- Mass Market Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc USA; Reprint edition (May 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0452278791
- ISBN-13: 978-0452278790
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.5 x 1.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,014,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Innocence is lost to unforgettable experience in these brilliant stories by E. L. Doctorow, as full of mystery and meaning as any of the longer works by this American master. In “The Writer in the Family,” a young man learns the difference between lying and literature after he is induced into deceiving a relative through letters. In “Wili,” an early-twentieth-century idyll is destroyed by infidelity. In “The Foreign Legation,” a girl and an act of political anarchy collide with devastating results. These and other stories flow into the novella “Lives of the Poets,” in which the images and themes of the earlier stories become part of the narrator’s unsparing confessions about his own mind, offering a rare look at the creative process and its connection to the heart.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
We usually feel rightly hesitant when praising something as 'the greatest ever', particularly when it concerns a literary form as rich as the short story. Yet, it seems somehow right to bestow this accolade upon Doctorow's 'The Writer in the Family', the first story in this collection, which deals with a boy's retrospective analysis of his father's life, and the complex, harsh network of intra-familial relationships.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Anomie
31 Dec 2006
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Everything that Doctorow writes shows his mastery, but I cannot say that I enjoyed this slim collection; indeed, if it had not been so slim I doubt I'd have finished it. The novella which gives its title to the collection is virtually plotless, seeming more like a memoir than a story. In apparently random manner, Doctorow describes the social lives, affairs, and marriages of a group of his fellow writers. "I am not talking about divorced couples, you understand, but couples not entirely together." Everybody seems to be floating in a social limbo where personal ties are transitory and superficial, and upon which the outside world impinges only as a distant annoyance. In a word, anomie.
The novella is given a little more weight by the addition of six very short stories, most of which are also virtually plotless and portray the same qualities of social isolation. In several instances, images from the novella crop up again in the stories, or vice-versa. Doctorow has always been fond of cross-connecting his works, but several of the stories have the air of being discarded fragments from one of his novels; one even shares almost the same title, THE WATERWORKS. As I say, nothing that Doctorow writes is without interest, but these fragments might better have been left on the cutting-room floor.
The novella is given a little more weight by the addition of six very short stories, most of which are also virtually plotless and portray the same qualities of social isolation. In several instances, images from the novella crop up again in the stories, or vice-versa. Doctorow has always been fond of cross-connecting his works, but several of the stories have the air of being discarded fragments from one of his novels; one even shares almost the same title, THE WATERWORKS. As I say, nothing that Doctorow writes is without interest, but these fragments might better have been left on the cutting-room floor.
What's it all about, Edgar?
21 May 2012
Format:Paperback
E.L. Doctorow is a favorite author of mine, but after reading this book I have to ponder why? Not why is he a favorite writer of mine, but why did he bother to write it. The book contains six short stories and one novella. The short stories have nothing in common, except they are snapshots of various characters and events that only capture a moment in time. Going nowhere, doing nothing. As for the novella, "Lives of the Poets," the narrator of this tale, a poet, tells us about a number of his friends, who are also poets and, like the storyteller, all have wrecked marriages. You would expect Doctorow to tie this all together and explain how the poetic mind contributes to busted relationships. But no, the narrator just lays it out without rhyme or reason. In retrospect, maybe Doctorow is subtly, or not so subtly, bragging about his marriage which has been very successful. Doctorow has written many masterpieces, "Loon Lake" being my personal favorite, but this seems way below his standard of craftsmanship. Thankfully, it is a small book and I didn't waste much time in its reading.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
