The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy

by James Purdy, John Waters

Celebrate “an authentic American genius” (Gore Vidal) in James Purdy’s first complete short story collection. The publication of The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy is a literary event that marks the first time all of James Purdy’s short stories―fifty-six in number, including seven drawn from his unpublished archives―have been collected in a single volume. As prolific as he was unclassifiable, James Purdy was considered one of the greatest―and most underappreciated―writers in America in the latter half of the twentieth century. Championed by writers as diverse as Dame Edith Sitwell, Gore Vidal, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Carl Van Vechten, John Cowper Powys, and Dorothy Parker, Purdy’s vast body of work has heretofore been relegated to the avant-garde fringes of the American literary mainstream. His unique form and variety of style made the Ohio-born Purdy impossible to categorize in standard terms, though his unique, mercurial talent garnered him a following of loyal readers and made him―in the words of Susan Sontag―“one of the half dozen or so living American writers worth taking seriously." Purdy’s journey to recognition came with as much outrage and condemnation as it did lavish praise and lasting admiration. Some early assessments even dismissed his work as that of a disturbed mind, while others acclaimed the very same work as healing and transformative. Purdy's fiction was considered so uniquely unsettling that his first book, Don't Call Me by My Right Name , a collection of short stories all reprinted in this edition, had to be printed privately in the United States in 1956, after first being published in England. Best known for his novels Malcolm , Cabot Wright Begins , Jeremy's Version , and Eustace Chisholm and the Works , Purdy captured an America that was at once highly realistic and deeply symbolic, a landscape filled with social outcasts living in crisis and longing for love, characterized by his dark sense of humor and unflinching eye. Love, disillusionment, the collapse of the family, ecstatic longing, sharp inner pain, and shocking eruptions of violence pervade the lives of his characters in stories that anticipate both "David Lynch and Desperate Housewives " ( Guardian ). In "Color of Darkness," for example, a lonely child attempts to swallow his father's wedding ring; in "Eventide," the anguish of two sisters over the loss of their sons is deeply felt in the summer heat; and in the gothic horror of "Mr. Evening," a young man is hypnotized and imprisoned by a predatory old woman. These stories and many others, both haunting and hilarious, form a canvas of deep desperation and immanent sympathy, as Purdy narrates "the inexorable progress toward disaster in such a way that it's as satisfying and somehow life-affirming as progress toward a happy ending" (Jonathan Franzen). It may have taken over fifty years, but American culture is finally in sync with James Purdy. As John Waters writes in his introduction, Purdy, far from the fringe, has "been dead center in the black little hearts of provocateur-hungry readers like myself right from the beginning."

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, American, Queer, LGBT, Literature, Classics

752 pages, Hardcover

First published July 8, 2013

About the author

James Otis Purdy was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who, from his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and in 2013 his short stories were collected in The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy.
He has been praised by writers as diverse as Edward Albee, James M. Cain, Lillian Hellman, Francis King, Marianne Moore, Dorothy Parker, Dame Edith Sitwell, Terry Southern, Gore Vidal (who described Purdy as "an authentic American genius"), Jonathan Franzen (who called him, in Farther Away, "one of the most undervalued and underread writers in America"), A.N. Wilson, and both Jane Bowles and Paul Bowles.
Purdy was the recipient of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Fiction Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1993) and was nominated for the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel On Glory's Course (1984). In addition, he won two Guggenheim Fellowships (1958 and 1962), and grants from the Ford Foundation (1961), and Rockefeller Foundation.
He worked as an interpreter, and lectured in Europe with the United States Information Agency.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a peculiar set of stories full of peculiar relationships: family life, lovers, loners, widows, grass widows, parents and children, siblings and a lot of strangers… And any simple life situation may suddenly seem to be weird…

She picked up a large palm straw fan from the table and fanned with angry movements the large patches of sweat and talcum powder on her immense meaty body. As Lafe watched her move the fan, he thought how much money had gone to keep her in food these seven peculiar years.

And so many characters may unexpectedly seem to be pitiful monsters and there are so many of those who are just sheep astray…

I have talked here tonight in the hope you would not hear, because if you didn’t you might not so thoroughly disgust yourselves, and therefore me. But you have sat in exactly the rapport or lack of it which I expect from the human tadpole. You have been infinitely repulsive to me, and for that I thank you, because by being infinitely repulsive you have continued continuity and what more could any speaker ask.

One prefers to live one’s own life, however strange it may seem to others.

[Dionysius the Areopagite · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have not yet read Purdy, do so. Otherwise, go fuck yourself. This stuff wipes the floor clean with whatever other collection you're considering slash reading at the moment. This is not the collection you buy out of obligation 'round X-Mas for a fair-weather friend - this is the stuff you share with the people you actually love. All one or two of them.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think of The Complete Stories of James Purdy as a ten-pound box of poison chocolates you keep beside your bed – fairy tales for you twisted mind that should never be described to the innocent. Randomly select a perfectly perverted Purdy story and read it before you go to sleep and savor the hilarious moral damage and beautiful decay that will certainly follow in your dreams. James Purdy writes gracefully disquieting stories for the wicked and here they all are at last. Every single damned one of them!

So John Walker writes in the Introduction to this book. And so I begin it with serious second thoughts. I am attracted because this purports to be ALL of this author’s short stories. Read this book and you have read them all. Since I have never read James Purdy, that seems just the way I would want it to be. I want to be swallowed up by this new (but dead) author. I anticipate based on several other books of short stories that I have read recently – Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, The Dead Fish Museum by Charles D’Ambrosio and Where Are You Going Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates – that I may be drawn into this collection. But I also hope that if I am devastated or disappointed, I will be able to draw up the courage to set aside the book temporarily or permanently. I am trying to cultivate a skill at putting down books I do not like unfinished. This is mostly in opposition to my prior history of feeling obligated to finish every book I start. We can change, right? I hope so.

This book is over 700 pages long. Pray for me! The Serenity Prayer would be just fine. “Higher power, grant me the serenity …”

James Purdy died in 2009 at the age of 94. Since he is a new author for me, I first want to know at least a little about him, thinking that will help me understand his writing. I am not sure why I continue to think there is a connection between life and work but I do hang onto the notion even without much proof. Here is his NY Times obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/boo...

Mr. Purdy, whose view of American culture was not optimistic, seemed to regard rejection as a badge of honor. “I don’t think I’d like it if people liked me,” he told one interviewer. “I’d think that something had gone wrong.”

Seems like my kind of guy! The collection of short stories deserves to be called a Tome and, as such, may never be completely read from cover to cover. It is an impressive book that has challenged me to learn more about the evidently gay author and his work. I like that he challenges me in a way that makes me understand that I am in good company.

Given Purdy’s throwing of the gauntlet (“if people liked me”), I dare not respond with five stars. But I must hope that four is acceptable should I ever actually conclude this large heavy book on a serious subject. How do I love thee, James Purdy? Let me count the ways you discombobulate me!

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad I found Purdy. What a revelation. Why had I not heard of this author? Even if I only gave this 4 stars it still made my best reads list. Such weird stories but so delightful in their unique vocabulary and descriptions. The characters are not what you would expect. The outcomes are not what you expect at all. Of course not all were winners (why it only got 4 stars) but who cares. This was a huge collection and you can't love 'em all. This also has a bonus introduction by John Waters which was hilarious and worth reading.

This collection is not for everyone. There are some very strange stories in here and some include sexual situations and sexual tension between unlikely partners. Some have a bit of man/man or man/boy love. The man/boy love seemed to me to be very romantic, poetic and beautiful. It had an almost innocent quality to it. It did not strike me as perverted in any way. Many of the stories are beautifully written but very sad and tragic.

A great collection but probably not for those easily offended.


This is the first Purdy I have ever read and I will be seeking out more.

[Misha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have so many thoughts whirring in my head. Purdy's decaying worlds and his decaying characters are like ghosts haunting you, lingering within you. I am finding this collection quite an emotionally painful read, but I cannot stop reading them - unexpectedly finding parts of myself, especially the parts that have felt lost and hopeless and despairing.

Purdy's stories most often deal with outcasts, people on the fringes of society. Cruel mothers, deadbeat fathers, traumatized children, despairing youngsters who are already 'old' in their hopelessness, repressed wives and husbands. Sometimes these stories are not more than an extended conversation, but you find yourself almost trembling at the end of it, such is the emotional force of these stories.

Purdy's writing is all sorts of contradictions - distant yet visceral, cruel yet tender, dark and twisted with moments of light. If you have not read Purdy yet, what are you waiting for? Let John Waters' words convince you:

"Think of The Complete Stories of James Purdy as a ten-pound box of poison chocolates you keep beside your bed – fairy tales for your twisted mind that should never be described to the innocent. Randomly select a perfectly perverted Purdy story and read it before you go to sleep and savor the hilarious moral damage and beautiful decay that will certainly follow in your dreams."

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply, deeply weird. And probably more realistic than the average realist's work....

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was delighted to see that although there might not be many reviews (33 as of March 2025) on GR for this collection they were almost all unstinting in their praise and, in many cases amazement, at discovering a writer of whom they knew nothing. James Purdy is the great unknown of 20th century American literature and although it is always said he was always ignored that isn't quite true. If you find original copies of his novels you will find their back covers full of praise from reviewers in prestigious publications and there were both hardback and popular paperback editions of all his novels. He was published, reviewed and read, what he was an accepted part of the 'canonical' literary tradition of the New York publishing world and the academic literary establishment at universities never mind their 'creative writing' departments. No writer like Purdy has emerged from those factories of etiolated literary preciousness in Iowa or East Anglia. I can't imagine that a writer like Purdy wouldn't be strangled at birth by those establishments.

Purdy is inimitable and probably is the sort of writer we will never see the like of again because our writers don't emerge from life and there is no longer a place for career writers in our world. That if he has any 'name recognition' it is as 'gay' writer but that is perhaps the saddest designation of all because it is a way of placing him in literary cule-de-sac along with all those other talents who are acknowledged but belittled with ethnic tags like 'magic-realism' which are not praise but a way of marking them out, no matter their quality, as exotic exceptions but not really part of the mainstream.

In Purdy's case the sobriquet gay conceals that he created women characters, particularly in his later novels like Jeremy's Version, On Glories Course and Gertrude of Stoney Island Avenue (and many others), that are as good as anything in Tennessee Williams.

Those women are in these stories along with all the other acutely observed outsiders to the great American dream. Purdy is often described as a 'Southern Gothick' writer even though he spent no time in the South. He was formed by the great American mid-west. He was born in Findlay, Ohio a place I had the misfortune to spend some time as a teenager visiting my father and working to earn money for my University in Ireland. Purdy was not at any time before his death commemorated amongst the famous sons of Findlay although he is the greatest son of Findlay just as he was the last of the 20th century giants of post WWII US literature's golden age to die. Long after I had left Findlay behind, except in nightmares, I discovered Purdy and recognised Findlay, unnamedi in so much of his writing. The grotesque is most richly represented in America's most white bread heartland.

This is a wonderful collection of stories by a unique writer. He will be read long after most of today's literary darlings are forgotten. If you can find time for the tripe written by the likes of Hanya Yanagihara (of A Little Life fame) then do yourself a favour and read Purdy and discover the truly great.

[Robert Morgan Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important collection--far more prolific than Burroughs and in many ways, creepier. It isn't the sad, closeted homosexuality that comes through as creepy, not at all; it's the recurring vignettes and scene elements--almost Kafka-esque. So glad I took on this book, what a glimpse into the difficult lives of gay men in the mid-20th century. In so many stories, there's almost a predictable archness and weird fixation on sweets, desserts and the like. There's a gossipy tone to many of the stories as well as a stilted strangeness and an obsession with shining a light on African-American culture. Purdy identified strongly with the marginalized lives of black Americans, their quiet poverty. Many were shocked to find out he was caucasian. Here is a writer largely ignored in his lifetime, but a true pioneer for social justice and unlike any writer I've come across.

[Brian O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A black comic banquet of wonder, despair, and strange, terrible beauty. Nobody does American Gothic like Purdy. His body of literature is one of the most profoundly sorrowful, stirringly poignant, and deeply weird in English letters. This fabulous collection allows you to appreciate his incredible imagination across the decades in all its many shapes. (It only suffers from the lack of a proper introduction: John Waters’ forward is great hype, but it’s not context.) I loved every minute of it.

[Khaleed Ouafi-Zimmermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally spellbinding, a must-read book by an emblematic american author.

[Anima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eventide

"She walked over to the chair where Plumy was and laid her hand on her. Somehow the idea of George Watson's being dead so long and yet still being a baby a mother could love had a kind of perfect quality that she liked. She thought then, quietly and without shame, how nice it would be if Teeboy could also be perfect in death, so that he would belong to her in the same perfect way as George Watson belonged to Plumy. There was comfort in tending the grave of a dead son, whether he was killed in war or peace, and it was so difficult to tend the memory of a son who just went away and never came back. Yet somehow she knew as she looked at Plumy, somehow she would go on with the memory of Teeboy Jordan even though he still lived in the world.
As she stood there considering the lives of the two sons Teeboy Jordan and George Watson Jackson, the evening which had for some time been moving slowly into the house entered now as if in one great wave, bringing the small parlor into the heavy summer night until you would have believed daylight would never enter there again, the night was so black and secure."

[Gila Gila · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Waters' introduction to Purdy's anthology is perfection - 'a ten pound box of poison chocolates that you keep by your bed'. I'd read most of these stories before but it's satisfying to have them all in one place, and there are a few I'd never come across. Everything Waters says is dead (he'd leave it at that) on, especially "you can imagine a copy editor getting nervous", referring to Purdy's bizarre 1950something gothic southern gentleman language.

Waters acknowledges a thread of ugly misogyny that stitches its way through many of these pieces; to some extent one can place the blame on old fashioned times with an even older and odder fashioned author. Purdy had a sniping, vicious little pen when aimed at some of his female characters, particularly matronly/maternal women. But his voice is singular, and for those of us with a taste for dark medicine, strangely soothing. (If you're going to try a Purdy novel, I'd suggest starting with In a Shallow Grave. That, at least, was where I first fell in.)

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I finished this book. Best collection of short stories I have ever read.

[Enrica Bardetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

A casa quando è buio è una raccolta di racconti in cui lo scrittore James Purdy punta l’inquadratura su spezzoni di vita quotidiana americana, mettendo a fuoco situazioni già avviate o che spesso stanno volgendo al termine. Purdy non è interessato al fatto in sé, ma alle ripercussioni che ha avuto sulla vita di chi lo ha vissuto: come il comportamento fuori dagli schemi di una vedova che dopo la morte del marito, per elaborare il lutto, prende a frequentare ogni notte il locale dove lui era solito andare e dove lei non aveva mai messo piede prima o la difficoltà di un nonno, stanco e provato dalla vita, che tenta di non infrangere i sogni del nipotino del quale è diventato l’unico punto di riferimento dopo la morte dei genitori. Dieci racconti, alcuni espressi interamente in forma dialogica, dove tra le parole si intravedono le crepe del sogno americano del quale fanno emergere le grettezze e le ipocrisie che tenta di nascondere dietro la facciata irreprensibile del buonismo. La scrittura di Purdy è precisa, le parole scelte accuratamente per creare nel lettore quella particolare sensazione di inquietudine che lo porta a riflettere e a soppesare. Ma quella che più di tutte credo sia la grandezza di questo scrittore, è la sua capacità di inquadrare situazioni scomode e di raccontarle senza il filtro del giudizio, senza un secondo fine, per il semplice gusto di inquadrarle, come in uno scatto fotografico.

[Alexandru Fekete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I'm not a fan of this type of short stories, "Brawith" made me have some mixed feelings regarding whether or not I like it or not. I pretty much enjoyed how the story built up to the climax, but I feel like the plot revolves more around Moira's experience rather than Brawith's. Even though Purdy describes Brawith's "burden" with some gross details, I feel like that's what it needed in order to give us that chilling vibe. His illness is the plot's main idea, and how it affects Moira. Personally, it didn't bother me that much, since I expected to discover something worse until the end. I expected at some point that the finale will be consisting of Moira's realisation that Brawith is actually dead and everything was inside her head because of her strong love and will of taking care of him, but I was wrong. The climax had somehow the typical "horror movie climax" in which the "scary" character has its destructive moment, while the main character witnesses everything and the least important one is trapped somewhere outside and can't help with anything. It was interesting to see Brawith's story leading to a tragic end, and seeing Moira live when I expected her to die as well in some way. It was an interesting story and I will probably look into more of Purdy's short stories to see if his stories follow the same pattern as this one does, in terms of character development.

[marcus]

hmm. the consistent lapses into depraved, explosive queer love at times seems more like an affliction than style, but that feels like the point. the love is interior violence and so so twisted but it does make sense. it just does. there's no choice in it, or it's a choice between being made catatonic and exiled by one moment of doubt, or folding yourself forever into the meat of another person and burrowing yourselves deep underground. whirring to intensity always, but every story seems to wrap up so mundanely you could mistake it for peacefully. i don't mind, i love mundanely.

characters spend so much time just talking, though. just nattering. it's unreal to me how many of these seem to just be two old people in a big house talking about somebody else's big house. idk. he's as much an ornery gossip as he is a horny eccentric

[RP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some dark. Some twisted. Some mundane. Some totally nuts. Pie sex! Creepy sex! Sexy creepiness! So much here, I knew it was impossible to love it all, but I did love some of it quite a bit, especially the moments when the stories veered slightly off the track and into the unreal.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I like Purdy’s short work even better than his novels. There are some excellent ones in here, and all are pretty solid at the very least. I live the characters, the word choice, and a host of other aspects. An excellent writer to be sure.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few were so unique and so good...some were so depressing....

