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At The Gates Of The Animal Kingdom: Stories
A collection of stories deals with women's responses to life's challenges
137 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
20 people are currently reading
2148 people want to read
About the author
Amy Hempel
49 books1,038 followersAmy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College. Hempel was a former student of Gordon Lish, who eventually helped her publish her first collection of short stories. Hempel has been published in Harper's, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Bomb. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as the Ambassador Book Award in 2007, the Rea Award for the Short Story in 2008, and the Pen/Malamud Award for short fiction in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
December 29, 2025
Olvasás közben arra gondoltam, hogy utoljára Lucia Berlinnél éreztem azt, amit ennél a könyvnél. Aminél nagyobb bókot nehéz elképzelni az én univerzumomban, tekintve hogy számomra Lucia Berlin a novellaírás plafonja, a hófödte Mont Blanc, a Kancsendzönga. Amy Hempel történetei finom, törékenynek tűnő szerkezetek, amelyek pompásan leképezik szereplői elemi törékenységét. Hétköznapi szituációkat írnak le, amelyeket azonban beárnyékol egy veszteség vagy fenyegetés, ami úgy lebeg a mondatok fölött, mint egy bagoly: vészjóslóan, puha szárnycsapásokkal. Akárcsak Berlinben, Hempelben is megvan a bölcsességgel elegy érzékenység, ami lehetővé teszi, hogy saját és környezete hibáit és félelmeit két lépés távolságból figyelje, majd pontos és szeretetteljes iróniával alakítsa azokat szöveggé - mindez pedig pazar elbeszéléseket szül, amelyek egyszerre lágyak és élesek. Áldottak legyenek a kiadók, akik ilyesfajta kincseket bányásznak elő nekünk a világirodalomból, miközben pontosan tudják, hogy egy novelláskötet kábé akkor hozza be a ráfordított költségeket, ha a szerzőjét mellesleg megdobják egy Nobellel. Hempelt meg még nem dobták.
June 6, 2019
I've been reading from The Complete Stories by Amy Hempel, one story collection at a time, while on vacation. This is the second one she wrote, and it is most unusual, interesting, and emotionally compelling. Some of these stories are as short as 1-2 pages, the longest being about 12 pages. She is very succinct and has an odd but wonderful sense of humor. These stories have a Raymond Carver type of clarity and directness, and she lures you into a sense of a rambling calm and then hits you with an emotional wallop. Though it is called At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, not all of the stories feature animals. Some are coming of age, several deal with loss and abandonment, all feature female lead characters. Some tell virtually no story at all, while others are more plot driven. It's not that I really enjoyed all of them, but overall this is a stunning achievement.
October 13, 2017
günümüze, modern ve kentli insana has öyküler. minimalist denebilir belki öyküler için. özellikle kadın-erkek ilişkilerine dair olanlar trajikomikken, hayvanlara dair olanlar trajik... hele bir öyküde hayvanlara yapılan eziyetler iç ses olarak yer alıyor ki... unutmak istediklerimizi hatırlatıyor resmen.
anneliğe, anne-çocuk ilişkisine dair öyküler de dikkat çekici. kutsal anne mitini yerle bir ediyor.
anneliğe, anne-çocuk ilişkisine dair öyküler de dikkat çekici. kutsal anne mitini yerle bir ediyor.
July 11, 2008
It's almost too easy to start out this review with a metaphor based on a line from a story in this book. Never mind that it's a line from the best story in here ("The Harvest") and that it seems ample: "I leave a lot out when I tell the truth." This seems too easy a start, and it doesn't feel all that original. I'd only be repeating an idea some other reviewer must have come up with, an idea that probably seemed cute at the time, and since I find most review writing stale and tedious, I'd prefer to take a different route.
So let's go with a reaction that feels more individuated: I read this book four times before I could even hope to talk about it, half of those readings accomplished in one train ride from Philadelphia to New York City (not all that long an expanse, so you can imagine my intensity, for I am not that quick a reader). Aside from the aforementioned quotation that I had hoped not to aforemention, I doubt I could successfully pull out many more lines from this collection of stories and have them sing out of context the way they do in the deep fray of reading.
Hempel's work thrives inside its context. Sentences and words and ideas and syllables build upon each other--such as in a scene where slicing mosquito bites becomes exquisite foreplay--creating moments of synergy between reader and text that mere description or analysis can not hope to recapture. Perhaps my personal reactions to this work stem from my recognition that reading Hempel makes me mindful of my own aesthetics as an artist--makes me put my own demands as a reader to the fore. This is very active, very front-brain reading, tinged with exquisite, visceral pleasure-oddities, base humor, and deep sadness. This book is like eating fresh-water eel: soft and palatable, firing neurons that make you feel squishy and a little too wrapped up in the moment.
Give me a moment, and it is easy for me to jump up on any self-made lectern and spout about the need to set alight the all-too-high refuse pile of stale creativity in the world. "Elephant dung on the Virgin Mary! Huzzah!" If a "masterpiece" does not provoke an immediate gut reaction, if we can only look at it with intellectual distance, then make a place mat out of it and let it do something for us finally.
But Hempel's work draws me from my lectern, as I ride on a train, somewhere in the hinterlands of the Trenton, New Jersey area. I want to pull on people's sleeves and read lines aloud. The sheer relevance of Hempel's fiction had me sitting back and waiting for things to unfold. I was content to be patient, certain each story would fulfill my needs. Any work of art that so reaches the reader in the present deserves to remain available in the present. Discovering that this book was out of print only put me on another lectern--this one facing the printing press--so I could demand of it some conscience. Reading is a lonely enough pastime without being limited by the publisher's failure to keep a fine book in print. "Spread the gospel" my artistic imp demands!
Choice moments from the Book of Hempel? Consider:
--In "The Harvest," a story worth painting on the wall, the narrator's sad tale of surgery and litigation and the unwillingness to tell a story straight reaches a moment of pure breathlessness when the ending hinges on the tragic occupation of fishing for abalone.
--I often despise the modern predilection for creating "quirky" characters. It's exploitative and just plain cruel-as if most perpetrators of this act have any empathy for the freakish--and Hempel shows why in being the exception. In "The Most Girl Part of You," Jack "Big Guy" Fitch is trying to crack his teeth and rides his bike into the back of a trash truck out of a sadness so deep it seems alien, yet Hempel's treatment is more than accessible--it's absolutely empathic.
--A one-line tribute/damnation of the era of TV's Dynasty: "Wednesday nights we watched a show where women in expensive clothes appeared on lavish sets and promised to ruin one another."
--This title: "To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights out of O'Hare."
--Mrs. Carlin, the animal lover of the title story, with whom you can't help but be annoyed and for whom you are ready to cry.
