What do you think?
Rate this book
The Conventional Wisdom
- GenresShort Stories
24 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1978
13 people want to read
About the author
Stanley Elkin
53 books129 followersStanley Lawrence Elkin was a Jewish American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships.
During his career, Elkin published ten novels, two volumes of novellas, two books of short stories, a collection of essays, and one (unproduced) screenplay. Elkin's work revolves about American pop culture, which it portrays in innumerable darkly comic variations. Characters take full precedence over plot.
His language throughout is extravagant and exuberant, baroque and flowery, taking fantastic flight from his characters' endless patter. "He was like a jazz artist who would go off on riffs," said critic William Gass. In a review of George Mills, Ralph B. Sipper wrote, "Elkin's trademark is to tightrope his way from comedy to tragedy with hardly a slip."
About the influence of ethnicity on his work Elkin said he admired most "the writers who are stylists, Jewish or not. Bellow is a stylist, and he is Jewish. William Gass is a stylist, and he is not Jewish. What I go for in my work is language."
During his career, Elkin published ten novels, two volumes of novellas, two books of short stories, a collection of essays, and one (unproduced) screenplay. Elkin's work revolves about American pop culture, which it portrays in innumerable darkly comic variations. Characters take full precedence over plot.
His language throughout is extravagant and exuberant, baroque and flowery, taking fantastic flight from his characters' endless patter. "He was like a jazz artist who would go off on riffs," said critic William Gass. In a review of George Mills, Ralph B. Sipper wrote, "Elkin's trademark is to tightrope his way from comedy to tragedy with hardly a slip."
About the influence of ethnicity on his work Elkin said he admired most "the writers who are stylists, Jewish or not. Bellow is a stylist, and he is Jewish. William Gass is a stylist, and he is not Jewish. What I go for in my work is language."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 10, 2025
3 stars
Free copy here: https://groups.google.com/g/short-sto...
short review for busy readers
A short story from the late 1970s that does a switcheroo on the reader, going from crime comedy to religious satire that gets pretty eye-wateringly blasphemous. Funny, but of two completly different kinds.
in detail
I have to admit, I very much enjoyed the first half of the story where we're presented with a very New York owner of a liquor store, Ellerbee, who is so upstanding and decent, his wife can't stand it and thinks all sorts of horrible things about him.
It's funny and you really have to admire our hero's good-heartedness.
But then, it went downhill for me when Ellerbee's killed in a hold-up and finds himself in puddles of burning excrement in H. E. double hockey sticks after having glimpsed heaven, complete with pearly gates and angels whizzing by on clouds.
So, why's such a decent guy in hell?
The ending gets pretty spicy with how our hero talks about God, at times right to him. I've never heard someone refer to the Jewish thunder god Yahweh as "The Old Terrorist" before, but I like it and think it might apply to a number of deities, not just the Abrahamic one.
Unfortunately, Ellerbee's sojourn in a very biblical, churchy hell isn't nearly as fun as his runs ins with the mob in his liquor store. The comedy there really worked for me, but I felt it became more and more unfunny as the religion critique ramped up. In the end, the moral seems to be "life's unfair because God's unfair"...which if you read the Old Testament, you could very much get that impression, so no argument from me.
Free copy here: https://groups.google.com/g/short-sto...
short review for busy readers
A short story from the late 1970s that does a switcheroo on the reader, going from crime comedy to religious satire that gets pretty eye-wateringly blasphemous. Funny, but of two completly different kinds.
in detail
I have to admit, I very much enjoyed the first half of the story where we're presented with a very New York owner of a liquor store, Ellerbee, who is so upstanding and decent, his wife can't stand it and thinks all sorts of horrible things about him.
It's funny and you really have to admire our hero's good-heartedness.
But then, it went downhill for me when Ellerbee's killed in a hold-up and finds himself in puddles of burning excrement in H. E. double hockey sticks after having glimpsed heaven, complete with pearly gates and angels whizzing by on clouds.
So, why's such a decent guy in hell?
The ending gets pretty spicy with how our hero talks about God, at times right to him. I've never heard someone refer to the Jewish thunder god Yahweh as "The Old Terrorist" before, but I like it and think it might apply to a number of deities, not just the Abrahamic one.
Unfortunately, Ellerbee's sojourn in a very biblical, churchy hell isn't nearly as fun as his runs ins with the mob in his liquor store. The comedy there really worked for me, but I felt it became more and more unfunny as the religion critique ramped up. In the end, the moral seems to be "life's unfair because God's unfair"...which if you read the Old Testament, you could very much get that impression, so no argument from me.
February 7, 2025
A store owner in Minneapolis tries to live his life as a good man, but when he's killed during a robbery, he comes to learn how spiteful God really is. Writing atlas.
About Ellerbee and his wife, May. Two of his employees are victims in a robbery in his first store.
One is Harold (and Dorothy) Register, and the other George (and Evelyn) Lesefario.
Supports the wives, Dorothy, who eventually stops accepting the checks. Evelyn, who tries to kill herself and dies in hospital.
Another store doesn’t fare well either, employee Kroll, the store is robbed by a man called Ron, and his associate Jay Ladlehaus.
Later, Ellerbee is confronted with what are considered minor faults in his life as a dead person.
About Ellerbee and his wife, May. Two of his employees are victims in a robbery in his first store.
One is Harold (and Dorothy) Register, and the other George (and Evelyn) Lesefario.
Supports the wives, Dorothy, who eventually stops accepting the checks. Evelyn, who tries to kill herself and dies in hospital.
Another store doesn’t fare well either, employee Kroll, the store is robbed by a man called Ron, and his associate Jay Ladlehaus.
Later, Ellerbee is confronted with what are considered minor faults in his life as a dead person.
December 6, 2020
Ellerbee, the owner of a liquor store thrice robbed, sells out to mobsters only to open another store in a different neighborhood, only to robbed again, but this time he's shot to death, and finds himself being transported to what he thinks is heaven, but is sentenced to hell. He finally gets to speak to God and find out why, and demands an answer, but without the flowery prose provided of JOB. God's response seems petty to Ellerbee, but it's a choice he has to live with for eternity.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews