Product Description

A literary event of the highest order, The Collected Stories of Richard Yates brings together Yates's peerless short fiction in a single volume for the first time.

Richard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate, and technically accomplished writers of America's postwar generation, and his work has inspired such diverse talents as Richard Ford, Ann Beattie, André Dubus, Robert Stone, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. This collection, as powerful as Yate's beloved Revolutionary Road, contains the stories of his classic works Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (a book The New York Times Book Review hailed as "the New York equivalent of Dubliners") and Liars in Love; it also features nine new stories, seven of which have never been published.

Whether addressing the smothered desire of suburban housewives, the white-collar despair of Manhattan office workers, the grim humor that atts life on a tuberculosis ward, or the moments of terrified peace experienced by American soldiers in World War II, Yates examines every frayed corner of the American dream. His stories, as empathetic as they are unforgiving, are like no others in our nation's literature. Published with a moving introduction by the novelist Richard Russo, this collection will stand as its author's final masterpiece.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #757735 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

Amazon.com Review
Although nobody would describe the unflinching stories of Richard Yates as beach reading, a sunny day and a soothing breeze may provide the best possible antidote to the author's trademark gloom. But even if you open the book in the dead of winter, don't expect to put it down, for Yates will draw you in despite yourself. Like the English novelist Anita Brookner--or, more to the point, like his protégé Raymond Carver--he is attracted to small lives. And like a diviner, he seeks out and locates precisely those moments when this smallness is sensed by his characters.

The protagonist of "The Canal," for example, spent most of World War II behind a desk, serving on the European front only during the final months of the conflict. At a postwar cocktail party, however, Miller and his wife encounter a former military officer, and the two begin to exchange stories. It turns out that the officer was decorated for valor in the very same battle that occasioned a major dressing-down for Miller. "I'll put it this way," he was told by his exasperated superior. "You give me more goddamn trouble than all the rest of the men in this squad put together. You're more goddamn trouble than you're worth. You got an answer for that?" Obviously he didn't--and still doesn't.

In an introduction to the 27 stories collected here, Richard Russo celebrates Yates's influence as a teacher at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Any reader of Raymond Carver, to take just one conspicuous example, will recognize the atmosphere of lonely despair, coupled with small ambitions, that he absorbed from his mentor. It's a fascinating study in literary ancestry, and offers yet another reason to pick up this essential and long-overdue volume. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly
Bitterness, loneliness and lack of fulfillment are the central themes of this grim posthumous collection. Yates (1926-1992) was the consummate writer's writer; his fiction influenced a generation of young admirers, including Andre Dubus and Richard Ford, but he has yet to achieve the name recognition of many of his disciples. This collection of 27 stories, seven previously unpublished, but most reprints from two long-out-of-print collections issued in 1962 and 1981, may change that. Yates is a gifted storyteller, particularly skilled at making emotional pain and sadness starkly real as his characters manage to live below even their own meager expectations. Compulsive failure Walter Henderson, the protagonist of "A Glutton for Punishment," plans his life as a series of expected defeats. In "The Canal" two veterans play at macho one-upmanship with phony war stories as their wives snicker with disdain. "A Clinical Romance" tells of the bickering and despair of men confined to a tuberculosis ward in a gloomy Virginia hospital. "Evening on the Cte d'Azur" is an achingly sad tale of lonely navy wives with too much time on their hands and too little self-esteem. Pitch-perfect in their gloomy detachment, these stories about the fractured relationships of lovers, friends, parents and children, and husbands and wives ring all too true. Yates's powerful dialogue and narrative make it entirely clear that no matter what, people are going to be only as happy as they have already made up their minds to be. (May 3)Forecast: A heartfelt introduction by Richard Russo expresses just how much Yates once meant to younger writers. If reviews make the stories' appeal similarly plain to today's readers, the collection should do well; in any case, it will remain a strong backlist title for years to come.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Yates, who died in 1992, was never commercially successful, but his work was highly respected by other writers. This book includes stories from his collections Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and Liars in Love, as well as nine other stories, seven of which have not been previously published. Autobiographical threads are found throughout: young soldiers in the waning days of World War II, tuberculosis patients, struggling writers, alcoholism. Despite the general pessimism of the stories, they never seem contrived or self-indulgent. The earlier stories' economy gives way to a relatively formless later style, which presents more character development and subtext than is found in many novels. Recommended for all academic and larger public libraries. Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Why has it taken so long?
It's unfathomable why the works of Richard Yates have been out of print for so many years. Every person I recommend him to ends up wanting to read all of his books, asking questions about him I simply can't answer because I know little or any of his bio.

"Is he really that good?" Yes.

Finally, in one collection, are the master's collected stories culled from "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" and "Liars in Love." The book also features additional uncollected stories, which are real treats for any Richard Yates fan (we've been plowing through dusty periodicals in decrepit libraries for these stories for years).

