The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories
These 34 stories have all the hallmarks of post-1945 British culture: an amused attitude toward Americans and Australians, a comic fascination with sex, a baffling affection for a cold evening meal called "tea." In most cases, though, as the narrator of Adam Mars-Jones's "Structural Anthropology" says, "just below the surface of story . . . lies the tangled richness of myth." Stylistically, the works vary from Samuel Beckett's succinct avant-gardism to Doris Lessing's extended revisiting of naturalism a la Flaubert. The entire volume is recommended, especially Ian McEwan's "Psychopolis," which makes it clear why many consider him Great Britain's leading writer. David Kirby, Florida State Univ., TallahasseeCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.