Shaken and Stirred: Intoxicating Stories

by Diana Secker Tesdell (editor)

In this lively collection, wine snobs receive their comeuppance at the hands of Roald Dahl and Edgar Allan Poe; innocents over-imbibe in tales by Jack London and Alice Munro; riotous partying exacts a comic price in stories by P. G. Wodehouse and Kingsley Amis; Charles Jackson and Jean Rhys chronicle liquor-soaked epiphanies; while John Cheever, Vladimir Nabokov and Robert Coover set their characters afloat on surreal, soul-revealing adventures. Here, too, are well-lubricated tales by Dickens, Twain, Beckett, Colette, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Doris Lessing, Frank O'Connor, Penelope Lively, and many more. The settings include hotels and restaurants, a wine cellar in Italy, a café in Paris, a bar in Dublin, a New York nightclub, Jazz Age speakeasies, suburban lawn parties and the occasional gaol cell, and are peopled by lovers and loners, barmen and chorus girls, youths taking their first sips and experienced tipplers nursing hangovers. Whether living it up or drowning their sorrows, the vividly drawn characters in these sparkling pages will leave you shaken and stirred.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Published July 7, 2016

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the ‘Everyman’s Pocket Classics’ series of themed volumes, ‘Shaken and Stirred’ is a collection of stories about drinking. The volume features authors of the last two centuries, and includes Dickens, Twain, P.G. Wodehouse (my favorite in the book), F. Scott Fitzgerald, Vladimir Nabokov and many more. Some stories are light and funny, but, as can happen in real life, alcohol leads to sorrow- or at least, unhappiness- in many of them. Because of this, I found it hard to read the book for very long at a time; the unhappy circumstances of many of the characters got to me. I know too many people in real life who have had their lives made miserable by alcohol. I was expecting something more light-hearted, in the vein of Wodehouse’s Jeeves entry. A good book, but read it in small doses. It’s a lovely little volume, with a delightful cover illustration and a ribbon bound in for keeping one’s place.

[Nut Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite entertaining. There's an enormous range in the tone of the stories, from the lighthearted Jeeves and Wooster, to an utterly tragic excerpt from "The Lost Weekend," so if you're reading them one right after another, be prepared for some emotional whiplash. However, the quality is consistently great, as would be expected from so many impressive authors, including the likes of Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among other more or lesser known writers. An ideal collection to run through if you're looking for a sampler of authors you've probably heard of, but perhaps rarely read anything by.

[Yooperprof · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many very good stories in this collection. And some pretty fine writers: familiar pens like Poe, Twain, John Cheever, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alice Munro, Nabokov - along with some that I'm not yet acquainted with: Dawn Powell, Clarice Lispector, Frank O'Connor. . .

You know that piece of advice for aspiring authors: "write what you know." It really does seem to be true that many writers know a lot about drinking - and that stories about booze often bring out the best in their prose.

[Mahima Kalla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit and miss. Loved the Wodehouse !

[Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice blend of stories from different eras.

[Marinello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I need a drink after this!