All the days and nights: the collected stories

‘Over by the River’ is a longish short story set in New York by William Maxwell, first published in 1974 and reprinted in “All the Days and Nights: The Collected Stories”. It was interesting to contrast this upper-middle-class family-man view of the city in the 70s with Edmund White’s much wilder, celebrity-studded picture in City Boy. Different neighbourhood, for one thing. Here we are among the solid apartment buildings near Gracie Mansion and the East River. George and Iris’s married life looks close, caring, and affluent; the children attend a private school; their building has a doorman and an elevator man; there’s a laundress and a live-in servant – and a dog.

Maxwell cunningly disrupts this perfect, if rather dull, show more picture with twitchy, fragmented observations, including occurrences in the streets outside – a crime here, a suicide there – while inside the family is haunted by disturbing dreams and minor yet nagging worries (for instance, where did George leave his raincoat?) And although there’s not even a hint of Updikean adultery, the state of the marriage is perhaps best symbolized by the twin beds pushed together and covered over with a spread to make it look like one big one. It works for them, they might say, but is something missing?

Perhaps needless to add, the writing is elegant, subtle, illuminating. A wonderful read. show less

William Maxwell's stories, like his novels, share the human experience in a way that defies explanation. Every story ends with you feeling as though you have been introduced to a new aspect of the world that will alter the way you view it going forward, and as though a portion of your own life has been explored.

William Maxwell's collection of short stories is special. The stories have a quality of simplicity while simultaneously containing profound truths about life and relationships. Each story touches on aspects of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States which stirred memories of growing up in that era. One of my favorite is the sound of the newspaper thumping as it hit the front porch when the delivery boy rode by, tossing the paper with practiced expertise. That is just one of many sensory experiences these stories stirred. Absolutely lovely!

In addition to the beauty of the stories themselves, the foreword to this volume is a wonderful piece of work in and of itself.

. . . anything by Maxwell is good or better.