Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules

5 stars for the Sedaris siblings - well, duh! seriously...THAT'S david sedaris! c'mon! book arrived in great condition - shipping was done with care, thank you kind seller. it's a book. care should be taken. and it's a book by david, and his sister - well, that just makes it all the better, now doesn't it?
anthology of great short stories., and the profits go to a learning charity. how on earth can you beat that? i know i can't nor would i want to.
cheers

I am reviewing the eBook version. The main problem with the eBook is that the formatting is horrible. Every Chapter begins with a letter above the first paragraph. For a 12 dollar eBook this is inexcusable. This is higher than the cost of the real paperback book and the Audible audio book. Why am I paying a premium for digital content that has no printing or shipping fees? Not to mention a premium for content that is poorly put together. For 12 bucks I expect a lot more, and at the very least I expect an eBook without formatting errors. DO NOT BUY THE EBOOK VERSION!!!

I am a big fan of David Sedaris. Unfortunately this book, despite having his name on it, was not written by him. It is an anthology of works by other writers. If you are looking for a book by David Sedaris do NOT buy this book. I think the store could have done a much better job of making it clear that he did not write this book. I am very disappointed.

This collection has been on my bookcase waiting for me for a while. Not because of disinterest, but more because short stories take a certain mind-set: you have to be focused and perceptive since details and experiences are compacted in less than 25 pages.

The introduction by Sedaris himself was phenomenal and was simply great story telling. I thought this would be a prelude to the type of short stories he had chosen. Unfortunately, the introduction might be the best part of the novel.

The stories that follow seem more like a treacherous return to Highschool English, where symbolism and themes reign. I suppose I just had confused expectations: I wanted something that was modern, story-driven with themes attached much like Sedaris tells his stories. Instead, these stories are where nothing happens but the symbolism and themes are suppose to be the compelling pieces.

I wouldn't discount the whole collection. There were a few stories that were stellar (Interpreter of Maladies and Applause, Applause) but the most of the collection failed to capture my interest.

This is a compilation of David Sedaris' favorite short stories by literary greats such as Alice Munro, Flannery O'Connor and Dororthy Parker, just to name a few. With a crowd like this, you can expect stories that will leave you ever so slightly unsettled, such as Tobias Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain" and Lorrie Moore's troubling tromp through a pediatric cancer ward in "People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk." The stories seem to gather eccentric value as the book progresses. They are provocative and probably not best read right before bed. But Sedaris has indeed gathered the best of the best, and each of the stories represents an intricate piece of literary art.

But there is another reason to buy this book. All the proceeds benefit 826NYC, an afterschool tutoring organization that also does community outreach by way of writing workshops for young people. Literature to help foster literature-it is a great idea and one worthy of support.

So, short stories. I do like them, but have trouble reading several by one author as they end up feeling like Faberge eggs. You know, you see one and it's exquisite. And then you see the next one and, hey, it's quite nice too, but by the third or fourth, any elements of surprise are gone and after a half dozen I'm a little bored and looking forward to the cafe. An anthology of some sort is a different matter. Each author spins their perfect little tale and then is finished. I don't become jaded with a dozen instances in a row of subdued disappointment or witty dialogue, but get to be astonished all over again with the next story.

This book is a collection of short stories gathered by David Sedaris. There is the expected Dorothy Parker (Song of the Shirt, 1941), but there's also Richard Yates (Oh, Joseph, I'm So Tired), Joyce Carol Oates (The Girl with the Blackened Eye) and Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies). Sedaris favors stories with emotional resonance over clever wordplay, and the best two stories in the book were amazing; Revelation by Flannery O'Connor and Cosmopolitan by Akhil Sharma.

I loved rediscovering how a short story can compress all the emotion and heft of a novel into a dozen or so pages. I think I may start reading from all those Collected Stories of I have sitting around, but one at a time, with a few months between each story so that I can be newly astonished with each one.

Its so rare to find a compilation of short stories where every one is a delight! The stories are a satisfying mix of old and new, funny, joyful and sad. All of which I found very satisfying. I admit I did cry during a couple, and I don't think it was all hormones. I wish I'd had this caliber of story to read in my English classes. This was also a nice way to be cordially introduced to some new authors to explore. And I admit, as a major David Sedaris fan, there's that little fake intimate thrill of 'Ooooo HE picked these out!'

And anyway, it makes a really good gift because even if the person dosen't like it, they won't return it because the purchase value benefits a great cause.

Thanks to David Sedaris for introducing me to Richard Yates, Lorrie Moore, and Patricia Highsmith. I bought this book five years ago and while a big reader in general, didn't have a handle on short fiction. Now "Half a Grapefruit" by Alice Munro is one of my favorite short stories of all time. No, short stories are not the same as humorous essays. Nor should they be. Before, I had never heard of "Bullet in the Brain," by Tobias Wolff. If you don't love this story, you are probably a robot.

I must praise David Sedaris for leading off his anthology with a short story by Richard Yates. I'm also grateful that his introduction avoids joining so many other commentators in what has become an overly familiar, knee-jerk, even lazy praise for Richard Yates's REVOLUTIONARY ROAD as the only great novel by him or the only great novel by him that's worth mentioning. I encourage everyone to read additionally Yates's novels EASTER PARADE and A GOOD SCHOOL. They are terrific. And if you have further interest in his work after you have read those novels, check out his novel DISTURBING THE PEACE. I also strongly urge you to read, in their entirety, Yates's brilliant short-story collections LIARS IN LOVE and ELEVEN KINDS OF LONELINESS. There's also an omnibus of his short stories if that's more practical or convenient for you. Those books constitute an indisputably impressive output from a gifted, hapless, troubled (is there any other kind?), still criminally neglected writer. Also, if you want to learn much more about Yates himself, I recommend (with minor reservations) the lengthy, detailed biography of him that was written by Blake Bailey. Don't let the rather inert movie made of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD that starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet deter you from reading all the Yates's books I noted above. That said, avoid YOUNG HEARTS CRYING and COLD SPRING HARBOR, two novels that decidedly do not reflect Yates at his best. For context, keep this in mind: no writer bats a thousand, not even Shakespeare. The great writing of Richard Yates is great indeed. Pounce.

Anyone who loves short stories will love this collection. It's a great collection of masters of the genre. However, don't expect humor just because it was put together by David Sedaris - that is clearly not his intention.

In his introduction, David Sedaris says he hopes this collection will entice readers to seek out more of the work by the writers included. I think he reaches his goal. This collection is a jewelry box of stories, each one a gem. I'm looking forward to reading it over and over, because these are the kind of stories from which you can learn something new every time.

Please understand that a writer's style is not always indicative of the type of writing he/she likes to read. I think those expecting a side-splitting collection of stories will be disappointed here.

This being said, I think Sedaris has compiled a wonderful collection of stories. I am encouraged that Sedaris included a short by Alice Munro, one of the masters of the short story in modern times. A definite must!

A nice collection of stories, but note: THESE ARE NOT STORIES BY DAVID SEDARIS, these are stories selected by David Sedaris. While I always enjoys stories by David Sedaris, on the whole, these stories are not as good as his own.

I failed to realize that this was a book "edited" by as opposed to written "by" David Sedaris until his introduction. Incidentally, the introduction was the only portion of the book that I actually enjoyed. His analogy about his favorite song in middle school is not accurate in that his classmates did not have to pay to learn his affinity towards what may have been a bad song. I do not find it endearing that he does not care what others think of his tastes.

I do not think they were bad stories. Actually, I would like to take that back, if entertainment is a measure of quality to me they were bad. It was, however, impressive how one of the writers was able to use most of the GRE vocabulary words in one short story.

I will not stop buying the books that David Sedaris authors, I will just be more careful. David Sedaris is a brilliant writer/storyteller. He may not capture all or even any of the elements of a "good" short story; I would not know an element of a good short story if I ran into one coming off the elevator. I do know that David Sedaris' stories are excellent in that they are entertaining and make no pretense of intellectualism. I can not wait for the next book he actually writes.

Half of these stories I have read before, and the other half I did not like. Everything in this book is pointless. First of all, Sedaris' name in big letters on the cover. Why? Because he wrote a silly introductiuon and made this awkward selection. The reason the book is published? To benefit some cause that most of us could have not cared less about. Well, I am giving two stars and not one, just because I liked the color of the cover. Kind of greenish salad color.