A great collection of witty stories by the great Barthelme, including "The Baby" and "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby." ( )

I drool over every word I've read that Barthelme has written, even when I have no idea what he's talking about. When I first read "60 Stories" (the superior companion piece to this collection) I felt like someone had taken all the things I wanted to do as a writer, ran them over with a Buick and then turned back me and said "It's been done and done so much better than you could ever do" as they sped off into the sunset. Barthelme's short stories are like a drug for creative writing wonks, and moving away from his influence is something some writers never accomplish. While this collection isn't as consistently profound as "60 Stories," it still contains so much of worth as to be required reading for anyone who wants to write short stories (or just loves short stories).

(This review originally appeared on zombieunderground.net) ( )