Points of View: Revised Edition

This book LITERALLY shows the reader the different points of view when it comes to fiction. First person narrative, internal monologue, diary narrative, etc. etc. etc. ALL of the stories are reprints: there are some chestnuts (The Lottery). I don't feel the book was designed to amuse or pleasure the reader; but was intended to be a teaching tool. Yes, the authors are mostly first rate but overall the book reeked of required high-school English classes. Not a big recommendation unless you are just dipping your toes into the short story fiction world.

This book offers an excellent selection of stories written in various points of view. If you want to accent your studies or if you need to see the point of view element in action, this book is the perfect source. Chapter organization is based on each type of point of view so that the reader can zero in on whatever point of view she would like to review. The authors featured are both classical writers and modern authors. After working through dozens of books on point of view, this one stands out from the others. This book is a keeper. It belongs in the collection of any serious writer.

I read the 1966 edition, and these comments apply specifically to that edition. Literature by its very nature is open-ended and difficult to organize in a truly systematic or conclusive way. You can classify literary writings by culture of origin, historical period, or movement, e.g. Romanticism; yet each work is entirely individual and has something unique to say that cannot be subsumed under any classificatory heading. The editors of this anthology made the choice of *voice* to organize their selections. From what and whose point of view does the author unravel his or her story? This volume offers one relatively concrete way to approach fiction reading and make it fit a bit more tidily into a curriculum of more easily systematized subjects, like chemistry, statistics, even foreign language learning. Yet "point of view" is only the take-off point. The real value in good literature, of which these stories are outstanding representative examples, is the story, the message, the language, all of which leave technical issues behind in a cloud of dust once you are drawn in to the author's world. This is probably the best collection of short stories in English I have read. Each one of the stories cuts to the quick on themes of love, hate, separation, reunion, guilt, and death. Some are by familiar authors, who I'd first read in junior high school, others were completely new to me. At no point was I reading just to finish the book; I savored each work. My favorites include pieces by Dorothy Parker, Fyodor Dostoevski, Daniel Keyes, Cynthia Rich (sister of Adrienne), Frank O'Conner, Jean Stafford, Guy de Maupassant, and Saul Bellow. I was surprised and deeply impressed by John Steinbeck's "Johnny Bear", which I hadn't known of before, and now plan to use it in my freshman English class. Even the story by DH Lawrence, who I'm generally not that crazy about, was an excellent choice. The story by Moffett, one of the editors of the collection, is engaging and skillfully written. I was moved rereading Keyes's "Flowers for Algernon" in a way I don't remember feeling when I first read it for a class decades ago. I'm a bit disappointed at some of the swaps made for the new edition, e.g. the Dorothy Parker. The Ambrose Bierce, on the other hand, could have been replaced by something with broader appeal. I thought some of the stories might have been omitted due to concerns of political correctness, but "Powerhouse", "The Iliad of Sandy Bar" and "The Suicides of Private Greaves" are, thankfully, still included. Personally, I recommend ordering a used copy of the original edition for a consistent picture of the editors' original vision. It is a coherent one, and I can't imagine that coherence was completely preserved in the new edition - though I'm sure it is also a strong, but quite different, collection. These stories bear out the words of past Bridport Prize judge Martin Booth: "A short story is like a slap in the face. It must immediately sting, make it

I read the first edition as a teenager; it opened my eyes to perspective in literature. This updated edition provides some of the best of the first edition with some new, very satisfying selections.

My review is of the 1966 New American Library edition of the work. I found this book to be an excellent educator in the art of the short - story. The editors give two examples of stories in the following categories: Interior Monlongue, Dramatic Monologue, Letter Narration, Diary Narration, Subjective Narration, Detached Autobiography, Memoir or Observed Narration, Biography or Anonymous Narration, Anonymous Narration Dual Character Point-of- View ,Anonymous Narration Multiple Character Point- of - View Anonymous Narration No Character Point of view. Among the many memorable stories here are classics of the genre by Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe, de Maupassant, Conrad, Henry James, Dostoevsky. There is a great story by Irwin Shaw "Act of Faith"and Updike's well- known "A & P". There is much to learn and much to enjoy here. However I missed there not being a story from my own personal favorite story-writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

This book was given to us by a Canadian exhange teacher and it has opened up so many avenues of reading. From Shirley Jackson's horror masterpiece The Lottery through to Truman Capote's My Side of the Matter, it is a brilliant, brillant anthology. A lifetime's reading awaits anyone who picks up this book as each story makes you seek out the author.