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正在检索... Science | Book | 813.54 C762CO 1995 | 1 | Stacks | 正在检索... 未知 | 正在检索... 不可借阅 |
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摘要
摘要
This collection of fifty-six stories gathers work from Connell's entire writing career. Sometimes heartbreaking and often comic, they go to the heart of the American character.
评论 (4)
出版社周刊评论
Connell, now 70, is a consummate craftsman who has enjoyed some remarkable successes (Mrs. Bridge and Son of the Morning Star) but who has never developed a clear literary profile. The publication of his collected stories is a bold move by new Counterpoint (run out of Washington, D.C., by Jack Shoemaker, formerly of North Point), but it is not clear that such an effort is justified by the work. It is an odd profile as a story writer the enigmatic Connell presents here: among the 56 stories, more than half were written in the 1950s, almost none for 30 years following the mid-'60s, then a sudden burst of creativity, with a dozen stories written in the past two years. There are common themes, even common characters, running throughout. A writer called Koerner represents some aspects of Connell himself (a taciturn loner who surveys the literary scene with some disdain); Mr. Muhlbach, an insurance executive who feels that life is passing him byand who stars in two of the most memorable stories, ``St. Augustine's Pigeon'' and ``Otto and the Magi''seems emblematic of the solid bourgeois St. Louis world in which Connell grew up, and which also gave birth to Mr. and Mrs. Bridge; Leon and Bébert are a pair of cutups who become involved in farcical situations and absurdist conversations. The material is carefully distanced, the narration observant but deadpan, the style, particularly in the earlier stories and sketches, Hemingway-plain. The recent, previously unpublished stories show a growing warmth: ``Noah's Ark'' is a touching vignette of the trials of faith; ``Cantinflas and the Cop'' is a harrowing sketch of the impact of urban violence; and ``Mrs. Proctor Bemis'' shows that Connell is perfectly capable of bringing Mrs. Bridge up to the moment. The question remains whether the oeuvre deserves a book of this scope; perhaps just the new and uncollected stories would have made a more digestible volume. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
From the prolific and accomplished Connell (Son of the Morning Star, Mrs. Bridge), a worthy compendium of 56 stories13 new, 14 previously uncollected, and 29 from three earlier collections: The Anatomy Lesson (1957), At the Crossroads (1965), and St. Augustine's Pigeon (1980). ``Life is, after all, the study of contradictions.'' So says the narrator of ``Au Lapin Gros,'' a new story with a typical Connell heroa too-smart but unambitious middle-aged outsider and cynic dissatisfied with his life choices. Here (as in many of the other tales), Connell's hero weaves through an ever-shifting world of contradictions. The narrator is drawn to a large Greek woman in a Paris cafe; she could be a bomb-throwing revolutionary or a madwoman, or possibly bothit doesn't matter. He doesn't care what she's revolting againsthe just loves her big feet and will do anything for her. In ``Hooker,'' recurring antihero Koerner stumbles on a former one-night stand. After she disappears, he wanders San Francisco interrogating anyone who might know the many- aliased enchantress, with all telling him different life-histories of the chameleon-like creature. In these new pieces, Connell is at his acerbic, biting best, often capturing mercilessly the grotesque and the small-mindedness in average bourgeois Americans. In ``Acedia,'' for instance, Koerner, suffering from the medieval condition of sloth, is dragged by friends to a freakish party where he wallows in its horribleness. And in ``A Cottage near Twin Falls,'' a successful writer is persuaded to leave his seclusion to go to a cocktail party where he suffers through an endless barrage of inane questions. Some of the earlier stories seem a bit writerly or sketchy, but the whole sparkles with Connell's learnedness, sharp wit, and spare, concise prose. A top collection. (First Serial to The New Yorker)
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Connell drew wider public notice than he previously enjoyed with the appearance of the 1990 Merchant-Ivory movie Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, based on his twin novels, Mrs. Bridge (1958) and Mr. Bridge (1969). Appreciators of fine literature have known about Connell for years. This gathering of his short stories written over the course of his career, from the late 1940s to the present, represents an important publishing project in the history of the genre in the U.S. He is an accomplished story writer; though not one to have pushed any frontiers, he certainly exercised the form to its fullest within its traditional parameters. Not all of the collected 56 stories are completely successful, but most of them are, and at their best, they demonstrate a resonant familiarity with history and with foreign places, an accurate ear for dialogue, and a superior aptitude for the use of interior monologue. Active short story collections have no excuse not to acquire this book. --Brad Hooper
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Short fiction is an art unto itself, more confined and thus more rigorous than the novelist's canvas. This volume of 56 stories spans a lifetime of masterly literary craftsmanship and includes 13 recent and 15 older stories never before collected in book form. The stories are arranged by an internal logic of theme and substance, usually juxtaposing the older with the newer. Amazingly, Connell's distinctive economy of style is constant over the years, as is his quirky, compassionate view of humankind (witness the 1950s husband and wife in "Corset," where a staid matron does cartwheels and walks on her hands in the nude to keep her husband's love). Only the subject matter and the larger reflection of society clue the reader to the story's era. Best known for his novels Mrs. Bridge (1959) and Mr. Bridge (1969)both available as reprints from FarrarConnell offers here short fiction equally deserving of attention. Highly recommended.Linda Rome, Middlefield Lib., Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.