The Amoralists & Other Tales: Collected Stories

by Cyrus Colter

Book Overview

Book This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0938410679
• ISBN13: 9780938410676
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Length: 283 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Short Story Collection

In 1970 Cyrus Colter, little known and now deceased, had published his collection of short stories called THE BEACH UMBRELLA. I accidentally stumbled across it in the 70s and was amazed by the beauty of Colter's work. This year, I bought THE AMORALISTS, a collection of Colter's stories which includes the stories from THE BEACH UMBRELLA as well as four others. Those four are by far the weakest stories in the book. Colter was black and the vast majority of his stories are set on Chicago's south side and feature black characters. I know this because Colter describes them as black, but the stories are universal and are equally relevant to any human being. The common theme in Colter's stories is the vague unhappiness of his characters. They come from all walks of life from upper class black society to middle class working families to down and outers and to more than a few elderly people whose useful life has passed them by and who wait, alone and lonely and with varying degrees of dignity, to die. Colter's characters are unsure of themselves and their lives. They are dissatisfied in their marriages, isolated, yearning for emotionally satisfying relationships; and their often imperfectly examined insecurities and anxieties are the basics with with Colter works. Colter's writing style is stately and somewhat old-fashioned, even for the 60s and 70s, and the dialog often has a feel of the late 40s and early 50s. But it is also quietly perfect, presenting his characters in a dignified and understated manner, intimating to, rather than coming right out and telling, the reader of their sadness. Colter understands the nuances of people's sorrow and his writing presents that understanding beautifully. Anyone who is interested in Colter would probably do just as well to read THE BEACH UMBRELLA as THE AMORALISTS, but either one is fine. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.