Quiet and understated, these stories have the feel of personal anecdotes related over late-night coffees, and the title of the collection does indeed set the tone for each of the inclusions. Exploring the sorrows of love, in multiple guises, Brodkey's stories come together in something like a quilting of remembrances, and read beautifully. That said, the last stories in the collection are connected by a central character, and even as short as they are, some of the immediacy present in earlier stories just doesn't come across. Still, for lovers of quiet and realistically written stories, these are a pleasant escape for an afternoon.

I picked this up after hearing Brodkey's story "Spring Fugue" on the New Yorker podcast. Jeffrey Eugenides, the reader and selector of the story, sung Brodkey's praises, adding that the author was the only one to get two stories selected for an upcoming collection he was putting together.

"Spring Fugue," a story I rather enjoyed, was written in a much different style than his earlier work. These stories are standard, well written, psychological portraits of youthful vanity, pride, ego, naïveté, lust, etc. mostly in the style of John Cheever or Updike's early stories. Mostly, it made me want to pick up his later work to find stories closer to the style I saw in the previously mentioned New Yorker story.





An absolutely fantastic review of Harold Brodkey's life and work from Bookforum:

How did I miss this coming of age book of short stories back when I was coming of age? Though I pulled it off my own bookshelf I never thought to read it until yesterday when I found myself unexpectedly sick at home with nothing to read, having exhausted all the magazines. What a tremendously perfect collection of stories--sort of Salinger meets early Philip Roth meets William Maxwell (to whom they're dedicated). Perfect nuggets of feeling and innocence. And discovery and wisdom. And inertia and boredom. Experienced for the first time by his young characters and by middle aged me again. Now I know I'm not young any more. Sigh.

Another example of the best possible three star novel. There is a lot to like in this relatively small book. Strictly speaking I should say this is a book of short stories, but, really, one could read this as a novel.
I like these stories for the same reason I adore Alice Munro. Like Munro, Brodkey spends more time constructing an emotional and visceral bond to his characters and their lives, rather than flowery flourishing word play.
These are simple stories, never quite as sentimental as you might suspect, and Brodkey frequently gives you a nice line that you’ll remember.
I’m tempted to say Brodkey is as good as Updike, Roth, and Cheever, just lesser known and appreciated. Just a temptation.
If you find yourself considering this book—read it, it’s solid mid-century American literature.

This book was difficult to rate, given the disparity in quality among the different chapters / stories. The first,tenth and eleventh chapters (The State of Grace, Gloria Mundi, and the Sound of Moorish Laughter) are by far the best of them. The rest don't seem like they belong in the same book.

Nel complesso una bella raccolta. Lo stile sicuramente è molto bello e pulito, purtroppo però non tutti i racconti mi sono piaciuti in egual misura!

WHY THE F**K IS ANY BOOK BY HAROLD BRODKEY OUT OF F**KING PRINT?!