Flying to America: 45 More Stories

by Donald Barthelme

Book Overview

Donald Barthelme was one of the most influential and inventive writers of the twentieth century. Through his unique, richly textured, and brilliantly realized novels, stories, parodies, satires, fables, and essays, Barthelme redefined a generation of American letters. To John Hawkes, he was "one of our greatest of all comic writers." Robert Coover called him "one of our great citizens of contemporary world letters." And to Thomas Pynchon, who coined...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593761724
• ISBN13: 9781593761721
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 331 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A fine supplement for those who already own the original books

This volume of 45 stories completes the canonization of Donald B. If you already own each of his individual works, then this would be the only way to squeeze out a little more of his unique word magic. The rubric "previously uncollected" draws a surprising number of stories from *Come Back, Dr. Caligari* (1966), DB's first book of stories. If you haven't read that, go directly to Caligari, since his profound, twinkling, knowing humor is on perfect display, and the number of stories from Caligari excluded from either 60 Stories or 40 Stories may reveal Barthelme's own self-doubt regarding his freshman effort. If you already own the original books, some interesting items can be found: his first published story (many characters draw their names from typefaces, besides the beloved Baskerville); a couple of unpublished stories in various stages of polish; and several stories that are not in any of the collected volumes. Although the book description claims to include *Sam's Bar*, with illustrations by Seymour Chwast, the actual published version does NOT include that story.