The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg

by Deborah Eisenberg

Overview

The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg contains twenty-seven short stories by "a contemporary master" (New York Times).

Since 1986 with the publication of her first story collection, Deborah Eisenberg has devoted herself to writing "exquisitely distilled stories" which "present an unusually distinctive portrait of contemporary American life" to quote the MacArthur Foundation. This one volume brings together Transactions in a Foreign Currency (1986), Under the 82nd Airborne (1992), All Around Atlantis (1997) and Twilight of the Superheroes (2006).

"One of America's finest writers."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Concentrated bursts of perfection."—The Times (London)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312429898
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	03/30/2010
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	992
Sales rank:	811,148
Product dimensions:	5.74(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.73(d)

About the Author

Deborah Eisenberg is the author of story collections including Transactions in a Foreign Currency, Under the 82nd Airborne, All Around Atlantis, and Twilight of the Superheroes. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has taught at the University of Virginia and Columbia University.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

TRANSACTIONS IN A FOREIGN CURRENCY 1

Flotsam 3

What It Was Like, Seeing Chris 34

Rafe’s Coat 63

A Lesson in Traveling Light 103

Days 125

Transactions in a Foreign Currency 161

Broken Glass 192

UNDER THE 82ND AIRBORNE 235

A Cautionary Tale 237

Under the 82nd Airborne 285

The Robbery 327

Presents 366

The Custodian 400

Holy Week 435

In the Station 488

ALL AROUND ATLANTIS 521

The Girl Who Left Her Sock on the Floor 523

Across the Lake 549

Someone to Talk To 580

Tlaloc’s Paradise 611

Rosie Gets a Soul 629

Mermaids 681

All Around Atlantis 723

TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES 769

Twilight of the Superheroes 771

Some Other, Better Otto 811

Like It or Not 854

Window 889

Revenge of the Dinosaurs 932

The Flaw in the Design 954

Editorial Reviews

One of America's finest storytellers has been anthologized: The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg (Picador) locates elegant symmetries in uncertain lives navigating uncertain times.” —VOGUE.com

“Sarcastic, self-aware, and often wickedly funny…. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Eisenberg's stories is the ease with which she captures the fearful excitement of being human, and our reluctance to acknowledge how little our circumstances have to do with our own decisions.” —Rachael Brown, TheAtlantic.com

“If you haven't discovered Deborah Eisenberg's beautifully crafted short stories, this is a good choice, because you will want to read and reread them all. These stories are rich and delicate, and linger in the memory to shift and amplify their values. Eisenberg's subtle, intelligent observations put readers in the best company.” —Prairie Lights Bookstore

“What is it like to be a genius? Ask Deborah Eisenberg. The question is not as hyperbolic as it might seem; last year, Eisenberg was awarded a MacArthur fellowship, usually referred to as a ‘Genius Grant'." —Belinda McKeon, Irish Times

“This season, I chose four books of stories to read and recommend. At the top of my list—and highly recommended—is The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg.” —Ann LaFarge, Hudson Valley News

From the Publisher

Readers who have enjoyed Eisenberg's four volumes of short stories or grown familiar with her work in The New Yorker over the past 20 years will be thrilled with this substantial collection, which demonstrates the full range of her talents. These satisfyingly lengthy stories also have the potential to engross readers who avoid the genre, having been left hanging one too many times with lazy, enigmatic endings. Eisenberg is equally at home with artsy Manhattan social comedy (see "Flotsam," from Transactions in a Foreign Currency and "Some Other, Better Otto," from Twilight of the Superheroes), Jamesian narratives that characterize complex relationships in gracefully balanced long sentences (see "A Cautionary Tale," from Under the 82nd Airborne), politically savvy stories that capture differences of race and class through the perspective of American transplants in countries like Honduras (see "Broken Glass," Transactions, and "Someone To Talk To," from All Around Atlantis), and clear-eyed stories that nevertheless reveal the disjointed perceptions of characters with tragically damaged psyches (see "Window," Twilight). VERDICT This impressive volume celebrates the prodigious talent of a writer who deserves to be better known.—Sue Russell, Bryn Mawr, PA

Library Journal

This collection contains in their entirety the four books of stories Eisenberg has written over a 20-year span…The resulting book weighs in at just under a thousand pages: heavy lifting but not heavy reading. Although the stories explore different geographies and different lives, there is more consistency throughout than variety. Those who admire some portion of Eisenberg's writing will find the same pleasures in the whole: remarkable language, unconventional story­telling and her characters' well-­rendered and profound unease at inhabiting an uneasy world…Eisenberg conveys their interiority in such a fine grain that one thinks of Virginia Woolf, if only Woolf's work were leavened with startling humor…
—The New York Times

Jean Thompson