| Description |
xii, 349 pages ; 23 cm |
| Summary |
"Metaphors, puns, surrealist visions, converted into sharp, disturbing little narratives ... only a poet, and a good one, could have written it."--The Atlantic Monthly. W.S. Merwin's acclaimed short prose--many of which first appeared in The New Yorker--blur the distinction between fiction, poetry, essay, and memoir. Reminiscent of Kafka, Borges, and Beckett, they evoke mythical patterns and unlikely adventures and raise questions about art, reality, and meaning. As the Saturday Review remarked, they have "astonishing range and power." The Book of Fables is a collection of all the short prose from two out-of-print collections, The Miner's Pale Children and Houses and Travellers. The pieces run from a single sentence to a dozen pages and create a poetic landscape both severe and sensuous. --From publisher description. |
| Contents |
The dwelling -- The bar -- Within the wardrobes -- The basilica of the scales -- Tergvinder's stone -- The Dachau shoe -- Make this simple test -- Postcards from the Maginot line -- The weight of sleep -- Our jailer -- Shine on, tottering republic -- Memory -- The wedding march -- Spiders I have known -- The fountain -- Being born again -- In a dark square -- Hope for her -- The medal of disapproval -- Forgetting -- Marietta -- Graphology -- Phoebe -- The trembler -- The animal who eats numbers -- New arrival -- Unchopping a tree -- Ends -- The giants -- The sentinel -- Ethel's story -- The dark sower -- The death-defying Tortonis -- The visitor -- A thing of beauty -- The second person -- The moles -- The islands -- Blue -- The songs of the icebergs -- The sky beetle -- The remembering machines of tomorrow -- What we are named for -- The billboard -- The conqueror -- The locker room -- The answers -- Tribesmen -- Greetings to be addressed to the dead on the morning of their fifth year -- Noon -- The daughters of judgment -- Companion -- Where laughter came from -- The cliff dance -- The barriers -- What happened while they were away -- The eight cakes -- Humble beginning -- The smell of cold soup -- The cheese seller -- A lost tribe -- The camel moth -- Among mutes -- The travel figment -- The Baptist's singers -- The roofs -- The abyss -- Knives -- The hours of a bridge -- Tracks -- Memorials -- The permanent collection -- The June couple -- The wives of the shipbreakers -- From a mammon card -- The uncle -- The approved -- A garden -- The bandage -- The diver's vision -- The clover -- An awakening -- The egg -- The herald -- The first time -- The fragments -- Dawn comes to its mountain in the brain -- The nest -- Nothing began as it is -- The first moon -- The broken -- Sand -- The lonely child -- The salt peddler -- The water clock -- The taste -- A conversation -- The river of fires -- At one of the ends of the world -- The reaper -- The bride of the east -- The footstep -- August -- The fly and the milk -- The devil's pig -- Iron -- He who made the houses -- Remorse -- The element -- Language -- The great union -- Vanity -- A fable of the buyers -- A miser -- Speech of a guide -- The chart -- Clear lake -- Echoes -- The vision -- Chronicle -- What they say in the villages -- Walls -- At night -- A tree -- Martin -- Brothers -- The fugitive -- The good-bye shirts -- Poverty -- Hunger Mountain -- The entry -- A suitor -- The crossroads -- A cabin -- Port of call -- The roof -- The watches -- The invalid -- Path -- The box -- Late capital -- The inheritance -- Refugees -- Treasure -- The secret -- Crusade -- By the grain elevators -- The fair -- The new world -- A voyage -- The ship from Costa Rica -- The old boat -- On the map -- Ten -- A parcel -- The ford -- Wagon -- A street of day -- Watching a train -- The field -- Birds at noon -- Pastures -- Small oak place -- Promontory -- Harbor. |
| Subject |
Fables -- Adaptations -- Fiction.
|
| Other Form: |
Online version: Merwin, W.S. (William Stanley), 1927- Book of fables. Port Townsend, Wash. : Copper Canyon Press, ©2007 (OCoLC)646904342 |
| ISBN |
9781556592560 (pbk. ; alk. paper) |
|
1556592566 (pbk. ; alk. paper) |
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