Forty Stories by Donald Barthelme – serious frivolity

To give somebody these genre-bending short stories is to bestow on them a new sense of fiction’s possibilities

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I first came across Barthelme at university, as I am sure is the case with many others. Like most people, I didn’t actually read him. His name was something to drop into conversation – a signifier of postmodern cool, a wink to the stalls. His fiction wasn’t actually discussed in seminars either: it was merely alluded to. But having now taken the plunge and read both of the most popular collections of his work, I cannot sing the author’s praises highly enough. I urge others to get stuck in, too.

I had read Sixty Stories, the first volume of his greatest hits, last year, so this year I took on Forty Stories. I say: “took on” because Barthelme is not an easy writer. Despite being best known for short stories that seldom extend beyond five pages, he is a high-minded artist who can be difficult to digest. His fictions are dense, surreal affairs that eschew conventional narrative and skip giddily between genres. Those looking for plot, character, linearity or any other hallmarks of creative writing workshops should look away now.

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