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I don't need you anymore and other stories
From the tender innocence of Miller's famous child-woman to the adult perceptions of a five-year-old boy. From the bitter hardness of a Brooklyn dock worker to the intense love hunger of a frustrated society woman, Arthur Miller rips trough a raw cross-section of contemporary life in "I Don't Need You Anymore." A rare collection of stories by America's leading dramatist including:
Forward: About Distances
I Don't Need You Any More
Monte Sant' Angelo
Please Don't Kill Anything
The Misfits
Glimpse at a Jockey
The Prophecy
Fame
Fitter's Night
A Search for a Future
Forward: About Distances
I Don't Need You Any More
Monte Sant' Angelo
Please Don't Kill Anything
The Misfits
Glimpse at a Jockey
The Prophecy
Fame
Fitter's Night
A Search for a Future
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1951
12 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Miller
535 books3,154 followersWorks of American playwright Arthur Asher Miller include
Death of a Salesman
(1949), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, and
The Crucible
(1953).
This essayist, a prominent figure in literature and cinema for over 61 years, composed a wide variety, such as celebrated A View from the Bridge and All My Sons , still studied and performed worldwide. Miller often in the public eye most famously refused to give evidence to the un-American activities committee of the House of Representatives, received award for drama, and married Marilyn Monroe. People at the time considered the greatest Miller.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_...
This essayist, a prominent figure in literature and cinema for over 61 years, composed a wide variety, such as celebrated A View from the Bridge and All My Sons , still studied and performed worldwide. Miller often in the public eye most famously refused to give evidence to the un-American activities committee of the House of Representatives, received award for drama, and married Marilyn Monroe. People at the time considered the greatest Miller.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 29, 2014
I bumped this book up my to-read list when I saw that there was only one review listed for it. I feel that it's part of my goodreader's duty to do this properly. I should point out, as well, that this is the first of Arthur Miller's works that I have read.
Mostly this an excellent collection, filled with complex and conflicted characters struggling to find their place. As this is a description that could be applied to thousands of stories, I will instead do a little mini-review of each individual story in this collection. Starting, of course, with the titular one.
I Don't Need You Any More: It is not an easy task to tell a story from the viewpoint of a child and have it work, but this story pulls it off in an admirable way. The reader knows more than the narrator, which makes the unfolding events all the more effective. Many of the descriptions have a mythical quality to them, fitting the religious themes. Perhaps the story drags on too long for what it is, but it is largely very fine, a portrait of a family, their changing relationships, and the gaps of communication between them. It also contains what is now one of my favourite title-drops in any story I've encountered.
Mont Sant' Angelo: A story with a beautiful sense of place and culture, coupled with an entirely believable dynamic between the two main characters. There are some sensibilities expressed that did not quite gel with me, but otherwise the tale is oddly charming.
Please Don't Kill Anything: There is some nice imagery at play here, but overall I found this story rather twee and simple. It lets the other ones down, although I suppose that's not entirely a fair comment to make. I'm trying to judge each story separately here.
The Misfits: I have a fondness for this sort of Western landscape, so I enjoyed this one right from the start. The characterisation is short and highly effective, and the story feels as though it exists as part of something larger. This is one of my favourite things about short stories, when there is a sense that there is more going on that we get to see. Of course there actually is in this case, as Miller expanded it greatly to turn it into a film of the same name.
Glimpse at a Jockey: There's not a lot to say about this one. It has a distinctive and strong voice that would probably grate if the piece was much longer, but as it stands the rambling and jolting thought patterns are convincing.
The Prophecy: Probably my equal favourite of the bunch. The characters are both simple and fascinating in equal measure, and they have such believable and intricate interactions. This is helped along by the well-handled switching of perspectives. Again, there is a wonderful sense of place, some of which is carried across in this passage I rather enjoyed which I'll quote for you now.
At the start of winter there is always hope, of course, that it will be a decent one. But when, day after day and week after week, the same monotonous wind sucks the heat out of the house, and there is never even a momentary break in the iron sky, the old people first and then everyone else gradually change their temperaments. There are unaccountable arguments in the supermarkets and at the gas station, lifelong enmities are started, people decide to move away and do, forever, and there is always a rash of unnecessary road accidents. People break arms, hitting trees whose locations they know by heart; there are always one or two who get run over by their own cars rolling back down the driveways; and decisions are made out of desperation, which permanently change the course of many lives.
Fame: I don't know how much of Miller's life could have influenced this one, but it's easy to see how it might have. Regardless, it's a solid examination of that state of affairs, much of the piece's strength, I think, coming from the protagonist's internal conflicts.
