FORTY STORIES

William H. Gass has written of Donald Barthelme that he has permanently enlarged our perception of the possibilities open to short fiction. In Forty Stories, the companion volume to Sixty Stories, we encounter a dazzling array of subjects: Paul Klee, Goethe, Cap tain Blood, modern courtship, marriage and divorce, armadillos, and other unique Barthelmean flights of fancy. These pithy, brillian tly acerbic pieces tangle with the ludicrous, pose questions that remain unresolved, and challenge familiar bits of language heretof ore unexami...[Read more]