Ryan Berger’s Reviews > Sixty Stories > Status Update
Ryan Berger
is on page 14 of 457
Absurdist. Surrealist. Post-Modern madman.
Big departure from the usual diet but his work fascinates me, and his short stories are machine gun quick so I want to try and mix them in semi-often.
Fitting that the first story "Margins" seems to be about appearances. It also ends with a punch to the head, which has been my experience with Barthelme in scattered brushes with his work.
— Nov 24, 2022 07:25PM
Big departure from the usual diet but his work fascinates me, and his short stories are machine gun quick so I want to try and mix them in semi-often.
Fitting that the first story "Margins" seems to be about appearances. It also ends with a punch to the head, which has been my experience with Barthelme in scattered brushes with his work.
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Ryan’s Previous Updates
Ryan Berger
is on page 295 of 457
I have been coming back to this reading all over the place and I think I'm REALLY ready for it now and having so much fun. Love a Barthelme story like nothing else.
— Apr 07, 2026 11:30AM
Ryan Berger
is on page 36 of 457
Me and Miss Mandible - A man gets sent back to Kindergarten and only the teacher seems to be able to tell that he's a grown man.
A head spinner and a riot. Now I see why George Saunders cites him as an inspiration. Very funny, but with a ton of depth and complexity. Very much about truth in America.
My copy is used and this story is triple underlined in the table of contents. Makes sense.
— Dec 06, 2022 09:55AM
A head spinner and a riot. Now I see why George Saunders cites him as an inspiration. Very funny, but with a ton of depth and complexity. Very much about truth in America.
My copy is used and this story is triple underlined in the table of contents. Makes sense.
Ryan Berger
is on page 24 of 457
"You may not be interested in absurdity, but absurdity is interested in you".
That feels like it could be the lodestar for all of Barthelme's collected works.
This is some of the strangest fiction I've ever read.
— Nov 26, 2022 05:15PM
That feels like it could be the lodestar for all of Barthelme's collected works.
This is some of the strangest fiction I've ever read.
