Product Description

This acclaimed collection of interwoven tales marks John Barth's first return to the short story form in nearly thirty years -- and resoundingly reaffirms his status as "the reigning master of postmodernist fiction" (Kirkus Reviews). A middle-aged couple, vacationing at their "last resort", swap a series of twelve bedtime stories. Counting down toward a revelatory finale, these elegant tales -- which touch on the idea of love and the love of ideas, quantum physics and physical pleasures, running jokes and running out of time -- offer a playful, provocative, and emotionally resonant excursion through life and art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #927148 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com Review
John Barth has the paradoxical ability to turn literature on its head in a post-modern sense at the same time he employs a tour-de-force of traditional literary devices. In On with the Story, he tells a story within a story within a collection of short stories. To wit, an affluent and sophisticated retirement age couple is on vacation when the woman receives terrible news about her husband. Is he dying of cancer? Or is that another story? Have they faced death or have they not? With Barth, only the reader can say for sure, having engaged in an experience as unique as it is fascinating.

From Publishers Weekly
In novels like the National Book Award-winning Chimera, Barth has displayed an ingenious fusion of postmodern, metafictional narrative style and seductive tales. The deconstructive bent is still firmly intact in this collection of 11 short stories. Unfortunately, the tales told are mostly slim and self-indulgent. Many involve middle-aged to elderly academics or writers as they take vacations to places like Club Med, ponder flirtations with other academics or writers or worry about their careers. It's surprising, since Barth links these tepid pieces with clever interludes in which an unnamed, beach-vacationing couple, who are supposedly reading the stories along with the reader, provide contentious running commentary on them. But the stories themselves are remarkably strained: "And Then One Day..." has Elizabeth, a 40-something novelist, wondering about a possible love affair with her old writing teacher, a man 20 years her senior, filtered through the very male perspective of the chatty, "omniscient" narrator. Another attractive 40-something woman, Alice, is the central character of "On with the Story." While on a plane from Boston to Oregon, she has a friendly conversation with an older man (a writer) sitting next to her; ponders her recent divorce, literature and the stages of being a baby boomer; and reads a story that is, unbeknownst to her, written by her seatmate. It's a pity there aren't more pieces like "Goodbye to the Fruits," in which Barth forgoes his stable of stereotypical characters for a joyous, beautifully written and sometimes hilarious ode to fruit. When he's got a subject worth subjecting to his metafictional gamesmanship, Barth remains a sly, inventive and uniquely talented writer. Rights: Wylie, Aitken & Stone.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Barth's narrative mastery and cerebral wit are very much in evidence in this new collection of short stories. The narrator in "Stories of Our Lives," a college creative writing teacher, describes a student's works as "poignant but playful 'postmodern' spin-offs from notable scientific or philosophical propositions: Zeno's paradoxes, Schrodinger's wave-function equations, whatever." That description applies equally well to the pieces here. There is the poignancy of "Waves," in which two travel writers come to the Bahamas to heal their relationship after a profound loss, or of the elderly couple ending their lives together in the shadow of cancer in "Ever After" and "Countdown." Whether poignant or playful, Barth's true subject is, as always, the art and nature of storytelling itself. For all collections of serious fiction.
-?Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Intelligently, tightly-drawn short story cycle
Barth is truly one of the most intelligent fiction writers inAmerica today. While his recent novels have been a bit too convoluted (and perhaps repetitive), this series of short stories is truly Barth at his best. Of the twelve stories, four are beginnings, four are middles, and four are ends. While each story is, on the surface, about narrative (as is the case with most of BArth's fiction), the stories also touch on the passing and the immortality of love in modern society. It takes some thought to get through this book, but the effort is well-rewarded.

amazing storytelling
the intricate intertwining of these short stories was so good that after finishing I didn't just recommend it to everyone, I bought 25 copies to force on friends so they almost HAD to read it. lots of literary games going on, but not at the expense of the story in general. the main story focus of a married couple, their struggles, and exactly what's wrong with the health of one of them gives these stories a dark edge.

fact or ...?
This collection of stories is really a collection of ingenious essays -- on narrative, fiction writing, and stories themselves -- masquerading as fiction. Witty and inventive. Great fun for grad-student aspiring fictioneers.