Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories

by Grace Paley

Book Overview

In this collection of short stories, originally published in 1974, Grace Paley "makes the novel as a form seem virtually redundant" (Angela Carter, London Review of Books). Her stories here capture "the itch of the city, love between parents and children" and "the cutting edge of combat" (Lis Harris, The New York Times Book Review). In this collection of seventeen stories, she creates a "solid and vital fictional world, cross-referenced...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374515247
• ISBN13: 9780374515249
• Release Date: September 1985
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Read, laugh, cry, rush onward

Good writing is a book that you just can't put down. Crazy fantastic writing is a book that you close, bookmark in place, because you want to save more for later. And meanwhile go out and tell a friend, who asks the obvious question: why wasn't Paley much more well-known? Not every one of these short stories is great, but all explode with amazingly evocative lines. Conversations sizzle, metaphors shimmer. Characters are immediately realistic, and whole. No, actually, many are broken, but that's what real people are like. Read, laugh, cry, rush onward.

a wonderful book

Grace Paley is one of my favorite writers in the world, and this is my favorite of all her books. Every story here is funny and original and gorgeously written. She's one of the wisest and most generous writers I've ever read, and I'd recommend this book to anyone.

Extraordinary

This is one of the best books of American short stories, period. Whether you sympathize with Paley's politics or social concerns, it's irrelevant. Her stories beautifully capture the minutiae of everyday life and expose it for it's life-changing import. A simple sentence of Paley's can say as much as another author's entire novel. If you're at all interested in the short-story form or good writing in general, don't pass this book up.

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute

I want use this book for my class.