Details

ISBN-10: 1590170512
ISBN-13: 9781590170519
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Publish Date: 05/31/2003
Dimensions: 8.01" L, 5.05" W, 0.97" H

Fancies and Goodnights

Introduction by: Ray Bradbury

Paperback

Price: $22.95

Overview

“John Collier’s wild and sardonic tales, which were for many years a fixture in the pages of The New Yorker, are, in the opinion of his many devoted admirers, as good as – indeed better than – the best of Saki and Roald Dahl. In stories that explore the logic of lunacy, presenting the most fantastical occurrences as commonplace fact, Collier not only tickles the fancy, but tests our nerve, making us wonder just how deep and firmly placed are the foundations of the (seemingly) real world. Here longtime Collier fan Ray Bradbury re-introduces this singular modern genius. “

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Reviews
"Deals with the Devil and other fiendish delights." – Michael Dirda, Washington Post, List of 66 Favorite Books

Intense like poems, compressed like epigrams, short stories have always inclined to the lyrical and biting. No story writer ever bit more sharply or wrote more gracefully than John Collier. When I first encountered his work, twenty-five years ago, I was shocked by his plots and delighted by his cruelty; now I take my delight in the dark silky stuff of his prose style, and the shock lies in his faultless execution and in his mastery of craft. If you don't know his work, you owe yourself the pleasure–the indispensable pleasure–of Collier.
– Michael Chabon

Here is a world of moonshine and madness, of suburbia invaded by fiends and angels, of magic spells, grotesque melodrama and lunatic farce, surprising, ludicrous, terrifying.
The New York Times

In this collection, Collier uses clever, evocative prose to tell dozens of brief tales that vault off at peculiar, fantastical angles with often startlingly–and amusingly–cruel conclusions....At his best it is a mystery how he fell from attention. Erased from history for half a century like a character in one of his stories, Collier deserves rediscovery.
– Rob Haynes, Time Out (London)

Preponderantly from the New Yorker, these haunted lullabies and sanguine whimsies which range from the civilized horror of Saki to extravagant parody, display an affectionate familiarity with evil, sharpen drama with irony.
Kirkus Reviews

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Details

ISBN-10: 1590170512
ISBN-13: 9781590170519
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Publish Date: 05/31/2003
Dimensions: 8.01" L, 5.05" W, 0.97" H
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