The Collected Stories (FSG Classics)
This collection brings together Paley's three previous volumes of stories: The Little Disturbances of Man (1959; Penguin, 1985. reprint), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (Farrar, 1974), and Later the Same Day ( LJ 1/86). Paley's inventive style and her funny, feisty, irreverent characters create vivid slices of life. Her stories often concern women coping with children alone, as in "An Interest in Life," where a woman has an affair after her husband deserts her. A continuing character, Faith, is a divorced woman with children who gets her emotional support from her women friends. In "Faith in a Tree," Faith's interests expand to include politics after she witnesses an antiwar demonstration in the park. In "A Conversation with My Father," a writer explains that even a story's terrible ending is not final--the characters could still change. This possibility of hope permeates all Paley's stories, creating a rich treasury of unexpected pleasures and revealing truths. Essential.- Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., OhioCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.