Fitter's Night: My other favourite. The eternal chill is captured uncomfortably well, and Tony is probably the most well-drawn character in the collection, filled with intricacies and contradictions despite his simple and slightly damaged exterior. Multiple times and occasionally multiple perspectives are weaved together seamlessly.
A Search For A Future: Messing around in the same industry as Fame does, this piece contains touching interactions between father and son and a delving into a mindset that I found interesting and beautifully formed. There's a running theme of cold weather running through many of these stories, and perhaps it helps that I read most of them on chill mornings.
All up, I think this collection deserves those four stars, just a couple of stories or parts of stories keeping it from being any higher. It didn't blow me away at point, but it is a solid collection, well-crafted and intricate.
Mostly this an excellent collection, filled with complex and conflicted characters struggling to find their place. As this is a description that could be applied to thousands of stories, I will instead do a little mini-review of each individual story in this collection. Starting, of course, with the titular one.
I Don't Need You Any More: It is not an easy task to tell a story from the viewpoint of a child and have it work, but this story pulls it off in an admirable way. The reader knows more than the narrator, which makes the unfolding events all the more effective. Many of the descriptions have a mythical quality to them, fitting the religious themes. Perhaps the story drags on too long for what it is, but it is largely very fine, a portrait of a family, their changing relationships, and the gaps of communication between them. It also contains what is now one of my favourite title-drops in any story I've encountered.
Mont Sant' Angelo: A story with a beautiful sense of place and culture, coupled with an entirely believable dynamic between the two main characters. There are some sensibilities expressed that did not quite gel with me, but otherwise the tale is oddly charming.
Please Don't Kill Anything: There is some nice imagery at play here, but overall I found this story rather twee and simple. It lets the other ones down, although I suppose that's not entirely a fair comment to make. I'm trying to judge each story separately here.
The Misfits: I have a fondness for this sort of Western landscape, so I enjoyed this one right from the start. The characterisation is short and highly effective, and the story feels as though it exists as part of something larger. This is one of my favourite things about short stories, when there is a sense that there is more going on that we get to see. Of course there actually is in this case, as Miller expanded it greatly to turn it into a film of the same name.
Glimpse at a Jockey: There's not a lot to say about this one. It has a distinctive and strong voice that would probably grate if the piece was much longer, but as it stands the rambling and jolting thought patterns are convincing.
The Prophecy: Probably my equal favourite of the bunch. The characters are both simple and fascinating in equal measure, and they have such believable and intricate interactions. This is helped along by the well-handled switching of perspectives. Again, there is a wonderful sense of place, some of which is carried across in this passage I rather enjoyed which I'll quote for you now.
At the start of winter there is always hope, of course, that it will be a decent one. But when, day after day and week after week, the same monotonous wind sucks the heat out of the house, and there is never even a momentary break in the iron sky, the old people first and then everyone else gradually change their temperaments. There are unaccountable arguments in the supermarkets and at the gas station, lifelong enmities are started, people decide to move away and do, forever, and there is always a rash of unnecessary road accidents. People break arms, hitting trees whose locations they know by heart; there are always one or two who get run over by their own cars rolling back down the driveways; and decisions are made out of desperation, which permanently change the course of many lives.
Fame: I don't know how much of Miller's life could have influenced this one, but it's easy to see how it might have. Regardless, it's a solid examination of that state of affairs, much of the piece's strength, I think, coming from the protagonist's internal conflicts.
Fitter's Night: My other favourite. The eternal chill is captured uncomfortably well, and Tony is probably the most well-drawn character in the collection, filled with intricacies and contradictions despite his simple and slightly damaged exterior. Multiple times and occasionally multiple perspectives are weaved together seamlessly.
A Search For A Future: Messing around in the same industry as Fame does, this piece contains touching interactions between father and son and a delving into a mindset that I found interesting and beautifully formed. There's a running theme of cold weather running through many of these stories, and perhaps it helps that I read most of them on chill mornings.
All up, I think this collection deserves those four stars, just a couple of stories or parts of stories keeping it from being any higher. It didn't blow me away at point, but it is a solid collection, well-crafted and intricate.
August 10, 2018
10 relatos cortos de los cuales 6 me encantaron y me cautivaron por completo!
Entendí y empaticé con los personajes, estos no son cuentos, sino más bien observaciones agudas de la dinámica en las diadas de relaciones humanas! Una introspección muy precisa e incisiva de los personajes y de cómo éstos reflexionan sobre el entorno que los moldea en situaciones harto cotidianas, me gustó mucho.
Entendí y empaticé con los personajes, estos no son cuentos, sino más bien observaciones agudas de la dinámica en las diadas de relaciones humanas! Una introspección muy precisa e incisiva de los personajes y de cómo éstos reflexionan sobre el entorno que los moldea en situaciones harto cotidianas, me gustó mucho.
March 14, 2009
not done reading the whole book, but the first short story, (book's namesake), already gets 5 stars. essays on miscommunication - or, I suppose, trying to communicate, failing, trying again, failing, trying again... the essence of existence.
March 7, 2023
Read when I was 20. I got from a library and very much enjoyed it. Similar in style to Flannery O'Connor.
June 28, 2023
The title story, which opens this collection, is quite long at 50 pages and, to be honest, I skipped most of it. Here, Miller is doing that thing of trying to portray the world through the perspective of an imaginative child, which I've personally always found a bit of a bore.
The second story, 'Monte Saint Angelo', about two American tourist friends in Italy, is more interesting. One of the men, an Italian-American, is tracking down his elderly relatives while his Jewish companion feels envious as his own family history has been obliterated. However, he feels better after encountering a strange man in a restaurant.
'Please Don't Kill Anything' features a young couple at a fishing beach. The woman is distraught when she realises that the fishermen are throwing some of the fish out and leaving them to die. I had a feeling that Miller was writing about Marilyn Monroe here - especially as the theme of a woman upset by animal cruelty recurred in his screenplay for 'The Misfits' - but I could be wrong.
Probably not many of those who have seen 'The Misfits' realise that it was based on a short story Miller published in 1957, the next in this collection. In my opinion, the film is worth seeing for the cast, the superb black-and-white cinematography, and a few good scenes, but fails to work overall. Parts of the dialogue sounds unnatural even coming from the mouths of some very good actors, while the music and the ending are pure Holywood schmaltz. Also, there are some weird inconsistencies such as when Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe) tells the much older Gay (Clark Gable) that she doesn't think of him romantically, only to jump into the sack with him two minutes later with no explanation for her change of heart. Then there's Gable's misjudged and embarrassing crying drunk scene. And although Miller wrote the screenplay to create a good role for his wife, the film portrays Roslyn as a sexpot with the mentality of a child, so it's not exactly a great example of women's lib. The short story turns out to be quite different, however - here, Gay is a mere 45 years old and married to a woman named Roslyn who never actually appears, so the focus is entirely on the three cowboys. I think Miller didn't have much of a feel for cinema, but he's greatly undervalued as a writer of fiction and not only does the story have none of the flaws present in the film, it's the second best in this collection.
'Glimpse at a Jockey' is a very short piece narrated by the Runyonesque title character, while 'The Prophecy' is an interesting story about a middle-aged woman visited by a fortune-teller, and 'Fame' is a short tale about a playwright's ambivalent feelings towards his newfound success.
Next up is 'Fitter's Night', the jewel in this collection. This is an absolute masterpiece which tells a complex tale brilliantly and contains a level of technical detail which is quite astonishing - Miller definitely did his research! It's about a man who works at the New York Naval Shipyard during WW2. He's selfish, materialistic, cynical, bitter and amoral, but Miller convincingly shows us how even such an apparently hateful person as this can be shamed into a selfless act and discover a better part of himself.
The collection closes with 'A Search for a Future', a moving piece about a famous actor dealing with his ageing father's dementia.
After reading this, Miller's other short story colection, 'Presence' and his novel, 'Focus', I actually wish he had spent a little less time writing plays and a lot more writing fiction.
The second story, 'Monte Saint Angelo', about two American tourist friends in Italy, is more interesting. One of the men, an Italian-American, is tracking down his elderly relatives while his Jewish companion feels envious as his own family history has been obliterated. However, he feels better after encountering a strange man in a restaurant.
'Please Don't Kill Anything' features a young couple at a fishing beach. The woman is distraught when she realises that the fishermen are throwing some of the fish out and leaving them to die. I had a feeling that Miller was writing about Marilyn Monroe here - especially as the theme of a woman upset by animal cruelty recurred in his screenplay for 'The Misfits' - but I could be wrong.
Probably not many of those who have seen 'The Misfits' realise that it was based on a short story Miller published in 1957, the next in this collection. In my opinion, the film is worth seeing for the cast, the superb black-and-white cinematography, and a few good scenes, but fails to work overall. Parts of the dialogue sounds unnatural even coming from the mouths of some very good actors, while the music and the ending are pure Holywood schmaltz. Also, there are some weird inconsistencies such as when Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe) tells the much older Gay (Clark Gable) that she doesn't think of him romantically, only to jump into the sack with him two minutes later with no explanation for her change of heart. Then there's Gable's misjudged and embarrassing crying drunk scene. And although Miller wrote the screenplay to create a good role for his wife, the film portrays Roslyn as a sexpot with the mentality of a child, so it's not exactly a great example of women's lib. The short story turns out to be quite different, however - here, Gay is a mere 45 years old and married to a woman named Roslyn who never actually appears, so the focus is entirely on the three cowboys. I think Miller didn't have much of a feel for cinema, but he's greatly undervalued as a writer of fiction and not only does the story have none of the flaws present in the film, it's the second best in this collection.
'Glimpse at a Jockey' is a very short piece narrated by the Runyonesque title character, while 'The Prophecy' is an interesting story about a middle-aged woman visited by a fortune-teller, and 'Fame' is a short tale about a playwright's ambivalent feelings towards his newfound success.
Next up is 'Fitter's Night', the jewel in this collection. This is an absolute masterpiece which tells a complex tale brilliantly and contains a level of technical detail which is quite astonishing - Miller definitely did his research! It's about a man who works at the New York Naval Shipyard during WW2. He's selfish, materialistic, cynical, bitter and amoral, but Miller convincingly shows us how even such an apparently hateful person as this can be shamed into a selfless act and discover a better part of himself.
The collection closes with 'A Search for a Future', a moving piece about a famous actor dealing with his ageing father's dementia.
After reading this, Miller's other short story colection, 'Presence' and his novel, 'Focus', I actually wish he had spent a little less time writing plays and a lot more writing fiction.
April 22, 2019
El primer libro de relatos que he leído en mi vida. Provoca emociones y reflexiones a la vez frecuentes y extraordinarias en la vida de cada persona. Comencé a leerlo porque era el libro que contenía el relato en que se basó la película "Vidas Rebeldes" de Norma Jean Baker (M.M.). Llevaba puede que un año queriendo leerme este libro, lo comencé hace unos meses, prestado de la biblioteca central de mi universidad. Cada relato es distinto, cada personaje es diferente, pero supongo que todos comparten su desengaño por la vida que están viviendo, no sólo la que les ha tocado vivir.
January 8, 2020
Siento que el libro no es la gran cosa. De todos los relatos que contiene, me gustó "Ya no te necesito" el cual da nombre a la obra. Asimismo, "La profecía" pues me mantuvo atrapada desde el inicio hasta el final. El resto no significó demasiado.
July 13, 2022
Story-by-story reviews:
I Don't Need You Any More - 4/5
Monte Sant' Angelo - 4/5
Please Don't Kill Anything - 3/5
The Misfits - 3/5
Glimpse at a Jockey - 2/5
The Prophecy - 4/5
Fame - 3/5
Fitter's Night - 5/5
A Search for a Future - 5/5
I Don't Need You Any More - 4/5
Monte Sant' Angelo - 4/5
Please Don't Kill Anything - 3/5
The Misfits - 3/5
Glimpse at a Jockey - 2/5
The Prophecy - 4/5
Fame - 3/5
Fitter's Night - 5/5
A Search for a Future - 5/5
February 15, 2023
I didn't get the point of it at all. The story kept going in circles after circles.
And, to add, never met a 5 year old as perceptive as the protagonist here.
There has to be a higher point that I missed, so giving it 3 stars. Else I was gonna give it 2.
And, to add, never met a 5 year old as perceptive as the protagonist here.
There has to be a higher point that I missed, so giving it 3 stars. Else I was gonna give it 2.
March 21, 2024
Stories mostly of various perspectives and observations.
December 20, 2024
Tiene compilacion de cuentos, personalmente disfrute mas los relatos cortos, los otros se sentia que de repente divagaba
Want to read
October 25, 2025Read so far:
*I don't need you any more --
*Monte Sant'Angelo --
Please don't kill anything --
The misfits --2
Glimpse at a jockey --
*The prophecy --
Fame --
Fitter's night --
*A search for a future --
***
Bulldog
It takes a thief --2
*I don't need you any more --
*Monte Sant'Angelo --
Please don't kill anything --
The misfits --2
Glimpse at a jockey --
*The prophecy --
Fame --
Fitter's night --
*A search for a future --
***
Bulldog
It takes a thief --2
December 5, 2016
Uma excelente reunião de contos desse que foi um dos maiores dramaturgos americanos de todos os tempos. Recomendo bastante!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews