Francis Ford Coppola Presents Zoetrope: All-Story The Latin American Issue

by Francis Ford Coppola, Rodrigo Hasbún (Contributor)

In his introduction to All-Story, Francis Ford Coppola explains exactly what possessed him to start a literary magazine. Emphasizing what should be an obvious point--a good movie requires a good story--the acclaimed director laments the lowbrow sensibility of motion-picture studios, pointing out that "none of them that I know of devote serious resources to the cultivation of literary work." Hollywood has a hallowed tradition of slapping together screenplays based on flimsy pitches ("It's like Babe meets Angela's Ashes"). In contrast, Coppola has his own humble request for "good writing, good characters, and intriguing stories that spellbind us, but also teach us about life." The collection opens with Sara Powers's captivating story about commitment and doubt, in which a sporting couple agrees to experiment with selective lying (at the rate of three falsehoods per conversation). Amy Bloom's "The Gates Are Closing" is a vivid, funny, and typically touching story about a woman having an affair with her synagogue president's ailing husband. Still, the most amusing tale--and the one that may resonate loudest with struggling writers--is "Thinning the Herd." In Peter Lefcourt's comic fantasia, the narrator interviews one Warren David Warren (a.k.a. "Son of Shakespeare"), a self-proclaimed "revisionist literary Darwinian" who slaughters authors whose work he finds abominable. Defending the murder of a prolific bestselling scribe, Warren makes his "He kept spewing them out. Like rabbit turds. Who did he think he was--Trollope?" There may in fact be a glut of writers. But within the boundaries of this collection, at least, their stories are superb--and many of them would make great cinema. --Brangien Davis

Genres: Short Stories

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Francis Ford Coppola is a five-time Academy Award-winning American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Coppola is also a vintner, magazine publisher, and hotelier. He is a graduate of Hofstra University where he studied theatre. He earned an M.F.A. in film directing from the UCLA Film School. He is most renowned for directing the highly-regarded Godfather trilogy, The Conversation, and the Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now.

Reviews

[Tait · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read any of the other issues of Zoetrope to compare this one to, but if the magazine is an indication of the kind of writing coming out of contemporary Latin American countries than I am highly excited, and look forward to some of these authors eventually putting out books. While a few times the writing fell into that meta-abstracted Borges-influenced style, these stories show a sense of reality and language that relies more on writers like Bolano or some of Cortazar's more literal writings, though I'm sure the authors here have a much broader range of local inspirations that I as a North American have been able to be exposed to.

Of particular note was the last story in the collection, "Tuesday Meetings" by Slavko Zupcic from Venezuela; about the meetings of a psych ward, told from the point of view of a schizophrenic recording the meetings and his intimate thoughts as a newspaper for the rest of the ward to read, all building up a visit from the Pope, a story that works, despite the challenges of writing insane narrators.

All the stories in this collection are in translation, but the original Spanish editions are included in the back. The issue also contains illustrations from famed director Guillermo del Toro, which sounds exciting, except that the drawings are all grotesque juvenilia that he admits in the introduction are toss-offs, and I felt had no relation to the content or tone of the stories (hence the four stars).

[Kristi · Rating 1 out of 5]

In fairness, when I bought this book (zoetrope whatever), it was in a plastic sleeve at Francis Ford Coppola’s winery after I drank a few glasses of good wine. I thought I was buying a short novela written buy FFC and illustrated by Guillermo Del Toro. I was excited for my purchase.

Two years later, I open it up to find it’s short stories by several Latino authors. But I realized last year that I don’t like short story compilations books. It’s usually too short of story with no ending and a confusing plot. I was still hopeful.

Until I opened it and started to read the first story. Only, now I have really weird illustrations that only half the time made sense. I did like Insular Menu, Fantasy, and Tuesday Meetings. The others were maybe lost in translation and not good. One of them, I think it missed sentences (the one about the conductor's daughter with that damn chicken), because the short story was so choppy like an off off and even offer broadway play. And the one about the brothers was just one giant run on sentence. I couldn't keep track of it.

Never again will I purchase another short story compilation book. If it has a plastic sleeve on it and I can't open before buying, then I will not buy it. Lesson officially learned.

[Silvia G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dall'omonima rivista fondata da Francis Ford Coppola, un' antologia di dodici (bei) racconti, un libro da leggere, se volete aggiornarvi sullo stato della short-story negli USA. Personalmente, finora ho trovato i racconti ottimi, il mio preferito rimane per ora La moglie del pasticciere di certa Sara Powers, che apre la raccolta. I temi e le tecniche sono varie; nota comune, mi sembra, una certa impronta visuale, molto americana e molto cinematografica. Da non perdere.

Piccola classifica personale:


La moglie del pasticciere

La sua nuova vita

Quando Dio affonda il suo amore nel mio cuore

Diario rosso con spirali

Northwood

Crimini di guerra

Manuale di caccia e pesca per ragazze

Erotomorfismo

Con una X

Ultima offerta

Hiropon, la mia eroina

Gamberge & Silky

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you remember "The Emperor's New Clothes"? I've read anthologies in the past in which the stories seem to be hand-picked for their inaccessibility. It seems as if the editor has held each complicated piece of prose up to the light and said "I can't understand this! Therefore tt must be brilliant!"

These are good stories. Solid stories. None of them were transcendent, but most were accessible and readable and engaging.

I particularly liked Steve Almond's "The Evil BB Chow", Margo Rabb's "How To Tell A Story", and Karen E. Bender's "Anything for Money", and Alicia Erian's "You" despite the ick factor.

[A-ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were no real duds here, but there were a few storied I didn't like. Such is the risk of story compilations. Some highlights were:

"You" by Alicia Erian, "The Evil B.B. Chow" by Steve Almond, "Zog 19: A Scientific Romance by Pinckney Benedict (though he must secretly be Kurt Vonnegut), "Ogallala" by Rick Bass (It was a grower), and "Goodbye My Love" by Jennifer Egan.

There was enough working in this collection that I'll probably check out some issues of Zoetrope in the future.

[Blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you call it short stories or short fiction, it is fantastic and I would encourage a subscription to the monthly publication of the same name. I love the New Yorker, but this is strictly quality, grade-A fiction.

[Alyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as the first one

[Lee Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands-down the best literary magazine out there. Yes, I am biased, having worked there, but the quality of fiction and art and non-fiction in Zoetrope is outstanding.

[Cherie · Rating 2 out of 5]

B- The original was better

[Giovanni Botta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finito nel 01/gen/1970 00:00:00