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Discoveries: Fifty Stories of the Quest
Reflecting today's growing emphasis on multiculturalism, the second edition of this remarkably successful anthology offers twelve additional contributions from the new generation of writers currently revitalizing the short story form, including Amy Tan, Bharati Mukherjee, R.K. Narayan, Stephen Milhauser, Ellen Gilchrist, and Patrick McGrath. Organized around the successive stages of humanity's most durable myth, the hero's quest narrative pattern delineated by renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, this edition offers a summary and explication of Campbell's analysis of the quest motif, a new biographical introduction to Campbell's life and work, and a section of concise biographical entries on each of the fifty authors.
As in the earlier edition, the quality and quantity of the selections give instructors the freedom to present the stories in whatever order and structure they choose. For those who wish to take advantage of the anthology's thematic organization, the editors provide questions for discussion and possible writing assignments that do not sacrifice the comprehensive diversity of the selections or their identity as distinctive works of literature open to various interpretations. A highly accessible introduction to the technical aspects of the close analysis of fiction, this text also offers a number of special two supplementary tables of contents, one organized by alternate themes, and one by the traditional elements of fiction; an introductory essay defining those technical elements and including a sample analysis of one the stories in the anthology; and a glossary of critical terms.
As in the earlier edition, the quality and quantity of the selections give instructors the freedom to present the stories in whatever order and structure they choose. For those who wish to take advantage of the anthology's thematic organization, the editors provide questions for discussion and possible writing assignments that do not sacrifice the comprehensive diversity of the selections or their identity as distinctive works of literature open to various interpretations. A highly accessible introduction to the technical aspects of the close analysis of fiction, this text also offers a number of special two supplementary tables of contents, one organized by alternate themes, and one by the traditional elements of fiction; an introductory essay defining those technical elements and including a sample analysis of one the stories in the anthology; and a glossary of critical terms.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
2 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Harold Schechter
84 books1,400 followersAka Jon A. Harrald (joint pseudonym with Jonna Gormley Semeiks)
Harold Schechter is a true crime writer who specializes in serial killers. He attended the State University of New York in Buffalo, where he obtained a Ph.D. A resident of New York City, Schechter is professor of American literature and popular culture at Queens College of the City University of New York.
Among his nonfiction works are the historical true-crime classics Fatal, Fiend, Deviant, Deranged, and Depraved. He also authors a critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Edgar Allan Poe, which includes The Hum Bug and Nevermore and The Mask of Red Death.
Schechter is married to poet Kimiko Hahn. He has two daughters from a previous marriage: the writer Lauren Oliver and professor of philosophy Elizabeth Schechter.
Harold Schechter is a true crime writer who specializes in serial killers. He attended the State University of New York in Buffalo, where he obtained a Ph.D. A resident of New York City, Schechter is professor of American literature and popular culture at Queens College of the City University of New York.
Among his nonfiction works are the historical true-crime classics Fatal, Fiend, Deviant, Deranged, and Depraved. He also authors a critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Edgar Allan Poe, which includes The Hum Bug and Nevermore and The Mask of Red Death.
Schechter is married to poet Kimiko Hahn. He has two daughters from a previous marriage: the writer Lauren Oliver and professor of philosophy Elizabeth Schechter.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2011
This collection of short stories is an anodyne assemblage from some of the more recognizable authors in the naive-Jungian/Joseph Campbellovian/archetypal tradition. And since I am a naive Jungian/Campbellovian/archetypal sort, I like it.
It also was my first encounter with Julio Cortazar, whose piece titled The Island at Noon haunts me still and drew me to it as I cleaned my study today. If you don't want to know what happens, don't read any further; if you do and you have read this far, my naive-Jungian analysis is that you're a masochist with control issues and with a lifestyle that has set you on a path toward early onset dementia.
Too close to the mark? Tough. We naive-Jungians keep it real.
The central theme of this six-page story is the reclamation of lost innocence. The story's protagonist, Marini, is a man compelled to abandon the monotonous drudgery of his day-to-day existence for an idealized life. The catalyst for this change is a small, idyllic island that he espies -- or, more appropriately, which imposes itself upon his psyche -- during a flight over the Aegean Sea. Yet, it is his single-minded regard for the island that proves to be his undoing. The tale is a cautionary one: Marini is so interwoven with the inertia of his life that he cannot extricate himself from it without dire consequences.
As a steward for an Italian airline whose route includes such pastoral beauty as the Greek Isles, Marini is a modern Narcissus: Disinterested as he is with his job, "wondering, bored," presenting a practiced and professional smile to passengers, he is distant to his co-workers and patrons alike. But this detachment is a defense, a willful alienation from the bourgeois values and growing commodification of a post-war world where he finds himself both participant and enabler. Marini has talked himself into his predicament, settling for the Rome-Teheran line because the flight is "less gloomy than the northern lines, and the girls seemed happy to go to the Orient or to get to know Italy." Still, the island forces him from his stasis, at first "small and solitary," but quickly morphing into "an unmistakable shape, like a turtle whose paws were barely out of the water" as his airliner passes overhead.
