One Way or Another

by Peter Cameron

This collection of stories is concerned with the ways in which young people confront pain--death, loss of love, unfulfilled or unfulfilling commitments, and betrayal

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Peter Cameron (b. 1959) is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. Born in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, he moved to New York City after graduating college in 1982. Cameron began publishing stories in the New Yorker one year later. His numerous award-winning stories for that magazine led to the publication of his first book, One Way or Another (1986), which received a special citation for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a First Book of Fiction. He has since focused on writing novels, including Leap Year (1990) and The City of Your Final Destination (2002), which was a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist. Cameron lives in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sometimes I think I was brought up all wrong," complains one of the characters in...Cameron's story, 'The Last Possible Moment', "I was brought up to happily...Everything I want is obsolete".

"Life's inability to deliver on promises it has held out is a betrayal that echoes through (this collection about)...a generation that has...come of age with a precocious maturity (that) has left the(m) vulnerable, unprepared and unequipped for warding off the pain that seems to be their legacy...

"ONE WAY OR ANOTHER introduces Peter Cameron as an extraordinary writer, one distinguished not only by his prose, which is always abundantly witty and pitch-perfect, but also by a rare generosity of heart.

"Included in this book are two stories that were selected for the O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES: 'Homework', first published in The New Yorker, and 'Excerpts from Swan Lake', first published in The Kenyon Review." From the flyleaf of the hardback Viking/Penguin edition of 1986.

Before I say anything else I want to disabuse, or at least argue ferociously against, anyone who believes that these stories are in some way limited in relevance to a specific time. Like all really good writing if there is something worth reading once it will be worth reading again. What generation of young people does not feel betrayed or let down by its elders or feel unprepared for or disconnected from the world they are entering with maturity? I would imagine it describes how almost any recent generations of young people feel, anywhere in the world, when confronted by the legacy of my generation (born 1958) or even of those who first read these stories in the 1980's. There are many things that youth have that I can be jealous of, having to face making their way in today's world is not one of them.

Over the years I have read some of these stories in various anthologies, and they have stayed with me - 'Jump or Dive', 'Homework', 'The Last Possible Moment' - I could go on and on listing every story but these encompass a smart, knowledgeable, witty and perceptive look at the world through the eyes of its, mostly but not exclusively, young subjects. This collection has been compared to that of many authors and I have disagreed with all of them. For me this collection brings to mind Jonathan Strong's 'Tike and Five Stories' in its fresh, unique and timeless voice.

It is a very good collection which probably has more to say to readers of today then any other since it was first published.

[Post Scriptum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definirei questi racconti di Cameron "racconti delle piccole cose": non ci sono drammi, tutto è velato, si percepiscono le sfumature, il filo di malinconia, il lieve senso di disagio o senso di inadeguatezza, il malessere quotidiano che accompagna silenziosamente. Però, questi "racconti delle piccole cose" si insianuano sotto pelle e si fanno sentire. Da leggere, anche se non è il Cameron di "Quella sera dorata".
Ora mi attende "Un giorno questo dolore ti sarà utile".

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a subtle collection. Love the punctuated, simple yet complex style. Really ahead of its time in terms of the approach to gender and sexuality.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Salinger, Mary Robison, and Frederick Barthelme, find this book and read it fifteen times, at least.

[Elyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great debut of short stories that I discovered back in the 80s and turned me into an instant Peter Cameron fan.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short stories were amazing! Snapshots of life and conversation. I loved each one (and how often can you say that about an entire collection of stories?!) Really, really wonderful.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Way or Another, Peter Cameron’s first book, published in 1986, chronicles a wide range of troubled relationships and instances of people falling short of forging a meaningful connection. Cameron’s characters are mostly young, emotionally and professionally untethered, and usually in some manner at odds with their families or loved ones. The teenage narrator of “Memorial Day” is so annoyed with his parents, who are a year divorced, that he’s stopped talking. But he’s especially pissed at his mother, who in the interim has married Lonnie, a wan and entirely forgettable young man only thirteen years his senior who, in his opinion, has nothing to offer the family. In “Nuptials & Heathens,” Joan and Tom are heading to Maine to spend the weekend with Tom’s family. But it turns out that Joan and Tom have misread each other’s intentions, and when Tom proposes, Joan’s first thought is to wonder, “How could she have let things go this far?” “Grounded” tells of another failed relationship. David’s grandmother is moving out of her Connecticut home and into his parents’ house in California. Since she won’t fly, he’s agreed to drive her across the country. His girlfriend Ann has said she will go with him. David is serious about Ann, but to his shock, at the mere mention of marriage, he discovers that Ann feels very differently about him. And in the poignantly amusing “Fast Forward,” ever since attending college together, Patrick and Alison have enjoyed a mutually supportive friendship that’s never veered into romance. When Alison asks Patrick to accompany her to Maine to visit her mother, who’s dying, Patrick agrees to go. It’s only once they’re in the car together that Alison confesses to Patrick that for years she’s been feeding her mother a fictional version of their relationship. Cameron’s terse dramas unfold rapidly and are told in quick bursts of revelation and sudden insight: a kind of emotional shorthand, if you will. The style is fluid and engaging but doesn’t allow for the deeper kind of character development that elicits a visceral response in the reader. If some of the stories leave a final impression of shallowness, it will come as no surprise that eight of them originally appeared in The New Yorker. Despite this, in 1986 One Way or Another served notice that Peter Cameron was (and still is) a writer who can deliver the goods. His subsequent award-winning career as a novelist has more than borne out the promise of this early work.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A re-read.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing much here.

[Maureen Neylon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of quirky short stories. Interesting, dated - could tell right away that it was written in the 80s - lots of reminders of college years

[Eleanor Spalding · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories of snippets of peoples' lives. No endings. Not a fan.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho ricevuto questo libro come 'anteprima' gratuita dal sito NetGalley, che ringrazio molto per l'opportunità perché altrimenti credo non l'avrei mai letto, dato che, pur amando Peter Cameron, non posso dire altrettanto della forma del racconto. E quando ho finito il primo della raccolta, "Memorial Day", con quel suo finale così brusco e incomprensibile, ho sospirato e ho pensato che perlomeno il libro era corto. La scrittura di Peter Cameron è davvero bella, seppur malinconica, ed è bravissimo nel creare o fissare su carta piccole scene, momenti fulminanti, come in "Freddy's Haircut", in cui il protagonista viene licenziato perché scoperto a farsi tagliare i capelli da una collega sul lavoro.

http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...

[jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of short stories set, I think, in the 80's that had me seeking more of this author's work. I took it out of the library because I was looking for something short and contemporary to read between to two classics.

[Beth Shields-Szostak]

1st edition

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Way or Another by Peter Cameron is a humorous set of short stories. Cameron's style of writing reminds me of Melissa Bank's Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

[Shambhawi P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to a 3.5 stars. Full review to come.

[Rachel Hermans Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite collection I've read in a while.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very early Peter Cameron...he's gotten so much better with later writings. Still these stories are clear, concise and filled with anxious young people who desire more.

[Wakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This in my favorite book.