Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules

Front Cover
David Sedaris
Simon and Schuster, Apr 4, 2005 - Fiction - 352 pages
A must-have for the fans of the New York Times bestselling author of Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris, a collection of his favorite short fiction from Flannery O'Connor to Tobias Wolff.

David Sedaris is an exceptional reader. Alone in his apartment, he reads stories aloud to the point he has them memorized. Sometimes he fantasizes that he wrote them. Sometimes, when they’re his very favorite stories, he’ll fantasize about reading them in front of an audience and taking credit for them. The audience in these fantasies always loves him and gives him the respect he deserves.

David Sedaris didn’t write the stories in Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules . But he did read them. And he liked them enough to hand pick them for this collection of short fiction. Featuring such notable writers as Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, Jean Thompson, and Tobias Wolff, Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules includes some of the most influential and talented short story writers, contemporary and classic.

Perfect for fans who suffer from Sedaris fever, Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules will tide them over and provide relief.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Cover Page
346
Title Page
350
Copyright Notice
351
Contents
352
Introduction David Sedaris
1
Oh Joseph Im So Tired Richard Yates
9
Gryphon Charles Baxter
37
Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri
57
Where the Door Is Always Open and the Welcome Mat Is Out Patricia Highsmith
145
The Best of Betty Jincy Willett
165
Song of the Shirt 1941 Dorothy Parker
189
The Girl with the Blackened Eye Joyce Carol Oates
199
Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk Lorrie Moore
213
Revelation Flannery OConnor
251
In the Cemetery Where Al Jolsen Is Buried Amy Hempel
277
Cosmopolitan Akhil Sharma
289

The Garden Party Katherine Mansfield
83
Half a Grapefruit Alice Munro
101
Applause Applause Jean Thompson
121
I Know What Im Doing About All the Attention Ive Been Getting Frank Gannon
141
Irish Girl Tim Johnston
317
Bullet in the Brain Tobias Wolff
331
About 826NYC Sarah Vowell
339
Permissions Acknowledgments
343

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2005)

David Sedaris is the author of the internationally bestselling Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.

Bibliographic information