Madness in the Family: Stories

by William Saroyan, Leo Hamalian (Editor)

”What a delight to find seventeen of Saroyan’s uncollected stories within one cover!....charming tales, all blessed with Saroyan’s pixieish imagination and magical writing style….Even today they read as though they have been freshly minted from the Saroyan treasure house. A discovery for those who love Saroyan’s fiction; his spark is still wonderfully alive.” ― Library Journal A collection of short stories that were originally published in the 1960s and 1970s in The New Yorker , Atlantic Monthly , and Harper's .

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

141 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

William Saroyan was an Armenian-American writer, renowned for his novels, plays, and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his unique literary style, often characterized by a deep appreciation for everyday life and human resilience. His works frequently explored themes of Armenian-American immigrant experiences, particularly in his native California, and were infused with optimism, humor, and sentimentality.
Saroyan's breakthrough came with The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), a short story that established him as a major literary voice during the Great Depression. He went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940 for The Time of Your Life, though he declined the award, and in 1943, he won an Academy Award for Best Story for The Human Comedy. His novel My Name Is Aram (1940), based on his childhood, became an international bestseller.
Though celebrated for his literary achievements, Saroyan had a tumultuous career, often struggling with financial instability due to his gambling habits and an unwillingness to compromise with Hollywood. His later works were less commercially successful, but he remained a prolific writer, publishing essays, memoirs, and plays throughout his life.
Saroyan's legacy endures through his influence on American literature, his contributions to Armenian cultural identity, and the honors bestowed upon him, including a posthumous induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame. His remains are divided between Fresno, California, and Armenia, reflecting his deep connection to both his birthplace and ancestral homeland.

Reviews

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cam 3.5, asa...

Placute povestiri, dar parca nu la fel de bune ca cele din Ma cheama Aram.

[Joseph]

I like this book for Saroyan's sympathy toward children and the child's imagination. Something like in the tradition of Dahl's "Katina" and Salinger's "For Esme--with Love and Squalor" but in a less tragic and more domestic setting. In fact, as the title suggests, all the stories center around domestic issues, either when Saroyan was a boy in an Armenian community in California, or as a father with children in France.

As a writer (and as a person), William Saroyan is positively, beautifully heedless, which accounts for his highly acclaimed and distinctive style. His heedlessness in putting words one after the other accounts for the startling truth and beauty that unravels itself on his page, unexpectedly and often understated.

I remember a set of "rules" he purposed to aspiring writers, the second rule of most importance was to buy a type-writer so you could turn out novels as fast as Zane Gray, that the most important rule was to forget everything else you've ever read. Forget Poe and forget O. Henry, and tell something in the easiest way you know how.

Some beginning lines that stick out to me are as follows:
"Smack in the eyes, there is nothing like the sun, especially after six or seven days of bad weather, of wind, rain, fog, and low black-and-gray clouds--nothing like the sun again at last racing down the arc of the sky to the waters of the Pacific." from "Picnic Time."

"Cowards are the nicest people, the most interesting, the gentlest, the most refined, the least likely to commit crimes. They wouldn't think of robbing a bank. They have no wish to assassinate a President. If a ditchdigger calls him a bastard for accidentally kicking dirt into his eyes, a coward doesn't feel his honor has been sullied and he must therefore fight the ditchdigger and take an awful beating. He says, 'I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to do that,' and goes about his business.
"Cowards are decent. They are thoughtful." from "Cowards."

Also one of the memorable quotations from the book, "Look not in the world for the Turk, you will not find him there."

[d4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the title of the collection, the family depicted in this collection of short stories doesn't seem all that insane to me (at least in comparison to the insanity I know). The most "insane" tendency within the family is to be "stupid" when it comes to marriage.

All of the stories are very short--some not even two pages--and so it was a quick, enjoyable read. There were some aspects that I couldn't relate to very well because they seemed unique to the Armenian community or to the family in question, but it didn't take too much pleasure out of it as a whole considering how brief these parts were.

I'm tempted to attribute the stories I wasn't particularly fond of to the editor's poor choosing. For example, I was puzzled why the collection ended with a letter from the author which was obviously not intended to be published and which was quite out of place with the theme of the stories included.

The stories, for the most part, remained interesting to read, and some were quite humorous, such as "The Duel," in which a boy in need of someone to duel--but unable to think of anyone he might consider an enemy--asks his cousin to find out who he hates for him.

My favorite story was "Gaston," which was about a six-year-old visiting her father for two days. Upon finding a bug within a peach, the father changes his daughter's view of reality so that she goes from wanting to squash it to wanting a peach with a "person" of her own. Within a few moments on the phone, however, the girl's mother undoes the bond, and there remains a distance between father and daughter as he escorts her to the car waiting to take her back to her mother. Its simplicity made me sad.

[Valentin Derevlean · Rating 4 out of 5]

un volum foarte bun de proză scurtă. mai toate povestirile, ironice, melancolice, cu aer de legendă au legătură cu armenii dintr-un mic orășel american. peripeții, divorțuri, certuri, filosofii de bătrânețe - micile întâmplări ale străinilor veniți în state pentru o lume nouă. comunitatea armenilor seamănă cu cea a unor evrei, închisă și misterioasă, însă e mai degajată, înțelept-amuzantă și deseori autoironică. e o lume a nebunilor, așa cum spune și autorul :)

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite story - Gaston

[Magnús Jochum Pálsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Næstum allar sögurnar hér eru mjög góðar. Flestar tengjast þær armenskum innflytjendum, líklega innblásið af fjölskyldu Saroyan en þær eru samt líka mjög almenns eðlis frekar en nátengdar lífi innflytjenda.

[Beverley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was struck by William Saroyan's wit and compassion. Some stories were very nice.

[Mark L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I happened upon a new story of Saroyan's in the 1960s, I was usually disappointed, finding the story pointless, or self-indulgent, or uninspiredly autobiographical. This collection, though, consists mostly of late stories in which Saroyan has got some of his mojo back. He's embraced the voice of an Armenian boy in Fresno again, but not the Aram of earlier stories. The writing is less lyrical, less vivid-- taking place in a more obviously imaginary ghost of Fresno-- but generally it is very much to the point. Saroyan wrote once that all he really wanted to say was three words, "God is love," and he felt he'd managed to put down one word and maybe part of the second. I think that in this book he gets down a little more of the second word.

[Anca Zaharia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am descoperit că-mi place Saroyan, dar m-a îngrozit această ediţie: greşeli multe, o traducere de a cărei calitate mă îndoiesc (motiv pentru care trebuie să caut şi o variantă în engleză, măcar comparativ să le analizez), atât de grav încât rareori am reuşit, pe parcursul cărţii, să mă şi bucur de conţinutul care altfel a fost umbrit de lipsa unui corector şi-a unui redactor pentru ediţia de faţă, presupun.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

These were mostly mid tier at best short stories compared to other collections from Saroyan I’ve read. Standouts were Cowards, What a World Said the Bicycle Rider, Gaston, and How the Barber Finally Got Himself into a Fable. The rest were forgettable stories of borderline nonsense.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable read from William Saroyan, somewhat reminiscent of the style of James Thurber.

[Armine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m still trying to wrap my head around why such short and simple stories filled me with such visceral sadness. Something about stories of early generations of Armenian Americans, having just escaped one fatal stroke of fate, only to face the imminent loss of self in a foreign land…? I’ll never find the right words to describe this sadness I was reminded of when I read Saroyan for the first time in a long time, a sadness which might only be discernible for those who have inherited it.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Madness in the family--
Fire--
*What a world, said the bicycle rider --
*Gaston --
The inscribed copy of the Kreutzer Sonata --
Picnic time --
*A Fresno fable --
Lord Chugger of Cheer --
Cowards --
Najari Levon's old country advice to the young Americans on how to live with a snake --
Mystic games --
Twenty is the greatest time in any man's life --
How the barber finally got himself into a fable --
There was a young lady of Perth --
How to choose a wife --
The last word was love --
The duel --
***
Isn't today the day?