Amy Hempel perhaps shows what is best about this style people want to call minimalism. She leaves much out, but only through such restraint is she able to tell the truth. Her characters perform in a theater of great pathos. Hempel has enough compassion for them to let them insult us, aggravate us or weep for us (or us them). And in every case, they have something very directly to do with us--and not in any sentimental way. We may want to deny a connection, but I think we'll consistently fail, and if we don't fail, we'll be cheating ourselves out of a damn good read.
So let's go with a reaction that feels more individuated: I read this book four times before I could even hope to talk about it, half of those readings accomplished in one train ride from Philadelphia to New York City (not all that long an expanse, so you can imagine my intensity, for I am not that quick a reader). Aside from the aforementioned quotation that I had hoped not to aforemention, I doubt I could successfully pull out many more lines from this collection of stories and have them sing out of context the way they do in the deep fray of reading.
Hempel's work thrives inside its context. Sentences and words and ideas and syllables build upon each other--such as in a scene where slicing mosquito bites becomes exquisite foreplay--creating moments of synergy between reader and text that mere description or analysis can not hope to recapture. Perhaps my personal reactions to this work stem from my recognition that reading Hempel makes me mindful of my own aesthetics as an artist--makes me put my own demands as a reader to the fore. This is very active, very front-brain reading, tinged with exquisite, visceral pleasure-oddities, base humor, and deep sadness. This book is like eating fresh-water eel: soft and palatable, firing neurons that make you feel squishy and a little too wrapped up in the moment.
Give me a moment, and it is easy for me to jump up on any self-made lectern and spout about the need to set alight the all-too-high refuse pile of stale creativity in the world. "Elephant dung on the Virgin Mary! Huzzah!" If a "masterpiece" does not provoke an immediate gut reaction, if we can only look at it with intellectual distance, then make a place mat out of it and let it do something for us finally.
But Hempel's work draws me from my lectern, as I ride on a train, somewhere in the hinterlands of the Trenton, New Jersey area. I want to pull on people's sleeves and read lines aloud. The sheer relevance of Hempel's fiction had me sitting back and waiting for things to unfold. I was content to be patient, certain each story would fulfill my needs. Any work of art that so reaches the reader in the present deserves to remain available in the present. Discovering that this book was out of print only put me on another lectern--this one facing the printing press--so I could demand of it some conscience. Reading is a lonely enough pastime without being limited by the publisher's failure to keep a fine book in print. "Spread the gospel" my artistic imp demands!
Choice moments from the Book of Hempel? Consider:
--In "The Harvest," a story worth painting on the wall, the narrator's sad tale of surgery and litigation and the unwillingness to tell a story straight reaches a moment of pure breathlessness when the ending hinges on the tragic occupation of fishing for abalone.
--I often despise the modern predilection for creating "quirky" characters. It's exploitative and just plain cruel-as if most perpetrators of this act have any empathy for the freakish--and Hempel shows why in being the exception. In "The Most Girl Part of You," Jack "Big Guy" Fitch is trying to crack his teeth and rides his bike into the back of a trash truck out of a sadness so deep it seems alien, yet Hempel's treatment is more than accessible--it's absolutely empathic.
--A one-line tribute/damnation of the era of TV's Dynasty: "Wednesday nights we watched a show where women in expensive clothes appeared on lavish sets and promised to ruin one another."
--This title: "To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights out of O'Hare."
--Mrs. Carlin, the animal lover of the title story, with whom you can't help but be annoyed and for whom you are ready to cry.
Amy Hempel perhaps shows what is best about this style people want to call minimalism. She leaves much out, but only through such restraint is she able to tell the truth. Her characters perform in a theater of great pathos. Hempel has enough compassion for them to let them insult us, aggravate us or weep for us (or us them). And in every case, they have something very directly to do with us--and not in any sentimental way. We may want to deny a connection, but I think we'll consistently fail, and if we don't fail, we'll be cheating ourselves out of a damn good read.
December 24, 2019
Denemelerden sonra beni en çok yoran türün öykü kitapları olduğunu böylelikle fark etmiş oldum.
Hani öyküler arası bazen bir mola veriyoruz; neden sonra o mola bir boşluğa dönüyor ve uzadıkça uzuyor haliyle kapatmak epey zaman alıyor ya? Sanırım bu histen pek hoşlanmıyorum.
Uzun öyküler ya da Munro'yu oldukça severim aslında.
Demem o ki bundan sonra ufak tefek yolculuklar için tercih edilsin bu öykü kitapları, baş ağrıtılmasın, kimsenin umurunda olmayan hislerle ilgili tez yazılmasın Kimra. Ne zaman susacaksın tahmini?
Şimdi.
Not, yazar iyi.
Gerçekten.
Öyle görünmediğinin farkındayım fakat beğendim.
Hani öyküler arası bazen bir mola veriyoruz; neden sonra o mola bir boşluğa dönüyor ve uzadıkça uzuyor haliyle kapatmak epey zaman alıyor ya? Sanırım bu histen pek hoşlanmıyorum.
Uzun öyküler ya da Munro'yu oldukça severim aslında.
Demem o ki bundan sonra ufak tefek yolculuklar için tercih edilsin bu öykü kitapları, baş ağrıtılmasın, kimsenin umurunda olmayan hislerle ilgili tez yazılmasın Kimra. Ne zaman susacaksın tahmini?
Şimdi.
Not, yazar iyi.
Gerçekten.
Öyle görünmediğinin farkındayım fakat beğendim.
July 17, 2008
An interesting collection on account of familiarity. Which is to say that I gained an instantaneous sense of nostalgia when I read this for the first time. There is no real concrete explanation for this circumstance, it was a sensation of dramatic exploration.
January 17, 2019
The first story Amy writes starts with this.
You won’t get much from this short passage at first read. You would have to reread it, with much more reverence and care the second time, naturally. As I went through this, I realized I was in the hands of a master. Amy Hemple obliges the reader to invest his attention in the stories by writing very compactly and subtly. As a result the effect of the words is much more rewarding; As if to affirm : “a little of something goes a long way”. Her stories are not necessarily complex or grand, but they possess great detail and depth which makes them very heartfelt. She could be describing the utmost simple scenes and not only would you be able to see them vividly, you would be able to feel them as well.
“Belle developed a craving after she was pregnant. After she delivered herself of seven healthy pups, Belle went mad for lizards, catching and eating the island chameleons—who knew how many?—till we came to expect the dog to affect protective color, to rise white from the sand and swim—a blue-pawed dog—in the sea.”
You won’t get much from this short passage at first read. You would have to reread it, with much more reverence and care the second time, naturally. As I went through this, I realized I was in the hands of a master. Amy Hemple obliges the reader to invest his attention in the stories by writing very compactly and subtly. As a result the effect of the words is much more rewarding; As if to affirm : “a little of something goes a long way”. Her stories are not necessarily complex or grand, but they possess great detail and depth which makes them very heartfelt. She could be describing the utmost simple scenes and not only would you be able to see them vividly, you would be able to feel them as well.