The ocean surrounding the island is the womb-pool, "with an intense blue that exalted the curl of dazzling and kind of petrified white." The dynamism of raw Nature cuts through Marini's imposed rationalizations and worldview, and soon his passage over the island becomes a ritual: consulting his watch for the anticipated noon hour, witnessing the first vision of the sea breaking against its coast, and identifying with the island's population. He takes to collecting all things Greek and seduces a woman in a cabaret with his knowledge of the language.
"Nothing was difficult once decided," muses Marini. In his mind's eye, he travels to the island and befriends a family of fishermen who quickly exhaust their English in talking with him. The significance of the lack of a common tongue is two-fold: It demonstrates the extent to which the island is unlike the rest of the touristy Mediterranean, and it demonstrates that the spoken word is no longer needed because it is a signifier of duality. Marini understands this, becoming "impregnated" by the island, enjoying it with such intimacy that he becomes "incapable of thinking or choosing." Women, a marker of sensuality and an easy routine for the handsome Marini, now flee from him, "astonished"; but boys, a reminder of childhood and innocence, embrace him as an equal. He floats lazily in the ocean, accepting it all "in a single act of conciliation that was also a name for the future."
But history isn't done with Marini: Self-knowledge is self-destructive when it atrophies. At noon, "unable to fight against all that past," the jetliner crashes into the ocean just a hundred yards from the island. Marini, as was his custom when passing the island, is at the tail end of the craft and manages to make it to shore before bleeding to death from a gash in his neck. The island's natural impregnation is too violent and too much for a man accustomed to the artifice of American-style hair cuts and Hilton bar vodka-limes. He was right -- nothing is difficult once it is decided upon; his fault comes only in deciding too late.
It also was my first encounter with Julio Cortazar, whose piece titled The Island at Noon haunts me still and drew me to it as I cleaned my study today. If you don't want to know what happens, don't read any further; if you do and you have read this far, my naive-Jungian analysis is that you're a masochist with control issues and with a lifestyle that has set you on a path toward early onset dementia.
Too close to the mark? Tough. We naive-Jungians keep it real.
The central theme of this six-page story is the reclamation of lost innocence. The story's protagonist, Marini, is a man compelled to abandon the monotonous drudgery of his day-to-day existence for an idealized life. The catalyst for this change is a small, idyllic island that he espies -- or, more appropriately, which imposes itself upon his psyche -- during a flight over the Aegean Sea. Yet, it is his single-minded regard for the island that proves to be his undoing. The tale is a cautionary one: Marini is so interwoven with the inertia of his life that he cannot extricate himself from it without dire consequences.
As a steward for an Italian airline whose route includes such pastoral beauty as the Greek Isles, Marini is a modern Narcissus: Disinterested as he is with his job, "wondering, bored," presenting a practiced and professional smile to passengers, he is distant to his co-workers and patrons alike. But this detachment is a defense, a willful alienation from the bourgeois values and growing commodification of a post-war world where he finds himself both participant and enabler. Marini has talked himself into his predicament, settling for the Rome-Teheran line because the flight is "less gloomy than the northern lines, and the girls seemed happy to go to the Orient or to get to know Italy." Still, the island forces him from his stasis, at first "small and solitary," but quickly morphing into "an unmistakable shape, like a turtle whose paws were barely out of the water" as his airliner passes overhead.
The ocean surrounding the island is the womb-pool, "with an intense blue that exalted the curl of dazzling and kind of petrified white." The dynamism of raw Nature cuts through Marini's imposed rationalizations and worldview, and soon his passage over the island becomes a ritual: consulting his watch for the anticipated noon hour, witnessing the first vision of the sea breaking against its coast, and identifying with the island's population. He takes to collecting all things Greek and seduces a woman in a cabaret with his knowledge of the language.
"Nothing was difficult once decided," muses Marini. In his mind's eye, he travels to the island and befriends a family of fishermen who quickly exhaust their English in talking with him. The significance of the lack of a common tongue is two-fold: It demonstrates the extent to which the island is unlike the rest of the touristy Mediterranean, and it demonstrates that the spoken word is no longer needed because it is a signifier of duality. Marini understands this, becoming "impregnated" by the island, enjoying it with such intimacy that he becomes "incapable of thinking or choosing." Women, a marker of sensuality and an easy routine for the handsome Marini, now flee from him, "astonished"; but boys, a reminder of childhood and innocence, embrace him as an equal. He floats lazily in the ocean, accepting it all "in a single act of conciliation that was also a name for the future."
But history isn't done with Marini: Self-knowledge is self-destructive when it atrophies. At noon, "unable to fight against all that past," the jetliner crashes into the ocean just a hundred yards from the island. Marini, as was his custom when passing the island, is at the tail end of the craft and manages to make it to shore before bleeding to death from a gash in his neck. The island's natural impregnation is too violent and too much for a man accustomed to the artifice of American-style hair cuts and Hilton bar vodka-limes. He was right -- nothing is difficult once it is decided upon; his fault comes only in deciding too late.
Want to read
April 18, 2025Read so far:
Blackberry winter / Robert Penn Warren --3
Paul's case / Willa Cather --4
Astronomer's wife / Kay Boyle --3
*The island at noon / Julio Cortazar --
*The liberation / Jean Stafford --
The story of an hour / Kate Chopin --3
*Adventures / Sherwood Anderson --
William Wilson / Edgar Allan Poe --3
The lost explorer / Patrick McGrath --
*Double face / Amy Tan --
*Getzel the monkey / Isaac Bashevis Singer --
*The story of a dead man / James Alan McPherson --
Yellow woman / Leslie Marmon Silko --2
A good man is hard to find / Flannery O'Connor --4
He and I / Alberto Moravia --
My kinsman, Major Molineux / Nathaniel Hawthorne --2
Babylon revisited / F. Scott Fitzgerald --4
A worn path / Eudora Welty --2
The open boat / Stephen Crane --2
Idiots first / Bernard Malamud --2
*Big boy leaves home / Richard Wright --
*Behind the blue curtain / Steven Millhauser --
*Through the tunnel / Doris Lessing --
Night-sea journey / John Barth--
*The poet / Herman Hesse --
The lesson / Toni Cade Bambara --3
*Cathedral / Raymond Carver --
*The awakening / Isaac Babel --
The sky is gray / Ernest J. Gaines --3
Under the banyan tree / R.K. Narayan --3
The conversion of the Jews / Philip Roth --2
*Blacaman the Good, vendor of miracles / Gabriel Garcia Marquez --
*Araby / James Joyce --
*Semley's necklace / Ursula K. Le Guin --
Janus / Ann Beattie --3
*A tree, a rock, a cloud / Carson McCullers --
The blue jar / Isak Dinesen --1
*The middle drawer / Hortense Calisher --
Flying home / Ralph Ellison --2
*The oranging of America / Max Apple --
The revolt of "mother" / Mary E. Wilkins Freeman --4
The horse-dealer's daughter / D.H. Lawrence --3
*Twin beds in Rome / John Updike --
The management of grief / Bharati Mukherjee --3
*O yes / Tillie Olsen --
The legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller / Gustave Flaubert --2
*Traveler / Ellen Gilchrist --
Rip Van Winkle / Washington Irving --3
Christmas / Vladimir Nbakov --
How Wang-Fo was saved / Marguerite Yourcenar--
Blackberry winter / Robert Penn Warren --3
Paul's case / Willa Cather --4
Astronomer's wife / Kay Boyle --3
*The island at noon / Julio Cortazar --
*The liberation / Jean Stafford --
The story of an hour / Kate Chopin --3
*Adventures / Sherwood Anderson --
William Wilson / Edgar Allan Poe --3
The lost explorer / Patrick McGrath --
*Double face / Amy Tan --
*Getzel the monkey / Isaac Bashevis Singer --
*The story of a dead man / James Alan McPherson --
Yellow woman / Leslie Marmon Silko --2
A good man is hard to find / Flannery O'Connor --4
He and I / Alberto Moravia --
My kinsman, Major Molineux / Nathaniel Hawthorne --2
Babylon revisited / F. Scott Fitzgerald --4
A worn path / Eudora Welty --2
The open boat / Stephen Crane --2
Idiots first / Bernard Malamud --2
*Big boy leaves home / Richard Wright --
*Behind the blue curtain / Steven Millhauser --
*Through the tunnel / Doris Lessing --
Night-sea journey / John Barth--
*The poet / Herman Hesse --
The lesson / Toni Cade Bambara --3
*Cathedral / Raymond Carver --
*The awakening / Isaac Babel --
The sky is gray / Ernest J. Gaines --3
Under the banyan tree / R.K. Narayan --3
The conversion of the Jews / Philip Roth --2
*Blacaman the Good, vendor of miracles / Gabriel Garcia Marquez --
*Araby / James Joyce --
*Semley's necklace / Ursula K. Le Guin --
Janus / Ann Beattie --3
*A tree, a rock, a cloud / Carson McCullers --
The blue jar / Isak Dinesen --1
*The middle drawer / Hortense Calisher --
Flying home / Ralph Ellison --2
*The oranging of America / Max Apple --
The revolt of "mother" / Mary E. Wilkins Freeman --4
The horse-dealer's daughter / D.H. Lawrence --3
*Twin beds in Rome / John Updike --
The management of grief / Bharati Mukherjee --3
*O yes / Tillie Olsen --
The legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller / Gustave Flaubert --2
*Traveler / Ellen Gilchrist --
Rip Van Winkle / Washington Irving --3
Christmas / Vladimir Nbakov --
How Wang-Fo was saved / Marguerite Yourcenar--
July 14, 2013
One of my favorite short story collections! My old professor does a wonderful job of arranging these stories around the mythical hero's quest adventures. This compilation should be on every book lover's shelf.
January 15, 2008
My favorite book of short stories. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews