What do you think?
Rate this book
Selected Stories
A great American writer gives voice to her stories in a collection selected especially for audiobook listeningThese classic Grace Paley stories, chosen uniquely for our audiobook listeners by the author, reflect the full and rich range of Paley's talents and span her career from the late fifties onward. Included here are such unforgettable pieces as "The Little Disturbances of Man" (1959), "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute" (1974), and "Later the Same Day" (1985). With her quirky, boisterous characters, lavish use of language, and timely reflections on the ebb and flow of our culture, Grace Paley is a voice in American short fiction that simply must be heard.
- GenresShort StoriesAudiobook
4 pages, Audio Cassette
First published April 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Grace Paley
131 books409 followersGrace Paley was an American short story writer, poet, and political activist whose work won a number of awards.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 7, 2025
The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley is part of the Collected Stories that have been shortlisted for The Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1995 https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winner...
10 out of 10
The Loudest Voice
‘My voice is the loudest’ so says Shirley Abramowitz, a Jewish girl that is invited to take part in a play, mainly on account of her ‘stamina’ and the aforementioned loud voice, but that will upset her mother, Clara Abramowitz, who feels that the participation in the ceremony of the Goyim is wrong, though her husband disagrees…
Misha Abramowitz, her father, says you are in America, in Palestine, the Arabs would be eating you alive, in Europe, you had pogroms, and Argentina is full of Indians...here you got Christmas, some joke ha, but he has some sort of point…
America used to be the greatest democracy in the world, but once they have elected Trump in 2016, that status has been clearly lost, and besides, they still have close to one hundred million (if we count other members of families, teenagers that could not vote last year, but may do so alas in 2024) that believe, OMG, that the elections have been stolen, in Qanon, lizard leaders, deny Climate Change and well…
Worst of all, in the Orange Very stable Genius
The Contest
‘My last girl was Jewish, which is a warm kind of girl, concerned about food intake and employability…They don't like you to work too hard, until you're hooked and then, you bastard, sweat’
On a personal note, I regret that I had no chance to attach to my own Jewish girl, except for one chance – since I have been working in the hospitality business with many groups from Israel; it looks like such a lost opportunity
Dorothy Wasserman is aggravated by Freddy and the fact that ‘you don't take yourself seriously, you are barbaric’ and she feels he does not do what is required of a real man and we could agree that he is rather indolent
At one time, she comes with luggage intent on spending the night, but when she sees that he does not take a job, she is again upset, returns his copy of Nineteen Eighty Four http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/n... and she ends the relationship
Only to return later, brought in by an opportunity to make a lot of money, due to The Contest, a competition organized by a Jewish publication, entitled Jews in the News and which Dot aka Dorothy thinks they can win.
That means that on quite a few levels, she has a very good opinion of Freddy – indeed, this is surely the very proof that she is sure he has tremendous potential, talent, intelligence and culture, only he does not have the drive, the gumption to use all this treasure and just wastes himself by not making the effort…
The Contest proposes each day a photograph of a Jewish personality, together with two pieces about him and the competitors have to submit one more fact, before midnight and the winner will get five thousand dollars
On top of that prize, there will be a trip to Israel and Freddie works hard to get there, proving the trust placed in him was justified, even when most people would not know the names of those who are Jews in The News
They eventually (spoiler alert) win the top prize, but Dorothy Wasserman does not travel with Freddy to Israel, which seems so wrong and immoral, albeit if we think of his later message, perhaps he had deserved it…
Freddy will be very sour, enraged we should say perhaps, and he writes an elaborated letter, in which he includes the message ‘you were a prostitute’, presumably at that time he was not familiar with the term sex worker
In response to this correspondence, Dorothy Wassermann sends a one hundred dollar bill, a projector and slides with images from Europe, North Africa, presumably sharing some of her experiences with her former friend…
The Collected Stories start with The Little Disturbances of Man, namely with Good bye and Good Luck http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/f... and this reader intends to continue with Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
10 out of 10
The Loudest Voice
‘My voice is the loudest’ so says Shirley Abramowitz, a Jewish girl that is invited to take part in a play, mainly on account of her ‘stamina’ and the aforementioned loud voice, but that will upset her mother, Clara Abramowitz, who feels that the participation in the ceremony of the Goyim is wrong, though her husband disagrees…
Misha Abramowitz, her father, says you are in America, in Palestine, the Arabs would be eating you alive, in Europe, you had pogroms, and Argentina is full of Indians...here you got Christmas, some joke ha, but he has some sort of point…
America used to be the greatest democracy in the world, but once they have elected Trump in 2016, that status has been clearly lost, and besides, they still have close to one hundred million (if we count other members of families, teenagers that could not vote last year, but may do so alas in 2024) that believe, OMG, that the elections have been stolen, in Qanon, lizard leaders, deny Climate Change and well…
Worst of all, in the Orange Very stable Genius
The Contest
‘My last girl was Jewish, which is a warm kind of girl, concerned about food intake and employability…They don't like you to work too hard, until you're hooked and then, you bastard, sweat’
On a personal note, I regret that I had no chance to attach to my own Jewish girl, except for one chance – since I have been working in the hospitality business with many groups from Israel; it looks like such a lost opportunity
Dorothy Wasserman is aggravated by Freddy and the fact that ‘you don't take yourself seriously, you are barbaric’ and she feels he does not do what is required of a real man and we could agree that he is rather indolent
At one time, she comes with luggage intent on spending the night, but when she sees that he does not take a job, she is again upset, returns his copy of Nineteen Eighty Four http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/n... and she ends the relationship
Only to return later, brought in by an opportunity to make a lot of money, due to The Contest, a competition organized by a Jewish publication, entitled Jews in the News and which Dot aka Dorothy thinks they can win.
That means that on quite a few levels, she has a very good opinion of Freddy – indeed, this is surely the very proof that she is sure he has tremendous potential, talent, intelligence and culture, only he does not have the drive, the gumption to use all this treasure and just wastes himself by not making the effort…
The Contest proposes each day a photograph of a Jewish personality, together with two pieces about him and the competitors have to submit one more fact, before midnight and the winner will get five thousand dollars
On top of that prize, there will be a trip to Israel and Freddie works hard to get there, proving the trust placed in him was justified, even when most people would not know the names of those who are Jews in The News
They eventually (spoiler alert) win the top prize, but Dorothy Wasserman does not travel with Freddy to Israel, which seems so wrong and immoral, albeit if we think of his later message, perhaps he had deserved it…
Freddy will be very sour, enraged we should say perhaps, and he writes an elaborated letter, in which he includes the message ‘you were a prostitute’, presumably at that time he was not familiar with the term sex worker
In response to this correspondence, Dorothy Wassermann sends a one hundred dollar bill, a projector and slides with images from Europe, North Africa, presumably sharing some of her experiences with her former friend…
The Collected Stories start with The Little Disturbances of Man, namely with Good bye and Good Luck http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/f... and this reader intends to continue with Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
August 2, 2010
There's something magical about hearing these stories, which I originally read more than a decade ago, read in the author's voice. The late Grace Paley captures a time and place - New York City - in an instantly recognizable manner. This is a collection to savor.
April 7, 2022
From The Little Disturbances of Man
-The Pale Pink Roast
-An Interest in Life
Two Short Sad Stories from a Long and Happy Life
-A Subject of Childhood
-Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
-Debts
-Living
-A Conversation with My Father
-The Immigrant Story
-The Long Distance Runner
-From Later the Same Day
-Dreamer in a Dead Language
-Friends
-In This Country, but in Another Language
-My Aunt Refuses to Marry the Men Everyone Wants Her To
-Mother
-A Man Told Me the Story of His Life
-The Story Hearer
-This Is a Story About My Friend George the Toy Inventor
-Zagrowsky Tells cut off in middle
-The Pale Pink Roast
-An Interest in Life
Two Short Sad Stories from a Long and Happy Life
-A Subject of Childhood
-Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
-Debts
-Living
-A Conversation with My Father
-The Immigrant Story
-The Long Distance Runner
-From Later the Same Day
-Dreamer in a Dead Language
-Friends
-In This Country, but in Another Language
-My Aunt Refuses to Marry the Men Everyone Wants Her To
-Mother
-A Man Told Me the Story of His Life
-The Story Hearer
-This Is a Story About My Friend George the Toy Inventor
-Zagrowsky Tells cut off in middle
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews