The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories

832 Pages·1987·7.83 MB·English

by  Daniel Halpern

,
THE ART
OF THE TALE
An International Anthology
of Short Stories
edited by Daniel Halpern
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
THE ART OF THE TALE .
Daniel Halpern's poems, translations, fiction, and articles
have appeared in many publications. He teaches in the
Graduate Writing Division of Columbia University and is
Editor of Antaeus and Editor-in-Chief of The Ecco Press.
His most recent collections of poems are Foreign Neon (1991)
and Selected Poems (1994).
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books USA Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,
Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
First published in the United States of America by
Viking Bsnguin Inc. 1986
Published in Efenguin Books 1987
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Copyright© Daniel Halpern, 1986
All rights reserved
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the short stories in
this anthology as follows:
"The Sacrificial Egg" from the book Girls at War and Other Short Stories by
Chinua Achebe. Copyright © 1972, 1973 by Chinua Achebe. Reprinted by
permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.
"The Bound Man" from The Bound Man by Use Aichinger. Copyright © 1956,
renewed 1984 by Use Aichinger. Copyright 1954 by S. Fischer Verlag,
Frankfurt am Main. Reprinted by permission of
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and S. Fischer Verlag.
"Little Whale, Varnisher of Reality" from The Steel Bird and Other Stories by
Vasily Aksenov, translated by Susan Brownsberger (Ardis, 1979).
Copyright© 1979 by Ardis. Reprinted by permission.
"Hair Jewellery" from Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood.
Copyright © 1977, 1982 by O. W. Toad, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of
Simon & Schuster, Inc., and Jonathan Cape Ltd.
"Everything" by Ingeborg Bachmann. From Das Dreissigtse Jahr} © R. Piper & Co.
Verlag, Munich 1961. By permission of Joan Daves.
"Going to Meet the Man" from the book Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin.
Copyright© 1948, 1951, 1957, 1958, i960, 1965 by James Baldwin.
Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.
(ftges 817-820 constitute an extension of this copyright page.)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
The Art of the tale.
Bibliography: p.
1. Short stories. 2. Fiction—20th century.
I. Halpern, Daniel, 1945-
PN6120.2.A75 1987 808.83'] 87-2529
ISBN o 14 00.7949 1
Printed in the United States of America
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the
condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold,
hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in
any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and
without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the
subsequent purchaser.
for ITALO and CHICHITA CALVINO
Unlike the novel, a short story may be,
for all purposes, essential.
—JORGE LUIS BORGES
Acknowledgments
For their considerable and conscientious work on this
anthology, I would like to thank Lea Baechler,
Kathleen Reddy, and Melora Wolff. I would also like to
thank Jeanne Wilmot and Dana Cowin for their
thoughtful reading of the stories, and Arthur Monke of
the Bowdoin College Library for making hospitable those
rooms where much of the reading for this volume was
accomplished. And, again, for her unfailing good taste and
supportive presence, my editor Elisabeth Sifton.
Contents
· Introduction · Daniel Halpern
xi
· The Sacrificial Egg · Chinua Achebe
· 5
· The Bound Man · Ilse Aichinger
· 9
· Little Whale, Varnisher of Reality · Vasily Aksenov
· 18
· Hair Jewellery · Margaret Atwood
· 28
· Everything · Ingeborg Bachmann
· 40
· Going to Meet the Man · James Baldwin
· 52
· The Child Screams and Looks Back at You · Russell Banks
· 65
· Cortes and Montezuma · Donald Barthelme
· 71
· Jacklighting · Ann Beattie
· 77
· First Love · Samuel Beckett
· 82
· Action Will Be Taken · Heinrich Böll
· 94
· Do Stay, Giraffe · Wolfgang Borchert
· 98
· The Aleph · Jorge Luis Borges
· 100
· This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen · Tadeusz Borowski
· 110
· Cowardice · Abdeslam Boulaich
· 122
· A Distant Episode · Paul Bowles
· 124
· Greasy Lake · T. Coraghessan Boyle
· 133
· Ceil · Harold Brodkey
· 141
· Seven Floors · Dino Buzzati
· 152
· The Adventure of a Traveler · Italo Calvino
· 163
· The Adulterous Woman · Albert Camus
· 173
· Children on Their Birthdays · Truman Capote
· 184
· Fat · Raymond Carver
· 197
· The Country Husband · John Cheever
· 201
· Quenby and Ola, Swede and Carl · Robert Coover
· 219
· Bestiary · Julio Cortázar
· 230
· The Haile Selassie Funeral Train · Guy Davenport
· 241
· The Cloak · Isak Dinesen
· 246
· The Hunter · E. L. Doctorow
· 256
· I Look Out for Ed Wolfe · Stanley Elkin
· 263
· Communist · Richard Ford
· 282
· The Doll Queen [1969] · Carlos Fuentes
· 294
· The Chosen Husband · Mavis Gallant
· 305
· Order of Insects · William Gass
· 318
· The Mother · Natalia Ginzburg
· 323
· The Life of the Imagination · Nadine Gordimer
· 331