The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus
by Allan Gurganus
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Pub Date Jan 12 2021 | Archive Date Dec 31 2020
W. W. Norton & Company | Liveright
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Description
One of “the best writers of our time” (Ann Patchett) offers this hilarious yet haunting cycle of stories—all previously uncollected.
John Irving writes of Allan Gurganus: “His narration becomes a Greek chorus, Sophocles in North Carolina.” Since the explosive publication of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All decades back, Gurganus has dazzled readers as “the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation” (John Cheever).
These ten classic tales attest to the growing depth of his genius. Offering characters antic and tragic, Gurganus charts the human condition as we live it now. His parables recall William Faulkner’s scope, Flannery O’Connor’s corrosive wit. We encounter a seaside couple fighting to save their dog from Maine’s fierce undertow; a mortician whose dedication to his departed clients exceeds all legal limits. A virginal 78-year-old grammar-school librarian has her only erotic encounter with a Joe Exotic-like polyamorous snake farmer. In the lead-off story, already excerpted in The New Yorker, cholera strikes a rural village in 1850 and citizens blame their doomed young doctor, who saved hundreds. A sublime ventriloquist, Gurganus again proves himself among our wisest writers.
About the Author:
Allan Gurganus is widely translated, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Adaptations of his fiction have earned four Emmys, and his stories have been appearing in The New Yorker since 1974. He lives in a small town in North Carolina.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9780871403780 |
| PRICE | $25.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Veronica B, Educator
An incredibly witty writer with an immensely vibrant. Most of these stories are hilarious and expertly crafted. Gurganus knows how to use the short form to his advantage, and it shows.
Maggie R, Educator
Like may readers, I met Allan Gurganus in the extremely long but not nearly long enough novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. If you haven't had the pleasure of his acquaintance, this collection of short stories should convince you to seek out and enjoy all of his not extensive work . I am not a fan of humorous fiction, but found myself laughing out loud during the baby shower gone awry in the 1991 White People. Gurganus is a shining star in the firmament of Southern fiction which, we all know is a guilty pleasure no matter where you were hatched.
Lark !, Reviewer
As I read this marvelous collection I also happened to be reading 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers. I don't know anything about the definition of "Southern Gothic,' and I suspect the definition has something more to do with subject than it does with style, but even so I felt there was something similar going on in the works of these two great authors. There is a similar density of meaning in each sentence. By ''density,' I don't mean complicatedness, or intellectualism, or erudition, or difficulty--not at all. It's that each sentence seems so densely packed with description, and movement, and sound, and meaning. Gurganus's prose makes the way most other writers go about using up space on the page seem profligate by comparison.
The rhythms of the stories in this collection are less frenetic and outsized to me than the other works I've read by Gurganus. These stories remind me more than usual of John Cheever's work--stylistically precise, with a flourish of something breathlessly beautiful coming along, now and then, to open my heart, and to remind me of the humanity of us. This is why I read.
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