[michal k-c · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purdy's best instincts kick in when dealing with the seemingly quaint foibles of small town life that actually reveal themselves (through language, or explosive acts of violence, or the suggestion of such...) to be much darker than originally imagined, and he truly separates himself from the k-mart realist strain when dealing in the high-melodramatic register. Only stuff that didn't land for me was some of the more overtly transgressive stuff, occasionally felt like pushing buttons just for the hell of it.

[Jim Rayder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth time I've attempted to post a review. So I'll keep it short. Purdy is a singular and important writer but not for passive readers. Most of this collection demonstrates a range and insight that goes far beyond John Waters' (?) superficial intro, which plays up the freaky slant of a handful of stories. There is a smattering of pulpish gay tales and forgettable "magazine fiction", but on the whole a wide array of human problems--some unusual, some mundane--move, terrify, amuse or mystify, related with Purdy's unique vision of everyday American life as theater.

[Philip Fitzell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read all Purdy's published short stories in this book. The variety of subjects he writes about is truly amazing: And it's all about different human relationships. Purdy's focus on what people really think about opens a deeper awareness in the reader's mind. There's little that superficial in his treatment. This author is definitely worth reading.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. A character in a novel I read mentioned this author, so I checked out a book by him. I suppose if you’re looking for portraits of idle folia in the South, it might be interesting. I’ve slugged through over 100 pages and eight stories, and I’m leaving.

[Julene]

His stories may have been groundbreaking and there are plenty of literary notables who admire his work, but I'm not feeling it.

[David Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

The testament of a great American writer -- the novella 63: Dream Palace especially is an all-timer.

[Billy Degge]

Slowly but surely becoming convinced Purdy's one of the greats.

[James Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories just happen to take place here. That they happen in America and feel very American on the surface still allows room for depths of meaning that suggest the archetypal. I am reminded of the southern Gothic world of Flannery O'Connor without the religion. His thoroughly idiosyncratic writing leaves trails of peculiar, odd, eccentric characters that make their way through a world that is a skewed version of every town. Usually every town is more like Thornton Wilder than David Lynch.
When I first came across Purdy, it was through his enigmatic and unsettling vision of Eustace Chisholm. However, his sharper focus became apparent in his smaller works, such as Malcolm and The Nephew. The stories in this collection range from fairy tales about an opera diva whose mega-stardom is cleverly managed by her talking cat to the story of the young girl who escapes with a fire-breathing dragon to eat turtle soup; from an unusual story of a desperate husband whose fixation on a rare white dove results from his obsession over his wayward ex-wife to a visit to Moe's Villa, a private mansion that doubles as a gambling casino where the Native American owner teaches lonely boys the game of poker.
Gore Vidal called him "an authentic American genius.". For Vidal, himself given to the fantastic, Purdy's stories contained "lost or losing golden ephebes.". This collection is a welcome feast for fans of Purdy, as well as a nice taste for newcomers.
When the bizarre is the norm, your nightmares become mere dreams, yet what wonderful dreams! This collection of short stories is just that—a myriad of prose poems engaging your soul and fulfilling needs beyond your imagined life. All you need is to sit back, read, and enjoy!

[Gerard Cabrera]

What I am reading this week: The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy. A 20th century writer, he lived in Brooklyn Heights, and was known to be “difficult." John Waters wrote the introduction, so that tells you something.

So far, I am enjoying these weird snapshots of rotten relations between people who can’t quite figure each other out, in a time when material precarity was very much the same as it is now (minus the tech).

[William Reichard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read James Purdy's work in "63: Dream Palace," a collection of stories published many years ago by Black Sparrow Press. At that time, I knew nothing about Purdy or his signature style. I was puzzled then, in a good way, but very puzzled. This collection is a delight. Purdy's often strange, sometimes gothic style fills each of these pieces, from those he published first to those he wrote in the last years of his life. The quality of the work here is up and down, and that would be hard to avoid, given that this volume is a collection of virtually every story Purdy wrote, published and not published. Purdy is a classic outsider, and he seems to be looking in through some very old, warped glass. The results are very human, strange and wonderful and frightening all at the same time.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd only read MALCOLM before and liked but didn't love. I should probably go back and read it again having read this. Purdy's undeniably a genius. What amazes me is that all these stories of varying length, tone and theme all came from the same mind. Some might have surface similarities but no two are very much alike. With many collections--especially one of this size-- you start getting a pattern of how the writers mind works, where it's going to go. Not here! And that's tremendously exciting as a reader. Also, with a collection this big, some material stories resonated with me than others did but all in all the fact that all these various and sundry works came from one artist?--I'm blown away.