Readers long familiar with 50s writers like Salinger, Cheever, Updike, and later such scions as Tobias Woolf, Richard Ford, and Raymond Carver, will find similar terrain in Yates's stories, with one important distinction: the inimitable voice of Richard Yates. His gift is not with pretty language or literary prose - though that's not to say that he's minimalist - he's much too focused for tricks. Character is his number one concern.

The characters in Yates's world are so real they're frightening. Yates explores their self deceptions, their frailties, their constant attempts to buttress a withering self-esteem by false promises or vain illusions. For instance, "A Glutton for Punishment" - a story about a loserish young man who gets fired from his first "real" job and convinces himself that he won't tell his wife about it until he finds another. The character realizes, though, that it's the very drama of losing that's always been the motivating force of his life.

What sets Yates apart from most writers of his age - or any age - is his heart. It's large, gracious, compassionate without ever being sentimental.

I would go on--but the stories truly speak for themselves.

The publication of this volume is a literary event, akin to Malcolm Cowley's "rediscovery" of William Faulkner. It's time to take Yates off the "writer's writer" list, and make him finally accessible to the general population.

This collection will prove Yates to be one of the greatest American writers of the latter 20th Century. You will not be disappointed, but only scratch your head and say, "Why haven't I heard of this guy?"

*Don't stop here--read "Revolutionary Road," "The Easter Parade," "Cold Spring Harbor" and "A Good School."

Homage to a Master Writer
Richard Yates succeeds at fulfilling every accolade heaped on his output of writing. This collection of short stories is like owning a full library of novels by one author. Each story, whether familiar to us who have admired this master or newly discovered because of being previously unpublished, place Yates in the rarified air of brilliant American authors. Without the need for flashy technique or creating a Look & Style or preaching to elipitcal minds, Yates spins touching tales simply, clearly, and with a polish that few others can mimic. Yes, his stories are about those parts of our lives that we all usually try to keep private: few of us (or his characters) like to relate our insecurities, disappointments, frustrated dreams. But Yates opens windows for us to view the common man at his most vulnerable, and never once does he offer excuses for the individual's humanity. "We took risks. We knew that we took them. Things have turned out against us" may be the words of a polar explorer, but they so aptly speak to the stoic way Yates' people accept their plights. Praise can be made for every story, no matter how short or how long. Reading this collection of gems is entertaining, but it is also a chance to look at the ordinary world in a more appreciative way. Drop the prejudices. Forget your own bias as to what happiness is. Just get to know these people and you'll get to know yourself in the process. Magnificent addition to every reader's library.

Yes Pain Whatsoever
The first piece of writing I read by Richard Yates was "The Canal," which was featured in the New Yorker earlier this year, at about the time this collection came out (I'm sure it was entirely coincidental). It wasn't a flashy story, just a tale that's set in the 50's about two couples at a party and the personal embarrassment that ensues as the main character remembers what a woeful soldier he was, especially compared to the decorated soldier to whom he ends up talking for the good part of the night. What I remember best about this story are two moments: one, where the platoon commander tells the main character that he gives him more trouble than anybody else, more trouble than he's worth, and two, the cold ending where nothing is resolved. After reading this story, I read Revoluationary Road and then The Easter Parade (both amazing works), and then came back to finish what I'd started.

"The Canal" is a good story, but it pales against the gems in this collection. Almost all of the stories from the first book, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, are just plain awesome. I'd say outside of "A Wrestler with Sharks" and "The B.A.R. Man," it's perfect. "Dr. Jack-O-Lantern" sets the stage for the black-comedy humiliations all the characters will be forced to endure. Yates spares no one from their designated doom, and boy, is it ever refreshing. The last story, "Builders," ends not as bitterly as the ones preceeding it, a fantastic way to finish the collection.

The second book, Liars in Love, differs from Eleven on both structural- and scope-levels. These stories are fuller and longer, and the histories of the characters more fleshed out -- and yet thematically, they are identical to Eleven: characters' foolish dreams are all squashed, obliterated -- and deservedly so. There are two related stories in this collection that are just laugh-out-loud funny -- one of them is "Oh Joseph, I'm So Tired," and the title of the other one escapes me. They both feature the same batty mother, one who is not unlike Pookie of The Easter Parade. The gorgeous image of last story in the collection, "Saying Goodbye to Sally," may leave you in tears, so brace yourself.

The third book is the uncollected stories, and while it's more uneven than the first two, it is still very enjoyable, and for writers, invaluable. It's wonderful to see how some of these stories, like "A Clinical Romance," didn't quite work; finding ways to fix it up is a nice little exercise. Both "An Evening at the Cote d'Azur" and "A Convalescent Ego" are fantastic, right up there with the best of the other two collections.

Richard Russo's introduction is excellent -- his own "Yates story" is a nice personal tie-in, and everything he says is on the mark.

Some might complain that Yates wrote too many stories using the same locale (the TB ward probably being the most prominent repeat offender), but I didn't feel that way. "No Pain Whatsoever" and "Out with the Old" may both take place in the ward, but they are completely different stories. If I had to pick a favorite, it'd probably be "A Glutton for Punishment." What a perfect last line!