Irwin Shaw (1913–1984)

A selection of 10 short stories by Irwin Shaw.

Americans are the main characters. The story locations are the US and Europe. Though they are short stories, they are full with the characters, their behaviour and their dealing with situations, daily and special.

“The Sunny Banks of the River Lis one that hit a couple of buttons for me.
Hugh Forester is a rememberer. Historical dates and happenings, sports stats, Poetry lines, scientific facts, history dates and events, he can quote them all; a walking encyclopedia.

He works at a company that puts out a specific encyclopedia in pocket size. His exceptional memory is a big help in the researching and recording of historical events for the company’s Pocket Encyclopedia.

He is married to Narcisse, a woman easily given to weeping over pretty much everything. It has slipped his mind. He has nothing for his wife in the morning and she is weepy. He isn’t sure why. Today is their 24th wedding anniversary and he has forgotten.

He grown daughter, Clare, is married to young man who has no money smarts. She meets Hugh at the office to go out to lunch, where she proceed to tell him of the financial problems the couple are experiencing and asks Hugh to talk to her husband. Over the last few years, Hugh has bailed them out a few times.

His son, Morton, is away at college and has written a letter requesting money due to a car accident with a friend’s car and the expenses incurred. Morton is barely getting through college.

Emotions, expectations of others, wants and desires, they start taking a toll….

Each story is different, well written, and a good read.… (more)

Irwin Shaw has loomed large in my consciousness, mainly for films I have seen based on his novels and plays. This is the first collection of his prose I have read, and it is really a wonderful introduction to reading him. These pieces are referred to as short novels, but even the longest feels more like a short story than a novel. Each is written in a cool, detached, and understated fashion, yet each leaves an indelible sense of the inner humanity of its characters. He has a wonderful imagination, and several of the pieces seem so fresh and innovative as story ideas I am surprised not to have heard more about them before discovering this book. There is an underlying seriousness beneath even the most lighthearted of the stories, and every one left me thinking and mulling over these cameo images of lives, mostly isolated in their thoughts, characters who resonate with me despite having, on the surface, very little in common with me. An excellent reading experience.… (more)