've read in quite some time. The story finished and I wished I could get to know Crane better, the skinny young man who laments his brother's tragic death. "Laments" may be the wrong word for it, because while Crane loved his brother, he now has to deal with a world that expects him to be something different yet he knows he's surrounded by dishonest and unprincipled people. Steve, his new friend, is one of those happy-go-lucky unprincipled people until he has a day out with Crane. One day out with the scrupulous Crane and Steve has changed forever. What is it about Crane that can have that effect on people? Is he simply grieving? Has his grief pushed him further away from the world at large? Is the world at large truly as corrupted as Crane thinks? Steve is caught in the middle. There's no conclusion to the story and rightly so. Crane drops Steve off from their day out together, but you're left wondering, "Who will influence who more? Who is right?" All we know is that Steve won't be the same. Should we follow in Steve's path? Be more like Crane? Or avoid the Cranes of the world? It's a powerful story with deep tones of thoughtfulness.
The first story in this collection, the title story, is not quite so provocative but still reveals some of the desperation that we experience in life. It's a good story but I don't like it simply because I don't like reading about desperate women. It saddens me too much.
All the other stories in the collection, in part II, are mostly unrealistic and good-humored. If comedy is the measuring stick then "Small Saturday" probably takes the cake. One man's quest to find a tall woman to sleep with by the end of the day turns into a comedy of errors where life goes terribly wrong for a number of people, usually for the most bizarre but self-inflicted reasons.
As short stories, you can read one a night. These stories are good enough, though, that as soon as you finish one story, you'll want to immediately start the next.
"Where All Things Wise and Fair Descend" is perhaps the best piece of literature I've read in quite some time. The story finished and I wished I could get to know Crane better, the skinny young man who laments his brother's tragic death. "Laments" may be the wrong word for it, because while Crane loved his brother, he now has to deal with a world that expects him to be something different yet he knows he's surrounded by dishonest and unprincipled people. Steve, his new friend, is one of those happy-go-lucky unprincipled people until he has a day out with Crane. One day out with the scrupulous Crane and Steve has changed forever. What is it about Crane that can have that effect on people? Is he simply grieving? Has his grief pushed him further away from the world at large? Is the world at large truly as corrupted as Crane thinks? Steve is caught in the middle. There's no conclusion to the story and rightly so. Crane drops Steve off from their day out together, but you're left wondering, "Who will influence who more? Who is right?" All we know is that Steve won't be the same. Should we follow in Steve's path? Be more like Crane? Or avoid the Cranes of the world? It's a powerful story with deep tones of thoughtfulness.
The first story in this collection, the title story, is not quite so provocative but still reveals some of the desperation that we experience in life. It's a good story but I don't like it simply because I don't like reading about desperate women. It saddens me too much.
All the other stories in the collection, in part II, are mostly unrealistic and good-humored. If comedy is the measuring stick then "Small Saturday" probably takes the cake. One man's quest to find a tall woman to sleep with by the end of the day turns into a comedy of errors where life goes terribly wrong for a number of people, usually for the most bizarre but self-inflicted reasons.
As short stories, you can read one a night. These stories are good enough, though, that as soon as you finish one story, you'll want to immediately start the next.
June 18, 2017
Рассказы прикольные. «Раствор Манихона» – про то, как собрались травить китайцев :) «Неудачная суббота, без вечеринки» – мужик стрелял себе пассию на вечер, все давали ему надежду, но хотели других. В итоге женился на той, которая тихо и мирно его боготворила :) «Бог здесь был, но долго не задержался» - про американку, проведшую вечер в компании англичан и переспавшую с одним из них. «Где мудро все, и справедливо» - про удачливого молодого человека, подружившегося с «ботаником», у которого недавно погиб брат. Знаешь, несколькими словами это не скажешь.... Может быть это прозвучит банально, но он действительно трогает за душу. Именно из-за него я поставила Шоу максимальную оценку.
August 20, 2017
Five stars are for title story and "Where All Things Wise and Fair Descend."
December 13, 2018
Perfect twists
April 10, 2021
Subtle, elegant, sublime and thoughtful collection of stories
September 7, 2025
Eh 🤷♀️
December 24, 2024
I think I’ve heard of Irwin Shaw before and I’m pretty sure he’s pretty well-known. This was a small collection of short stories. I really liked 3/5 of the stories included. This book also had colored edges, so Irwin was a trend-setter!! The stories were complex and I definitely saw how each was related to the theme of the title. I love a good short story collection where I can see the invisible string of how they are related. They are each wholly independent but the connection each holds is so masterful and beautifully executed. Now, again, I enjoyed some more than others, and some were… disturbing in a way and confusing. You have to consider these were written in the 1970s, so the 50 year time jump of how writing has changed was just very present. It made me think, it left my jaw dropped, I wanted to rip it in half, some parts I didn’t like. Overall, fine, can’t complain.
June 12, 2012
Bought the edited 3-Story Version first, but wanted to read all five stories, now I know, why they left out Whispers ind Bedlam and the solution, they are long and anything but funny. the fist two short stories are masterpieces I love them still or more than ever, but the three longer ones are a waste of time.
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June 4, 2010nice short stories
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews