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Elephant Bangs Train
A most incredible mealMarieFollow the eagleThe doormanThe bird watcherThe jewel of AmitabaNippyElephant bangs trainThe magicianTurning pointTiger bridgeStroke of good a true nurse romanceThe trapSoldier in the blanketThe great liarElephant's graveyard
148 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
3 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
William Kotzwinkle
81 books256 followersWilliam Kotzwinkle is a two-time recipient of the National Magazine Award for Fiction, a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Prix Litteraire des Bouquinistes des Quais de Paris, the PETA Award for Children's Books, and a Book Critics Circle award nominee. His work has been translated into dozens of languages.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 21, 2020
3.5; contains enough excellent stories to be well worth reading despite a roughly equal number of pieces that are dated/underwhelming.
April 12, 2019
It's not easy to classify this collection due to its diversity. Kotzwinkle skirts the fringes of the absurd, the fabulist, and the surreal, but on occasion he also hits that slightly-off realist sweet spot which I so rarely encounter. Certainly one could file this with the work of Richard Brautigan and Tom Robbins and not be far off. There is that late 60s/early 70s wackiness going on. Some of these stories are pretty forgettable, though, while others just simply haven't aged well or feel too derivative. The collection starts off strong with a Siberian tale about the discovery of a mastodon frozen in ice. There are two more elephant-based stories, and for me the three of these together formed the backbone of the book (the two others are conveniently placed at the middle and at the end, respectively). What happens in between is hit or miss.
August 16, 2017
Maybe I should mark it DNF, because I did skim a lot of the stories. They were just too weird to me. Maybe if I dug acid or whatever, wtf, I dunno. However, the title story is surprisingly interesting, and the very first, about the unearthing of a mammoth (mastodon?) in Russia is powerful, masterful, wise.
July 16, 2025
Impressively consistent with only a couple of real duds. My favourite stories were “A Most Incredible Meal”, “The Bird Watcher”, and “The Magician”. 3.5.
November 28, 2022
Great Esquire Fiction was a watershed book for me. An anthology of short stories by various writers through the years. One of them was William Kotzwinkle's "Horse Badorties Goes Out." As the years wore on and I committed myself to writing short fiction, I never forgot him and even searched out his fiction in the used book marketplace. Jewel of the Moon was a collection I found and sort of liked.
Elephant Bangs Train was something I came across and it sat in my queue for years until I finally read it last week. It's his first collection, 1970 or so. The stories hold up and are representative of the Experimental Fiction fad of the day. Although Kotzwinkle isn't usually mentioned in the roll call of the founding fathers (Barthelme, Barth, Coover et al), he belongs there, certainly. He was published widely in places like Esquire, Playboy and other glossies that catered to young men looking for sex and a laugh. The stories are antic, absurd--early Thomas McGuane comes to mind.
These stories hold up for the most part. Kotzwinkle gets away with silliness to be sure--but also some hints of profundity. There are two stories in here that wouldn't stand a chance today and they both deal with pedophilia. What can I say? It was a different era. Both involve a boy being pleasured by an older woman (Calling Dr. Freud!). An odd collection? Absolutely. Ironically, Kotzwinkle later went on the write the novelization of E.T. and publish many young adult and juvenile books.
Elephant Bangs Train was something I came across and it sat in my queue for years until I finally read it last week. It's his first collection, 1970 or so. The stories hold up and are representative of the Experimental Fiction fad of the day. Although Kotzwinkle isn't usually mentioned in the roll call of the founding fathers (Barthelme, Barth, Coover et al), he belongs there, certainly. He was published widely in places like Esquire, Playboy and other glossies that catered to young men looking for sex and a laugh. The stories are antic, absurd--early Thomas McGuane comes to mind.
These stories hold up for the most part. Kotzwinkle gets away with silliness to be sure--but also some hints of profundity. There are two stories in here that wouldn't stand a chance today and they both deal with pedophilia. What can I say? It was a different era. Both involve a boy being pleasured by an older woman (Calling Dr. Freud!). An odd collection? Absolutely. Ironically, Kotzwinkle later went on the write the novelization of E.T. and publish many young adult and juvenile books.
October 16, 2014
Favorites:
-All the ones with elephants
-The one about the Boy Scout outing
-The "coming" of age story with the nurse
This man is a brilliant writer, that much is plain.
-All the ones with elephants
-The one about the Boy Scout outing
-The "coming" of age story with the nurse
This man is a brilliant writer, that much is plain.
January 16, 2023
Elephant Bangs Train contains the absolute worst portrayal of mental illness I’ve ever read. But consider this factoid an Andes mint chocolate before the main course, because Jesus Christ is it a drop in the ocean compared to this collection’s primary flaw.
Which is that this book is stupefyingly horny. And not in a “tee hee the 60s are so free and licentious!” way as much as a “be careful who you hitchhike with” way. One should note though that this randiness is not political or literary, a la Marquis de Sade or D.H. Lawrence. No, this is simply the work of a man at war with his own urges.
That Kotzwinkle would go on to write charming, docile novels and screenplays is the funniest possible outcome, as it suggests two explanations for his change in style, both plausible and hilarious.
The first is that ol’ Bill got to be so frightfully, suicidally horned-up that God intervened, giving him a Road to Damascus moment which catalyzed his dramatic pivot into family-oriented writing.
The second, more sinister possibility is that Kotzwinkle is no outlier at all: simply a product of an era where medical horniness was a universal norm. Hard to stay mad at a guy whose whole generation is implicated in the same crime.
Either way, Elephant Bangs Train ain’t it, and doesn’t have enough bright spots to earn more than one star.
Which is that this book is stupefyingly horny. And not in a “tee hee the 60s are so free and licentious!” way as much as a “be careful who you hitchhike with” way. One should note though that this randiness is not political or literary, a la Marquis de Sade or D.H. Lawrence. No, this is simply the work of a man at war with his own urges.
That Kotzwinkle would go on to write charming, docile novels and screenplays is the funniest possible outcome, as it suggests two explanations for his change in style, both plausible and hilarious.
The first is that ol’ Bill got to be so frightfully, suicidally horned-up that God intervened, giving him a Road to Damascus moment which catalyzed his dramatic pivot into family-oriented writing.
The second, more sinister possibility is that Kotzwinkle is no outlier at all: simply a product of an era where medical horniness was a universal norm. Hard to stay mad at a guy whose whole generation is implicated in the same crime.
Either way, Elephant Bangs Train ain’t it, and doesn’t have enough bright spots to earn more than one star.
April 27, 2018
This book is definitely in some ways a product of the LSD culture of its time, but the stories are also surprisingly beautiful, unexpected, and moving. There are elements of the fantastic, but all-too-human emotions are at the heart of every one. The most distinctive book I've read in quite some time.
August 28, 2025
gelezen in het Nederlands. korte verhalen, de een wat beter dan de ander.
June 24, 2016
Sixteen short (some quite short) and wildly diverse stories, fables, tales from other lands, and more, works from a free, soaring, and definitely untamed imagination.
The stories in Elephant Bangs Train are each different and unique as a fingerprint. If they were not so well-written and constructed, it would seem that no two were written by the same hand. But they were, by the masterful William Kotzwinkle, whose words flow windswept through the pages, pushing the reader along like leaves in a storm. And each story is its own story: Kotzwinkle writes of cutting mastodons from the ice, second graders, a Native American and his motorcycle, a developmentally disabled 35-year old, Boy Scouts, psychedelic Euro-trash, a boy and his dog, an angry elephant (title story), the love of a rag picker for the concubine of a Chinese Emperor, racy pulp fiction ("A True Nurse Romance"), the Northwest Mounted Police, a boy and his baby sitter, the world's greatest liar, an aging elephant and his mahout, and more. Elephant Bangs Train has something for everyone. Overall the stories are not overtly realistic, and often read more as fables, fairy tales, or anecdotes from a larger life. All astonishingly well-written. My favorite stories were "Tiger Bridge" and "Elephant's Graveyard." I've purchased every William Kotzwinkle title I've ever seen, and never been disappointed. My one caveat about the author is that at times the stories seem to lack an emotional connection, an inner life I can relate to; I can be amazed at his cleverness and skill, but still not quite reach a fully satisfying conclusion. It's as if Kotzwinkle is almost too talented and imaginative for his own good, and loses a little soul along the way. Still, Elephant Bangs Train is a wonderful and enjoyable read, brilliant in ability and creation. {note: Goodreads lists this as first published in 1969, but it was 1971}[3.5 Stars]
The stories in Elephant Bangs Train are each different and unique as a fingerprint. If they were not so well-written and constructed, it would seem that no two were written by the same hand. But they were, by the masterful William Kotzwinkle, whose words flow windswept through the pages, pushing the reader along like leaves in a storm. And each story is its own story: Kotzwinkle writes of cutting mastodons from the ice, second graders, a Native American and his motorcycle, a developmentally disabled 35-year old, Boy Scouts, psychedelic Euro-trash, a boy and his dog, an angry elephant (title story), the love of a rag picker for the concubine of a Chinese Emperor, racy pulp fiction ("A True Nurse Romance"), the Northwest Mounted Police, a boy and his baby sitter, the world's greatest liar, an aging elephant and his mahout, and more. Elephant Bangs Train has something for everyone. Overall the stories are not overtly realistic, and often read more as fables, fairy tales, or anecdotes from a larger life. All astonishingly well-written. My favorite stories were "Tiger Bridge" and "Elephant's Graveyard." I've purchased every William Kotzwinkle title I've ever seen, and never been disappointed. My one caveat about the author is that at times the stories seem to lack an emotional connection, an inner life I can relate to; I can be amazed at his cleverness and skill, but still not quite reach a fully satisfying conclusion. It's as if Kotzwinkle is almost too talented and imaginative for his own good, and loses a little soul along the way. Still, Elephant Bangs Train is a wonderful and enjoyable read, brilliant in ability and creation. {note: Goodreads lists this as first published in 1969, but it was 1971}[3.5 Stars]
January 13, 2013
An eclectic range of very short stories, Kotzwinkle quite obvioussly has derived his ideas, styles, and context from a broad and diverse range of sources.
Some of these I read twice, or backtracked through the stories to fully understand the context, which is both frustrating and an achievement; because they're so short - much of the context for each is assumed, this made it easier for Kotzwinkle to surprise the reader.
It was a refreshing read
Some of these I read twice, or backtracked through the stories to fully understand the context, which is both frustrating and an achievement; because they're so short - much of the context for each is assumed, this made it easier for Kotzwinkle to surprise the reader.
It was a refreshing read
October 12, 2012
An eccentric bunch of stories with exotic locations, steeped in magic realist tradition.
January 29, 2013
Worth buying it and reading it for $1.
November 26, 2014
One of his stories is about Siberians dis entombing a mast on frozen in ice is perfect!
Want to read
March 16, 2016An absolute master of language and a genius with idiom and metaphor.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews