Free download æ PDF, eBook or Kindle ePUB ¶ Hortense Calisher
Stories include: In Greenwich There Are Many Gravelled Walks; Heartburn; The Night Club in the Woods; Two Colonials; The Hollow boy; The Rehabilitation of Ginevra Leake; The Woman who Was Everybody; A christmas Carillon' plus many more. The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher
Sometimes you can get a lot from going under the radar of the major writers...I think it depends to some extent on the era. George Washington Cable is no Mark Twain or Bret Harte, but as a 19th Century regionalist he yields insights and delights all his own, even if some of it is tough going.
The 50s and 60s were such a golden age for the short story -- Cheever, Malamud, Updike, Salinger, Roth -- and reading Calisher, I'm just too much aware that she doesn't stack up. She's not filling in a niche that Cheever missed -- at least not from my perspective. That might change in 25 years, or be different now for a reader of a different age.
She taught at Iowa a few years before I got there, and by all accounts was an inspiring teacher. 0877951152 I received an advanced electronic reading copy of this from the publisher via Net Galley.
This was an introduction to Calisher's writings for me, and while I appreciated her skills, I didn't particularly enjoy reading most of these stories, particularly not in one continuous span, making it somewhat difficult to review. I could envision this being a book I'd like having a copy on hand to read from in small doses, or when wanting to study some masterful (albeit convoluted) portrayal of character.
Calisher's stories are dense, and as it says in one of the introductions to this collection, you have to enjoy thinking in order to appreciate this. It can't simply be browses, or read lightly. The stories almost all feature family and social dynamics in well-to-do New York city families, told in wandering, elliptical and often dispassionately reminiscing voice. This style creates a certain disconnect between the inherent, detailed humanity of her characters and the obtuse, cold fashion those emotions are related. Not unlike reading an academic discourse on the history of some tragedy, the style makes things distant, whereas the events and people described beg for close proximity.
Verbose and full of flowery latinate vocabulary, with foreign phrases of the upper class flung about to convey sentiments and mots justes not easily translated into English, Callisher even comes across as pretentious, populated with pretentious characters. Yet, that is the kind of world she is writing about, and using the styles of that world to communicate some basic emotions and conditions.
Despite all the challenges of her style, Callisher still manages to write with an easily noticeable beauty and rhythm. Her paragraphs have a cadence, some extending long, but then followed by one short. Her phrasing and choice of specific words gives the Academic, dispassionate text a certain poetry that makes it a little more empathetic and relatable, most particularly in her use of alliteration.
The opening story to this collection was easily my favorite, it contained a 'plot' and character explorations beyond the mundane family interactions and social atmospheres of upper crust NYC. Speckled throughout were others that I found fantastic, but most began to feel tedious. If you have a fond regard for literary prowess or the subject of Callisher's writings (NYC) then this is just for you. If you simply enjoy a wide range of short stories and artistic writing then this may be something good to dip into on occasion without trying to barrel through. 0877951152 (The stories are not listed in chronological order. They are notated according to the collections in which they originally appeared:
In the Absence of Angels (1951)--IAA
Tale of the Mirror (1962)--TM
Extreme Magic (1964)--EM)
Read so far:
In Greenwich there are many gravelled walks (IAA)--3
*Heartburn (IAA)--
*The night club in the woods (TM)--
Two colonials (EM)--
The hollow boy (TM)--
*The rehabilitation of Ginevra Leake (TM)--
The woman who was everybody (IAA)--
*A Christmas carillon (EM)--
Il plœ:r dã mõ kœ:r (EM)--3
*If you don't want to live I can't help you (EM)--
*A wreath for Miss Totten (IAA)--
Time, gentlemen! (TM)--
May-ry (TM)--
The coreopsis kid (TM)--
A box of ginger (IAA)--
The pool of Narcissus (IAA)--
The watchers (IAA)--
The gulf between (EM)--
The sound of waiting (IAA)--
Old stock (IAA)--
The rabbi's daughter (EM)--
*The middle drawer (IAA)--
The summer rebellion (uncollected)--
*What a thing, to keep a wolf in a cage! (TM)--
Songs my mother taught me (EM)--
So many rings to the show (TM)--
One of the chosen (IAA)--
Point of departure (IAA)--
Letitia, emeritus (IAA)--
The seacoast of Bohemia (TM)--
Mrs. Fay Dines on zebra (TM)--
Saturday night (TM)--
Little did I know (EM)--
Night riders of Northville (IAA)--
In the absence of angels (IAA)--3
The scream of Fifty-seventh Street (TM)--2 0877951152 1) In Greenwich There Are Many Gravelled Walks
2) Heartburn
3) The Night Club in the Woods
4) Two Colonials
5) The Hollow Boy
6) The Rehabilitation of Ginevra Leake
7) The Woman Who Was Everybody
8) A Christmas Carillon
9) Il Plae:r De Mo Koe:r
10) If You Don't Want to Live I Can't Help You
11) A Wreath for Miss Totten
12) Time, Gentlemen!
13) May-ry
14) The Coreopsis Kid
15) A Box of Ginger
16) The Pool of Narcissus
17) The Watchers
18) The Gulf Between
19) The Sound of Waiting
20) Old Stock
21) The Rabbi's Daughter
22) The Middle Drawer
23) The Summer Rebellion
24) What a Thing, to Keep a Wolf in a Cage!
25) Songs My Mother Taught Me
26) So Many Rings to the Show
27) One of the Chosen
28) Point of Departure
29) Letitia, Emeritus
30) The Seacoast of Bohemia
31) Mrs. Fay Dines on Zebra
32) Saturday Night
33) Little Did I Know
34) Night Riders of Northville
35) In the Absence of Angels
36) The Scream on Fifty-Seventh Street 0877951152 The first story in the collection - In Greenwich there are many gravelled walks - is amazing. there are other good stories in the collection as well, but that one stands head and shoulders above the rest. 0877951152
