The Stories

by Deborah Eisenberg

When Deborah Eisenberg's first book of stories, Transactions in a Foreign Currency, was published, John Updike noted: "Whenever a new writer arrives, a new window of life is opened, and this has happened here." The scope and depth of Eisenberg's idiosyncratic vision were even more apparent in her second collection, Under the 82nd Airborne, which The New York Times Book Review called "nothing short of extraordinary."


As these two collections gathered here into one volume show, Eisenberg's stories have an astonishing power and range. Her characters, whether they are walking in the streets of Manhattan or seemingly abandoned in foreign countries, continually make disquieting and sometimes life-threatening discoveries about themselves, discoveries that illuminate not only their own lives but also the wider net of relationships in which they are enmeshed.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Womens, Literature

496 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 1997

About the author

Born in Chicago, Eisenberg moved to New York City in the 1960's where she has lived ever since. She also teaches at the University of Virginia. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Yale Review, Vanity Fair, and Tin House. She has won the Rea Award for the Short Story, a Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and three O. Henry Awards.

Reviews

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at the highly recommended Second Story Books in Washington, DC (Dupont Circle) just last weekend. I looked at it a long while. I keep seeing mention about her, but not her writing, which has long sort of intrigued (and annoyed) me. I've looked for Eisenberg in my own library on the shelves but she's either constantly checked out or they don't have any of her books - I've been too lazy to actually check their database. So when I found this used copy for half the cover price, I figured it was a good opportunity to get to know her writing personally. I sat on the floor and read the first couple of pages and was well hooked by the first page.

I'm drawn to short stories that feel painfully real, touching on the down and dirty aspects of life at times, all while maintaining a simplistic beauty in the writing. Stories that cover all of the confusion and agony that comes with making certain decisions, the feelings of self-consciousness or self-denial that come in some situations, the hyperawareness in others. I was surprised to find Deborah Eisenberg's stories are exactly all that and more. Surprised because I've heard her name all over the place, but never had I heard a decent explanation about her writing. I mostly heard about how she writes stories, and OMG, she's married to Wallace Shawn, as if who she is married to is what makes her who she is.



But her writing really is fantastic, and that shouldn't be overlooked. I commented in a status update that her writing reminds me of Margaret Atwood and Flannery O'Connor - that's high praise from me as those are two of my favorite writers. I'm happy to be able to include Deborah Eisenberg now on my list of favorite short story writers. Her first two story collections (Transactions in a Foreign Currency and Under the 82nd Airborne) have been republished into The Stories (So Far) of Deborah Eisenberg - two for the price of one!

I'm glad I took a chance on Eisenberg. I'd love to be able to pick her brain, learn a thing or two from her, or just to shoot the shit. I have a feeling she'd be a riot to talk to, though I understand she's a bit of a recluse. Maybe, though, from one recluse to another we could have a relatively good chat.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading these short stories for months, many of them more than once. It's safe to say Deborah Eisenberg has become one of my top inspirations for writing. I love her subtlety, her peculiar word choice, her use of adverbs. And most of all, her characters, of which we get the smallest glimpse into a sliver of their lives. I also love that she spends around a year writing a short story, which is relatable and inspiring to me lol.

My favorite stories in the collection are:

Rafe's Coat: The story that made me buy this book. I read it for a writing class and it's so so so rich.
Days: A stylistic change-up, where a neurotic woman quits smoking and starts running.
Broken Glass: Grief, travel, colonial influence.
Under the 82nd Airborne: One of her international stories, which are all very political. Chilling ending.
Holy Week: Absolute BANGER, which I did read during Easter. Probably my top of the whole collection.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deborah Eisenberg possesses enormous skill in connecting the reader's empathy to the plight of her characters with an objectivity conveying both deliciously mordant satire and the implication that if we can only understand ourselves a bit more, some measure of redemption is possible. Often at the end of these stories the protagonist is left with little more than very bitterly earned self-knowledge, yet always with a slim suggestion -- and perhaps not immediately experienced by the character -- of a potential first step to an upward move in life.

My favorite remains the first in the collection, "Jigsaw," where, after a wild ride amongst new friends and acquaintances, a young girl feels the beginnings of a real home.

This volume comprises Eisenberg's first two short story collections, and I'm eagerly looking forward to reading more.

[Sarah Cortez · Rating 1 out of 5]

meh! i could write this. and better.

[Anne Kadet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never really got it, but I still enjoyed it.

[Steve Parcell · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anytime one feels the urge to wax sentimental about the 80s, all one would need to do would be read this book.

[Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goofy yet astute, oddball yet shrewd, these are often wonderful.

[Virginia Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me an incredibly long time to make it through this collection. This was due to the fact that I took it very slowly and only read a story once every so often. It does not mean this wasn't a compelling collection. Quite the opposite. This collection of short stories is phenomenal. Deborah Eisenberg writes a huge range of characters, places, pov's, styles, tones. They reflect all the real, raw, honest things inside of us, regardless of the circumstance. She does not burrow herself into one niche of society and write from there. Instead, she puts herself wherever she wants and shows all the incredibly human things that connect us all. Great, great collection.

My favorite stories include:
- Flotsam
- What It Was Like, Seeing Chris
- A Lesson in Traveling Light
- Days
- Transactions in a Foreign Currency
- The Robbery
- Holy Week

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is Deborah Eisenberg the American Alice Munro? That's a dumb question. Stop asking dumb questions.

Like Munro, she's amazing at showing how the present mind unpacks the past. These stories just kind of unfurl in front of your eyes. Just pure, voice-driven genius.

"Fortunately, the restaurant Rafe had chosen turned out to be wonderfully soothing. It was luxurious and private, and at the sight of the cloakroom, with its rows of expensive, empty coats that called up a world in which generous, broad-shouldered men, and women in marvelous dresses (much like the one I myself happened to be wearing) inclined toward each other on banquettes, I was pierced by a feeling so keen and unalloyed it might have been called--I don't know what it might have been called. It felt like--well, grief...actually."

That's how you write a break-up scene.

More like Deborah "the Franchise"-enberg.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to locate hilarious stories--there aren't many out there. So I was excited to read the first few stories in this collection--smart, funny, emotional, unexpected--reading them was like eating candy, or drinking water.

And then I thought some others were just okay, and few were unengaging. But--I'm glad I finally read her work--I've owned this collection for 8? 9? years, and I'm looking forward to other work by Eisenberg.

(A note--I can't help but think that this terrible cover is doing her a disservice. It makes her look like an unserious writer, and the book is just not a pleasing object. Even the shape and size of it is ungainly and looks to be out-of-date.)

[Kallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eisenberg is particularly fine at depicting how bewilderment at human relations feels -- especially to the young, but also when one develops personality (defenses) that get in the way of connecting with other humans. She has paid close attention to how harsh exchanges can feel, and exactly describes how feelings can overpower us. I think she must write about this so well because she respects and observes feelings most of us would rather not experience.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eisenberg propels many of her stories through pungent, captivating dialogue. Like conversations that are overheard, joined in progress and out of context, it sometimes takes a while for the reader to sort out what is going on, but the joy and satisfaction is in assembling Eisenberg's intricate puzzles of personalities, relationships and situations. Her stories are often surprising suspenseful, and "The Robbery" in particular clutched at my heart.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This is such a great collection of short stories. If it weren't for Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer, and her great list of must-reads in the appendix, I never would have even heard of Deborah Eisenberg. She seems to be a master of dialogue and those oh-so-subtle conversations that are really being conducted underneath the spoken words. Simply breathtaking!

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is everything that Eisenberg wrote up until Twighlight of the Superheroes. There's a story called Robbery and another called What it was Like Seeing Chris that I have never been able to shake. She is a master.

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

the entire collection is understated brilliance, and "days," about quitting smoking, is the best story i've ever read about addiction and grieving. the humour is superb, while not underplaying with terrible pain the narrator is dealing with. one of my favourite combos.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's strangely, amazingly touching when the same things happen to the same woman. Just ask Mavis Gallant.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

"what is was like, seeing chris" is my favorite. also "rafe's coat."

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her writing is astonishing. Always suprises.

[Sharon Creal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got lost in some of them. Still, a confident voice and each story's a journey.