March 1, 2021
La segunda compilación de cuentos de Amy Hempel, se nota una evolución en relación a sus primeros cuentos, hay un desarrollo más amplio de las historias, los personajes son más estructurados y con más peso, las emociones se intensifican, se habla de muerte, injusticias, pero todo mezclado con la cotidianidad, esto hace que nos sintamos cercanos a las historias, a los pensamientos y decisiones de los personajes.
Amy empieza ciertos cuentos con algo común, como estar bebiendo o comiendo, y de repente ya están en una playa, en una carretera peligrosa o en el zoológico, logra ir hilando su relato haciéndolo más grande y distante, pero al mismo tiempo pequeño e íntimo.
Seguiré leyendo a Amy Hempel.
Amy empieza ciertos cuentos con algo común, como estar bebiendo o comiendo, y de repente ya están en una playa, en una carretera peligrosa o en el zoológico, logra ir hilando su relato haciéndolo más grande y distante, pero al mismo tiempo pequeño e íntimo.
Seguiré leyendo a Amy Hempel.
July 22, 2011
If I found "Reasons to Live" a rather uneven collection, this one solidified my intrigue in Hempel's work. Nearly every story is a keeper, and my central complaint with her debut--that some stories were unmemorable and that all of them sounded as though they were narrated by the same character, though they probably shouldn't have done--didn't hold true for "At the Gates." Particularly moving were "The Most Girl Part of You," "The Harvest" (the self-reflexivity worked really well here, and I think that tends to be quite the feat), "The Day I Had Everything," and the title story.
As the book's title might suggest, a number of these stories allude to animals, predation, or humanity's close kinship with more 'primitive' creatures - this ties each tale to the ones preceding and following it. More powerfully, each story reckons with the mundanity of grief so central to our daily lives. Many of the stories hinge on moments of revelation - the loss of virginity, the death of a beloved pet, the experience of illness, the breakup of a relationship. Perhaps this is partly why I have trouble distinguishing Hempel's pieces from one another: each one seems to be a page ripped from my own life, or perhaps from the life of someone close to me. This is also possibly her greatest strength. If it counts for much, I think I'll wrap up the summer by finishing off the Collected Stories.
As the book's title might suggest, a number of these stories allude to animals, predation, or humanity's close kinship with more 'primitive' creatures - this ties each tale to the ones preceding and following it. More powerfully, each story reckons with the mundanity of grief so central to our daily lives. Many of the stories hinge on moments of revelation - the loss of virginity, the death of a beloved pet, the experience of illness, the breakup of a relationship. Perhaps this is partly why I have trouble distinguishing Hempel's pieces from one another: each one seems to be a page ripped from my own life, or perhaps from the life of someone close to me. This is also possibly her greatest strength. If it counts for much, I think I'll wrap up the summer by finishing off the Collected Stories.
March 7, 2014
No more Amy Hempel. No more program fiction. No more instagrammed sepia-filtered dirty laundry. No more beautiful pencil-drawn sentences of white people, red houses, and taupe minivans.
I am inspired to both poetry and hate. And to Pynchon, as remedy.
I am inspired to both poetry and hate. And to Pynchon, as remedy.
January 9, 2021
Canʼt get enough of Amy Hempel. The stories in this collection mostly involve animals, dogs especially, on whom the protagonists project their emotions. Instead of such relationship being hostile, though, it actually gives birth to a solidarity between the protagonists and their animal counterparts—a connection often too difficult to establish between two human beings. Sad, sad stories.
Best stories in the collection (5/5): “The Harvest,” about a woman who has been caught in a vehicular accident and suffered a horrible leg injury; “Rapture of the Deep,” about a typist hired by an old woman to hand out candies in her stead on Halloween; “Under No Moon,” about a woman who believes sheʼll die when she sees a comet; and “Tom-Rock Through the Eels,” about a woman who has lost her mother to drug overdose.
Other ratings:
“Daylight Come” 3/5
“The Most Girl Part of You” 4/5
“Du Jour” 4/5
“Murder” 3/5
“The Day I Had Everything” 4/5
“To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out of OʼHare” 4/5
“And Lead Us Not into Penn Station” 3/5
“In the Animal Shelter” 4/5
“At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom” 4/5
“The Lady Will Have the Slug Louie” 2/5
“The Center” 2/5
“The Rest of God” 3/5
Just look at the titles. Who wouldnʼt read them?
Best stories in the collection (5/5): “The Harvest,” about a woman who has been caught in a vehicular accident and suffered a horrible leg injury; “Rapture of the Deep,” about a typist hired by an old woman to hand out candies in her stead on Halloween; “Under No Moon,” about a woman who believes sheʼll die when she sees a comet; and “Tom-Rock Through the Eels,” about a woman who has lost her mother to drug overdose.
Other ratings:
“Daylight Come” 3/5
“The Most Girl Part of You” 4/5
“Du Jour” 4/5
“Murder” 3/5
“The Day I Had Everything” 4/5
“To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out of OʼHare” 4/5
“And Lead Us Not into Penn Station” 3/5
“In the Animal Shelter” 4/5
“At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom” 4/5
“The Lady Will Have the Slug Louie” 2/5
“The Center” 2/5
“The Rest of God” 3/5
Just look at the titles. Who wouldnʼt read them?
April 14, 2011
(8/10) The blurb for this book higher up on this page says that this collection asks what if dogs were more like humans. Well, if dogs were more like humans the sidewalks would be filled with poop and everytime you entered a room everyone in it would dive for your legs. I'm not what you would call a dog person, or an animal person really, so given this description and the beginning story of At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, I was having uncomfortable flashbacks to [[A Companion Species Manifesto]].
But there are a lot of great stories in here. In particular the semi-metafictional "The Harvest" (the most anthologized Hempel story) and the affecting "The Most Girl Part of You" stood out as keepers. Like every story collection there's some fluctuation in quality, and the worst stories do fall into that dreaded genre of pet lit. But on the whole Hempel's minimalist style and focus on subdued moments makes for some quietly devastating fiction.
But there are a lot of great stories in here. In particular the semi-metafictional "The Harvest" (the most anthologized Hempel story) and the affecting "The Most Girl Part of You" stood out as keepers. Like every story collection there's some fluctuation in quality, and the worst stories do fall into that dreaded genre of pet lit. But on the whole Hempel's minimalist style and focus on subdued moments makes for some quietly devastating fiction.
March 18, 2009
I've been a fan of Hempel for awhile now. Her style is so sparse and so dense, I'm in awe of what she accomplishes with each piece. This collection, however, is nothing short of amazing. I often admire author's for the scenes they craft or lines they come up with, but no one blows my mind as often as Hempel does. She creates some new bizarre moment--that works though--and has her characters wittier than any stand-up comic. I envy her and try to learn what I can from these awesome stories.
May 14, 2024
Amy Hempel’s second book of short story collection is just as great as the first. She addresses grief and loss like no other fiction author I have come across. At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom contains perhaps her most famous story, “The Harvest.” A more perfect example of minimalism cannot be found, although the other stories in the book are not far behind it in quality. Chuck Palahniuk wrote about in an essay praising Hempel, “She Breaks Your Heart” (2002):
Hempel is known for writing the perfect sentence, but Palahniuk breaks down how perfectly formulated her stories are. They are always more than a collection of beautiful turns of phrase. She slowly and steadily brings the reader into a “sympathetic physical reaction” by the end of each tale. However, he acknowledges a problem in her style:
Still, I can’t help but quote Hempel. Yes, they lose power taken out of context, I get much pleasure from highlighting, reading aloud, and writing out her incredible use of language. Speaking of which:
STORY TITLES AND QUOTES:
*
*
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The Contents:
"Daylight Come"
"The Harvest"
"The Most Girl Part of You"
"Rapture of the Deep"
"Du Jour"
"Murder"
"The Day I Had Everything"
"To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out of O'Hare"
"And Lead Us Not into Penn Station"
"In the Animal Shelter"
"At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom"
"The Lady Will Have the Slug Louie"
"Under No Moon"
"The Center"
"Tom-Rock Through the Eels"
"The Rest of God"
*
Hempel’s bibliography (as author, if not otherwise noted):
Reasons to Live (1985)
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990)
Tumble Home (1997)
Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs (1999) [editor, with Jim Shepard]
The Dog of the Marriage (2005)
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (2006) [collection of Hempel’s first four books of short stories]
New Stories from the South 2010: The Year's Best (2010) [editor, with Kathy Pories]
The Best Small Fictions 2017 (2017) [editor, with Tara L. Masih]
The Hand That Feeds You: A Novel by A.J. Rich (2015) [pen name - A.J. Rich is a collaboration between Hempel and Jill Ciment]
Sing to It: Stories (2019)
**
Citation:
Hempel, A. (2007). At the gates of the animal kingdom. In Hempel, A. (Ed.), The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (pp. 100-198). Scribner. https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stor... (Original work published 1990)
Title: At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom
Author(s): Amy Hempel
Year: 1990
Genre: Fiction - Short story collection
Date(s) read: 4/5/24 - 4/9/24
Book #78 in 2024
**
At first, The Harvest looks like a laundry list of details. You have no idea why you're almost weeping by the end of seven pages. You're a little confused and disoriented. It's just a simple list of facts presented in the first person, but somehow it adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Most of the facts are funny as hell, but at the last moment, when you're disarmed by laughter, it breaks your heart.
Hempel is known for writing the perfect sentence, but Palahniuk breaks down how perfectly formulated her stories are. They are always more than a collection of beautiful turns of phrase. She slowly and steadily brings the reader into a “sympathetic physical reaction” by the end of each tale. However, he acknowledges a problem in her style:
The only problem with Hempel's palace of fragments is quoting it. Take any piece out of context, and it loses power. The French philosopher Jacques Derrida likens writing fiction to a software code that operates in the hardware of your mind. Stringing together separate macros that, combined, will create a reaction. No fiction does this as well as Hempel's, but each story is so tight, so boiled to bare facts, that all you can do is lie on the floor, face down, and praise it.
Still, I can’t help but quote Hempel. Yes, they lose power taken out of context, I get much pleasure from highlighting, reading aloud, and writing out her incredible use of language. Speaking of which:
STORY TITLES AND QUOTES:
*
1. Daylight Come
“The Wellers with their message of affirmation were meant to warm the hearts of strangers. But I could not wait to get away from them. The Wellers had been widow and widower first.”
“I am looking down, where the lost wedding rings are invisible, now the color of the sand or of the sea or of the flesh.”
*
2. The Harvest
“The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me.”
“I did not feel any pain. In the hospital, after injections, I knew there was pain in the room—I just didn’t know whose pain it was.”
“He was next on the transplant list, as soon as—the word they used was harvest—as soon as a kidney was harvested. The boy’s mother prayed for drunk drivers. I prayed for men who were not discriminating. Aren’t we all, I thought, somebody’s harvest?”
“As soon as I knew that I would be all right, I was sure that I was dead and didn’t know it. I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence.”
“I leave a lot out when I tell the truth.”
*
3. The Most Girl Part of You
“That was before his mother died. She died eight days ago. She did it herself. Big Guy showed me the rope burns in the beam of the ceiling. He said, ‘Any place I hang myself is home.’ In the movie version, that is where his father would have slapped him.”
“Sewing is one of the secrets between us. Only Big Guy knows how considerably I had to cheat to earn the Girl Scout merit badge in sewing. It’s a fact that my seamstress badge is glued to the green cotton sash.”
“Since his mother died I have seen him steam a cucumber, thinking it was zucchini. That’s the kind of thing that turns my heart right over.”
“I had only been kissed once before. The fellow had made me think of those kids whose mouths cover the spigot when they drink from a fountain.”
“...if it’s true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive.”
*
4. Rapture of the Deep
“I know what I would have done as a child if there was somebody home on Halloween night who did not bother to answer the door. I would have come back later with shaving cream and eggs, with toilet paper and friends.”
“I told her the dents were from a man’s teeth. From where he bit the gold to show me how soft, then bit my finger, to show me how soft.”
“I told Miss Locey that I still needed to hear from the God that had betrayed me. An explanation would not be enough. An apology would not be enough. I needed for that God to look up to me, I said. I needed for him to have to tilt his head way back to look up to me, exposing his throat.”
“With the habitual kleptomania of temporary employment, I dropped the remaining Halloween candy into my purse, alongside boxes of paper clips and refills of Scotch tape.”
*
5. Du Jour
“The first three days are the worst, they say, but it’s been two weeks, and I’m still waiting for those first three days to be over.”
“Sometimes I lose it personality-wise because I don’t know what to do instead of smoke. I’m gaining weight of course; everybody does. But not because I’m eating more of anything. I’m gaining weight because I’ve stopped coughing. Coughing was exercise for me.”
“The program that is monitored at the clinic was guaranteed to leave you a broken husk, she said, ‘but a thin broken husk.’”
“I’m exaggerating so you can get to know me faster.”
“They’re wrong about that part. It’s your life—it’s the rest of your life that’s the worst.”
*
6. "Murder"
“In a biker bar called the Stretchmark Cafe, the tables of loudly muscled men ignore the strippers and leer at slides of choppers projected on the cafe walls.”
“The day of the wedding, before a S.W.A.T. team of beauticians arrived to do the bride, the young son from the groom’s first marriage gave his new stepmother a picture he had drawn of a scowling Green Beret with a sword through his flaming head.”
“For her second time around, the bride chose ivory tea-length lace, better flowers and better food, better music and a better man.”Jean said, ‘Men.’ She said, ‘They hate you at first. But all you have to do is be funny and sad and tall and thin and short and fat and wear them down, wear them down.’
‘You can look on the bright side,’ I said, ‘but think of the men who have unexplainably fled after they got to know us a little.’”
“His telephone rings. I imagine it is a woman calling, and because I am the wife, I answer in the voice that says, I’ve had it ten times today and I live here. This is what marriage means to me.”
*
7. The Day I Had Everything
“When Mrs. Lawton phoned in the threat, the threat was already a fact.”
“The woman looked up and past me, out the opened window. ‘The devil is beating his wife,’ she said. It was a sunny day, and a rain shower had begun, and I had not heard that expression—that explanation—since I was a child.”
“And then Jean told a story about the man she would have married, about a dinner they had shared, the point of which seemed to me to be that things get worse before they get really terrible.”
“Jean said she thought she might still hear from Larry but that hoping he would call was like the praying you do after the bowling ball has left your hand.”
“‘This one is for the surgeon,’ Jean said and dropped a strap, exposing the breast she was going to lose.”
*
8. To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out of O'Hare
“That is when I told them that my husband was killed in a plane crash, the one in Tenerife. There is precedent here for a lie of this kind, or rather, a lie at this time.”
“You walk off a plane and even think about getting a refund! You get one—one—one trip for the price of two.”
*
9. And Lead Us Not into Penn Station
“Women who live alone in fear of intruders call the local precinct for advice. ‘Keep your doorknobs highly polished,’ an officer tells them. ‘When someone breaks in, we can get clear prints.’”
“I don’t know what to say about this. I am as cut off from meaning and completion as all of these crippled people.”
*
12. The Lady Will Have the Slug Louie
“My cat is another one—eats anything but food. I watch her select a tulip in a vase. When her teeth pierce the petal, I startle her away with sharply clapped hands.”
*
13. Under No Moon
“If couples can grow to look alike, then my parents’ ailments came to resemble each other.”
“Speeding through the jungle at midnight, the taxicab drivers talked snakes. They said there were no more snakes on Trinidad since the government imported the mongoose. It had done its job so well—eating not only poisonous snakes but birds’ eggs, too—that in the daylight they would see that there were no more exotic birds.”
“This is the part my father made me see—all those people stumbling in the dark, under no moon, unable to shine a light or strike a match because a time exposure would be ruined…It became an adventure, my father said, to see anything that night at all.”
“My mother was content with this thought: that the pills that almost took her life may actually have saved it by preventing her from seeing the incarnation of her doom.”
*
14. The Center
“Original Pal is buried in a flower bed, his whiskers pushing up as stems at the end of which are configured, each spring, marigolds and impatiens.”
*
15. Tom-Rock Through the Eels
“Are you here for all the things that I don’t have?”
“In California, you are not supposed to sleep beneath bookshelves or paintings or mirrors on the wall. But in my father’s house, when my father is away, I sleep in his bed and gamble that the painting of a potter’s wheel will not shake loose and crush my skull in the hours of a quaking town at night.”
“Sometimes, when the cannon goes off at dawn, I wake up and find myself in the pose my mother died in—lying on her side, her arm reaching from under her head as though she were doing the sidestroke in a pool, the pills she had swallowed weighing her down like so many pebbles in her pockets.”
“She says it is not enough that a pill helps her sleep through the night—somehow, she has to get through the day.”
“A short time later, and her voice has lost weight. She is speaking so fast that her thoughts lose their breath catching up.”
*
16. The Rest of God
“Wildflowers galloped across thorn-free fields, stopping only when cut and placed in water.”
“We were women in one-piece bathing suits beneath faded loose clothes, walking across dunes to call on one another, bringing bouquets of Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod trailing roots, quoting the poet’s hope that, ‘Through gleaming gates of goldenrod / I’ll pass into the rest of God.’”
“‘The first cold snap,’ he said, ‘I get in my car and drive south till I can roll down the window.’”
“Rather than return for his glasses, he later explained he had driven home really fast so that he would make it back before he had an accident.”
"When a stray beach dog ran in to join them, we could see—phosphorescence clinging to his fur—the outline of his legs as they paddled underwater."
*
The Contents:
"Daylight Come"
"The Harvest"
"The Most Girl Part of You"
"Rapture of the Deep"
"Du Jour"
"Murder"
"The Day I Had Everything"
"To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out of O'Hare"
"And Lead Us Not into Penn Station"
"In the Animal Shelter"
"At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom"
"The Lady Will Have the Slug Louie"
"Under No Moon"
"The Center"
"Tom-Rock Through the Eels"
"The Rest of God"
*
Hempel’s bibliography (as author, if not otherwise noted):
Reasons to Live (1985)
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990)
Tumble Home (1997)
Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs (1999) [editor, with Jim Shepard]
The Dog of the Marriage (2005)
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (2006) [collection of Hempel’s first four books of short stories]
New Stories from the South 2010: The Year's Best (2010) [editor, with Kathy Pories]
The Best Small Fictions 2017 (2017) [editor, with Tara L. Masih]
The Hand That Feeds You: A Novel by A.J. Rich (2015) [pen name - A.J. Rich is a collaboration between Hempel and Jill Ciment]
Sing to It: Stories (2019)
**
Citation:
Hempel, A. (2007). At the gates of the animal kingdom. In Hempel, A. (Ed.), The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (pp. 100-198). Scribner. https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stor... (Original work published 1990)
Title: At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom
Author(s): Amy Hempel
Year: 1990
Genre: Fiction - Short story collection
Date(s) read: 4/5/24 - 4/9/24
Book #78 in 2024
**
July 2, 2019
5 (Random) Thoughts
-I've been reading some poetry this year. It's almost fitting that return to read some Amy Hempel in the midst of that. Her minimalist style of prose has much in common with poetry. I can't think of a fancy way to say it: she is a beast. One of my favorite authors. I read her writing slow, like I'm savoring every bite. Each line has the potential for hilarity, or it could be the one that destroys you. Sometimes they do both.
-Hempel is most underrated as a comedic talent. She is as constantly funny as any comedic author I have read. If the cliche'd line is that "comedy equals tragedy plus time," then she truly lives within that relation of the comedic and tragic. "Jean was trying to describe what she felt it would be like to be married to Larry; she said it would be like staying in a bad hotel and being forced to send postcards of it to your friends with arrows pointing to 'my room.'" Her use of humor are not cheap tricks or easy laughs, however. She uses them as an economy of language which jumps the fence of exposition and sneaks the observations into the backyard. We learn about characters through simple, one liners. In "The Harvest" she could tell us her date was superficial but instead after he injures our protagonist in a serious accident he tells her as she bleeds on his clothing: "You'll be okay, but this sweater is ruined."
-"The Harvest" may be Hempel's greatest story. It is certainly on the short list. The opening line is a shot across the bow: "The year I began to say vahz, instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me." She proceeds to give her protagonist, ex-boyfriend and lawyer traits in simple one liners: . That the story eventually flips on it's head as a means of showing the way we play with the truth as we tell stories makes you consider the relationship between fiction and non-fiction. Perhaps non-fiction gives more room for honesty? It also talks about how we use and dispose of each other, but mentioning the themes of the stories in a vacuum ignores the humanity and vulnerability within them. Without it her stories would simply be baroque and dark, and well... Chuck Palahniuk (which is cool if that's your thing. it's not mine, but right on, power to his people, don't come at me... seriously, you people scare me)
-I'm resisting the urge to just list each of my favorites stories, but "Rapture of the Deep" and "The rest of God" are clear highlights along with the collections namesake: "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom." The title story is fitting because so many of the stories in the collection have to deal with our relation to animals, how lonely people ironically find humanity through connections with animals, and how our rationality often is subordinate to more base instinctual behaviors.
-My tendency is to use violent descriptors when discussing her work because it feels violent the way she can shift the mood in a new paragraph. In the monstrous "The Rest of God," she closes with a powerful meditation on marriage and nature. In one moment a wife storms off at the recollection of her accident where she kills a deer. The description of the scene on the side of the row shows the cruelty of her husband in that moment. The mood of the campfire, and the trauma that it caused her. Moments later they are swept up in a revelation on the beach. It is a beautiful close to another great collection of stories by a master-craftswoman. I still believe "Reasons to Live" is her best collection of stories, but what do I know?
-I've been reading some poetry this year. It's almost fitting that return to read some Amy Hempel in the midst of that. Her minimalist style of prose has much in common with poetry. I can't think of a fancy way to say it: she is a beast. One of my favorite authors. I read her writing slow, like I'm savoring every bite. Each line has the potential for hilarity, or it could be the one that destroys you. Sometimes they do both.
-Hempel is most underrated as a comedic talent. She is as constantly funny as any comedic author I have read. If the cliche'd line is that "comedy equals tragedy plus time," then she truly lives within that relation of the comedic and tragic. "Jean was trying to describe what she felt it would be like to be married to Larry; she said it would be like staying in a bad hotel and being forced to send postcards of it to your friends with arrows pointing to 'my room.'" Her use of humor are not cheap tricks or easy laughs, however. She uses them as an economy of language which jumps the fence of exposition and sneaks the observations into the backyard. We learn about characters through simple, one liners. In "The Harvest" she could tell us her date was superficial but instead after he injures our protagonist in a serious accident he tells her as she bleeds on his clothing: "You'll be okay, but this sweater is ruined."
-"The Harvest" may be Hempel's greatest story. It is certainly on the short list. The opening line is a shot across the bow: "The year I began to say vahz, instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me." She proceeds to give her protagonist, ex-boyfriend and lawyer traits in simple one liners: . That the story eventually flips on it's head as a means of showing the way we play with the truth as we tell stories makes you consider the relationship between fiction and non-fiction. Perhaps non-fiction gives more room for honesty? It also talks about how we use and dispose of each other, but mentioning the themes of the stories in a vacuum ignores the humanity and vulnerability within them. Without it her stories would simply be baroque and dark, and well... Chuck Palahniuk (which is cool if that's your thing. it's not mine, but right on, power to his people, don't come at me... seriously, you people scare me)
-I'm resisting the urge to just list each of my favorites stories, but "Rapture of the Deep" and "The rest of God" are clear highlights along with the collections namesake: "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom." The title story is fitting because so many of the stories in the collection have to deal with our relation to animals, how lonely people ironically find humanity through connections with animals, and how our rationality often is subordinate to more base instinctual behaviors.
-My tendency is to use violent descriptors when discussing her work because it feels violent the way she can shift the mood in a new paragraph. In the monstrous "The Rest of God," she closes with a powerful meditation on marriage and nature. In one moment a wife storms off at the recollection of her accident where she kills a deer. The description of the scene on the side of the row shows the cruelty of her husband in that moment. The mood of the campfire, and the trauma that it caused her. Moments later they are swept up in a revelation on the beach. It is a beautiful close to another great collection of stories by a master-craftswoman. I still believe "Reasons to Live" is her best collection of stories, but what do I know?
October 19, 2020
This odd, eclectic selection of short stories by Amy Hempel are grouped together by a loose thematic connection to animals, particularly pets, but more so by a strong atmospheric similarity. They are all fragile, fragmented, tangental narratives, often bordering on sketches of thoughts and emotions rather than stories. The better stories congeal somewhat into stronger narratives but most of the pieces here are enjoyable in a way. Hempel has a mysterious, cinematic turn of phrase, the talent of creating an image out of very little. They are overwhelmingly melancholy and yet quirky enough to contain a wry sense of humour. Some never take off at all, are far too short to form anything firm enough to hold on it, seem a little cobbled together and throwaway. Opener "Daylight Come", or fragments like "In the Animal Shelter", "The Lady Will Have The Slug Louie" or "The Centre" fall into this category. They are snapshots, focused on memory and emotions. Even the shortest of them jump between arbitrarily connected images, a jarring and unsatisfying feeling.
When Hempel's talents are more tuned in and transform into small narratives, some of these stories turn into something more effective and moving. Yet even then Hempel plays with memory, authenticity and the trustworthness of her voice. "The Harvest", in just a few short pages, plays around with her own reliability so that one can not separate truth and lies. At one point she says "I leave a lot out when I tell the truth" and then, just when you think she's now on the right track she twists out of your hands again saying "I would have written this next part into the story if anybody would have believed it." Even longer stories like "Tom-Rock Through the Eels" starts somewhere and ends up somewhere completely different; here starting with a simple childhood memory before spliting into tiny fragmental eulogies of all the mothers she remembers and how her memory treats them and memorialises them. The stories are intriguing and fascinating, but when you encounter the intensity of "Under No Moon", a story about the narrator's parent's voyage down the Amazon river to see a comet, you see the potential of Hempel's storytelling and the others feel more frustrating.
Other more digestible stories include "The Day I Had Everything", a group of women discussing their relationships, or "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom", a character portrait of Mrs Carlin, a nanny that comes to look after the children while the parents are away. "Du Jour" is one of the most intense stories and shows Hempel at her most pessimistic, a gut wrenchingly real treatise to the difficulty of giving up smoking. So too "Murder", a tongue in cheek story about a women getting married who has had five boyfriends named Jim. In such stories Hempel comes across as darkly humourous and cynical. Others, like the almost sinister "The Rapture of the Deep", tell dark, unfunny tales, here narrated by the nurse of the incapacitated Miss Locey. Then there is the bright, romantic and kooky tale of young love in "The Most Girl Part of You", in which the narrator describes her admiration for the Big Guy. Hempel has fun with the relationship, mixing curiosity and anticipation into the potential of a budding romance. It ends with the optimistic line "...your life starts rushing forward when you're ready to be alive." It is a fitting image to these stories that turn time and memory and our desire for the linear and chronological into a pretty haze. Hempel is a very different kind of story teller, unique, frustrating and often beautiful. 6
When Hempel's talents are more tuned in and transform into small narratives, some of these stories turn into something more effective and moving. Yet even then Hempel plays with memory, authenticity and the trustworthness of her voice. "The Harvest", in just a few short pages, plays around with her own reliability so that one can not separate truth and lies. At one point she says "I leave a lot out when I tell the truth" and then, just when you think she's now on the right track she twists out of your hands again saying "I would have written this next part into the story if anybody would have believed it." Even longer stories like "Tom-Rock Through the Eels" starts somewhere and ends up somewhere completely different; here starting with a simple childhood memory before spliting into tiny fragmental eulogies of all the mothers she remembers and how her memory treats them and memorialises them. The stories are intriguing and fascinating, but when you encounter the intensity of "Under No Moon", a story about the narrator's parent's voyage down the Amazon river to see a comet, you see the potential of Hempel's storytelling and the others feel more frustrating.
Other more digestible stories include "The Day I Had Everything", a group of women discussing their relationships, or "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom", a character portrait of Mrs Carlin, a nanny that comes to look after the children while the parents are away. "Du Jour" is one of the most intense stories and shows Hempel at her most pessimistic, a gut wrenchingly real treatise to the difficulty of giving up smoking. So too "Murder", a tongue in cheek story about a women getting married who has had five boyfriends named Jim. In such stories Hempel comes across as darkly humourous and cynical. Others, like the almost sinister "The Rapture of the Deep", tell dark, unfunny tales, here narrated by the nurse of the incapacitated Miss Locey. Then there is the bright, romantic and kooky tale of young love in "The Most Girl Part of You", in which the narrator describes her admiration for the Big Guy. Hempel has fun with the relationship, mixing curiosity and anticipation into the potential of a budding romance. It ends with the optimistic line "...your life starts rushing forward when you're ready to be alive." It is a fitting image to these stories that turn time and memory and our desire for the linear and chronological into a pretty haze. Hempel is a very different kind of story teller, unique, frustrating and often beautiful. 6
May 8, 2025
Amy Hempel doesn't kill her darlings. She just wants to have fun and, you know what, good for her!
The first story opens with:
That "after" is a typical Hempel turn that draws you in and the rest of the paragraph is whimsical and beautiful. But Belle disappears from the story shortly after, which turns out to be about some vacationers on an island. It left me unmoved and confused.
Reading At The Gates of the Animal Kingdom feels like playing slots. All you're chasing is the high of the next darling. The stuff in between is meandering, too short of a nail for any emotion to hang from. But dammit, the darlings are good. Here's a few more:
The first story opens with:
Belle developed a craving after she was pregnant. After she delivered herself of seven healthy pups, Belle went mad for lizards, catching and eating the island chameleons–who knew how many?–till we came to expect the dog to affect protective color, to rise white from the sand and swim–a blue pawed dog–in the sea.
That "after" is a typical Hempel turn that draws you in and the rest of the paragraph is whimsical and beautiful. But Belle disappears from the story shortly after, which turns out to be about some vacationers on an island. It left me unmoved and confused.
Reading At The Gates of the Animal Kingdom feels like playing slots. All you're chasing is the high of the next darling. The stuff in between is meandering, too short of a nail for any emotion to hang from. But dammit, the darlings are good. Here's a few more:
What happened to one of my legs required four hundred stitches, which, when I told it, became five hundred stitches, because nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.
There was sometimes, on the other side of me, a twelve-year-old boy. His lashes were thick and dark from blood-pressure medication. He was next on the transplant list, as soon–the word they used was harvest–as soon as a kidney was harvested.
The boy's mother prayed for drunk drivers.
"Oh, God no," she said. "I'm exaggerating so you can get to know me faster."
February 29, 2020
This is the second collection of short stories by this author that I have read recently, and my reaction to it is much the same. In my opinion, the stories run the gamut from disappointing to exceptional. Those that are disappointing seem underdeveloped, hung on too short a nail. In contrast, those that are exceptional teach us something of value about the human condition.
In “The Harvest”, the narrator begins by telling us, “I leave a lot out when I tell the truth. The same when I write a story.” So from the get-go, the reader knows that there is an unreliable narrative source. This makes for an interesting tale of a survivor of a horrific motorcycle accident. What really happened?
Another story, the eponymous “At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom”, is told by an animal rights activist/vegan narrator who is so true to life that an acquaintance of mine could have written it. Empathic concern for all animal life is combined with a quiet, morbid obsession with distressing reports of animal abuse. Difficult association to tolerate.
One final example of what this collection contains is “Tom-Rock Through the Eels”. It is an exploration of what the suicide of a mother leaves behind in her daughter. Very poignant, very insightful.
In “The Harvest”, the narrator begins by telling us, “I leave a lot out when I tell the truth. The same when I write a story.” So from the get-go, the reader knows that there is an unreliable narrative source. This makes for an interesting tale of a survivor of a horrific motorcycle accident. What really happened?
Another story, the eponymous “At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom”, is told by an animal rights activist/vegan narrator who is so true to life that an acquaintance of mine could have written it. Empathic concern for all animal life is combined with a quiet, morbid obsession with distressing reports of animal abuse. Difficult association to tolerate.
One final example of what this collection contains is “Tom-Rock Through the Eels”. It is an exploration of what the suicide of a mother leaves behind in her daughter. Very poignant, very insightful.
September 18, 2017
Al ricovero per animali
"Ogni volta che vedi una bella donna, qualcuno si è stancato di lei: così dicono gli uomini. E io so dove vanno, queste donne, con la loro stanca bellezza che qualcuno non desidera più ... queste donne che devono vivere come il pino bianco dell'alta Sierra, lì già da prima di Cristo, nutrito in qualche modo dal vento della montagna. Si accostano agli animali, lisciando loro il pelo, dentro a una gabbia, giorno dopo giorno, dicendo, « Come sta il piccolo di mamma? Si sente solo il piccolo di mamma?» Se ne vanno alla fine della giornata, soffermandosi per chiedere a un guardiano, «Finiscono in buone mani?» Tornano dopo un giorno o due e si chinano per esaminare un gatto privo di un occhio chiedendo, come se intendessero adottarlo, « Come faccio a imporre un nuovo gatto al mio cane?» Ma le adozioni sono molto rare. Ciò che importa è che queste donne abbiano qualcuno da lasciare, abbandonando le amabili creature che mai le abbandonerebbero, una volta concesso il proprio cuore".
Il libro ha una serie di racconti dello stesso tenore, a volte ancora più incredibili.
"Ogni volta che vedi una bella donna, qualcuno si è stancato di lei: così dicono gli uomini. E io so dove vanno, queste donne, con la loro stanca bellezza che qualcuno non desidera più ... queste donne che devono vivere come il pino bianco dell'alta Sierra, lì già da prima di Cristo, nutrito in qualche modo dal vento della montagna. Si accostano agli animali, lisciando loro il pelo, dentro a una gabbia, giorno dopo giorno, dicendo, « Come sta il piccolo di mamma? Si sente solo il piccolo di mamma?» Se ne vanno alla fine della giornata, soffermandosi per chiedere a un guardiano, «Finiscono in buone mani?» Tornano dopo un giorno o due e si chinano per esaminare un gatto privo di un occhio chiedendo, come se intendessero adottarlo, « Come faccio a imporre un nuovo gatto al mio cane?» Ma le adozioni sono molto rare. Ciò che importa è che queste donne abbiano qualcuno da lasciare, abbandonando le amabili creature che mai le abbandonerebbero, una volta concesso il proprio cuore".
Il libro ha una serie di racconti dello stesso tenore, a volte ancora più incredibili.
June 24, 2018
Like many collections of short stories, there are some hits and some misses in this anthology, published in 1986.The stories are very brief, ranging from one to about 10 pages. Hempel is known as a minimalist writer. The subject matter is usually about the relationships between people, and reflections on growing up.
I first heard about this author in one of the short pieces in Chuck Pahlaniuk's "Stranger than Fiction". I think my expectations were too high, as that short essay was mostly about how fantastic and life-changing her stories are. For me, they ranged from 'really good' to tiresome, but not in the same league as Tobias Wolff (but who is?).
November 30, 2019
These stories have a fluidity to them and though initially I was against the tide but eventually I tagged along. Few initial stories took time to seep in and I started understanding writer. But as soon as I understood her, it was a joy ride from then on. My favorite one's were "And lead us not into penn station", "In the Animal shelter", "At the gates of the Animal kingdom" and "The center". I could feel the absurdity of this world, pain of animals, ache of losing a pet or your family member so much so that it would take some courage to read them again and go through the same raw emotions.
I started as skeptic and now I'm a fan.
I started as skeptic and now I'm a fan.
January 13, 2020
Stories of the small moment. Not a lot of resolution, but perhaps that is why they are so beautiful. Some stories definitely feel like throwaways or more like thought exercises than fully wrought fiction. My main concern with Hempel and writers of her ilk is the 'curious detail' that lends an MA Workshop feel to some pieces. Like all the guys in a story being named Jim. It just feels like a quirky detail added to make the reader smirk. Still, beautiful stories in her, with prose that, for lack of a better word, feels zen in its simplicity. Beautiful like the first snow of the year, and just as bright, just as clear. Recommended.
December 22, 2020
Wird Zeit, dass DIE mal in Deutschland entdeckt wird!
Amy Hempel schreibt sooo gut!!
Hört mich darüber sprechen in der 2a-Ausgabe von unserem Podcast "bücherreich":
http://buecherreich.tumblr.com/post/7...
Meine geschriebene Rezension des Titels findet ihr hier:
http://www.literaturtipps.de/buch/det...
Und den langen Autorentext hier (total faszinierende Frau):
http://www.literaturtipps.de/autor/ku...
Amy Hempel schreibt sooo gut!!
Hört mich darüber sprechen in der 2a-Ausgabe von unserem Podcast "bücherreich":
http://buecherreich.tumblr.com/post/7...
Meine geschriebene Rezension des Titels findet ihr hier:
http://www.literaturtipps.de/buch/det...
Und den langen Autorentext hier (total faszinierende Frau):
http://www.literaturtipps.de/autor/ku...
January 1, 2025
- czytałem i myślałem o czymś innym; może to kwestia wybranego momentu, kiedy coś innego zaprząta mi myśli, a może kwestia zbytniej efemeryczności większości opowiadań
- te, na których udało mi się skupić w całości, brzmiały świetnie; kojarzyły mi się z watą, dotykiem poduszki, dymem, ale nie ogniskowym, tylko takim bezwonnym, na ekranie, na którym odtwarza się VHS z czyimiś małymi, ważnymi wspomnieniami
- z całego zbioru na pewno warto przeczytać "the harvest" (hempelowy klasyk) i "the most girl part of you" (przemówiło do mnie akurat w tej chwili)
- te, na których udało mi się skupić w całości, brzmiały świetnie; kojarzyły mi się z watą, dotykiem poduszki, dymem, ale nie ogniskowym, tylko takim bezwonnym, na ekranie, na którym odtwarza się VHS z czyimiś małymi, ważnymi wspomnieniami
- z całego zbioru na pewno warto przeczytać "the harvest" (hempelowy klasyk) i "the most girl part of you" (przemówiło do mnie akurat w tej chwili)
November 13, 2023
Ay no sé. No le sentí la pureza y la perfección que tenía en su primer libro. Tal vez sea yo, me cuesta intelectualizar por qué no me gusta, siento que no veo.
I wanna talk to you I wanna shampoo you I wanna renew you again and again applause, applause, life is our cause; when I think of your kisses my mind see-saws! Do you see do you see do you see how you hurt me, baby?
So I hurt you too
then we both get so blue!
I wanna talk to you I wanna shampoo you I wanna renew you again and again applause, applause, life is our cause; when I think of your kisses my mind see-saws! Do you see do you see do you see how you hurt me, baby?
So I hurt you too
then we both get so blue!
March 15, 2022
Reads like it was written by someone who runs a creative writing MFA program. Sixteen overwrought short stories about cliched, manic pixie dreamgirls/women. Honestly, only a couple even qualify as short stories. Mostly just random collections of thoughts that barely hang together.
The title story is the best of the bunch by miles. Not really good, but quirky and, unlike the rest, coherent.
The title story is the best of the bunch by miles. Not really good, but quirky and, unlike the rest, coherent.
August 17, 2024
Having read some of Hempels short stories in lit mags and anthologies, this was my first collection. As expected it is very very good. I liked that most of the stories were short, 5 to 10 pages or so. She is a master of brevity. Not sure why I’m not scoring it a 5 but perhaps I’ll figure it out.
Highly Recommended for those who read and enjoy short fiction.
Highly Recommended for those who read and enjoy short fiction.
July 10, 2018
I'm not convinced that "The Most Girl Part of You" isn't Amy Hempel's best story. It's certainly my favorite, and just one reason to read this near-perfect collection.
August 25, 2018
Nothing will be as amazing as Reasons To Live but this is still a nice collection and “The most girl part of you” is one of my favorite short stories.
December 13, 2019
Simply one of the best modern American writers. Her prose is succinct and poetic. True genius of meta-fiction
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