AN NPR AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • An exquisite new collection from a Pulitzer Prize–winning master of the short story, the culmination of a five-decade career: work that takes us beneath the placid surface of suburban life into the elusive strangeness of the everyday
Here are eighteen stories of astonishing range and precision. A housewife drinks alone in her Connecticut living room. A guillotine glimmers above a sleepy town green. A pre-recorded customer service message sends a caller into a reverie of unspeakable yearning. With the deft touch and funhouse-mirror perspectives for which he has won countless admirers, Steven Millhauser gives us the towns, marriages, and families of a quintessential American lifestyle that is at once instantly recognizable and profoundly unsettling. Disruptions is a collection of provocative, bracingly original new work from a writer at the peak of his form.
“Millhauser revitalizes the small-town tale, evoking the magical, the mundane, and the extravagantly madcap . . . Millhauser is the great eccentric of American fiction . . . Millhauser reminds you of Borges sometimes, of Calvino and Angela Carter at other times, even of Nabokov once in a while . . . Much as Millhauser relishes the magical, he also has a soft spot for the humdrum: the sound of a lawn sprinkler, the sight of a basketball left on a driveway. His genius is to be able to evoke both so urgently.” —Charles McGrath, The New Yorker
“Several of the stories are among his best . . . [One] is a bit like Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’ if YouTube videos of the stonings had leaked out . . . It was always a treat to find his stories in The New Yorker, where many have appeared over the years . . . When Millhauser is on, he hands you a periscope of his own unique design, and he allows you to really look and feel.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times
“Cause for celebration . . . Once again his precision shines bright.” —Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books “More turmoil and magic in suburbia from one of America’s most accomplished short story writers . . . Each of these stories is open to interpretation as a study of prejudice, suburban narrowness, and groupthink. But Millhauser has always been too slippery a writer to pursue such obvious meaning-making; more often, the effect is that of Borges-ian strangeness and delight . . . Millhauser remains gifted at stretching time, space, and expectations.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred) “Millhauser shows his mastery for the short story in a collection that consistently addresses the absurdity of modern American life . . . These characters, like Millhauser’s bizarre worlds, feel fascinatingly real.” —Annie Tully, Booklist
“A mélange of fantastical imaginings and scenes of domestic oddness . . . Millhauser exhibits a Cheeveresque curiosity about—and a fun house distortion of—a small town’s placid façade . . . This will please Millhauser’s longtime fans and earn him new admirers.” —Publishers Weekly
AN NPR AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • An exquisite new collection from a Pulitzer Prize–winning master of the short story, the culmination of a five-decade career: work that takes us beneath the placid surface of suburban life into the elusive strangeness of the everyday
Here are eighteen stories of astonishing range and precision. A housewife drinks alone in her Connecticut living room. A guillotine glimmers above a sleepy town green. A pre-recorded customer service message sends a caller into a reverie of unspeakable yearning. With the deft touch and funhouse-mirror perspectives for which he has won countless admirers, Steven Millhauser gives us the towns, marriages, and families of a quintessential American lifestyle that is at once instantly recognizable and profoundly unsettling. Disruptions is a collection of provocative, bracingly original new work from a writer at the peak of his form.
Praise
“Millhauser revitalizes the small-town tale, evoking the magical, the mundane, and the extravagantly madcap . . . Millhauser is the great eccentric of American fiction . . . Millhauser reminds you of Borges sometimes, of Calvino and Angela Carter at other times, even of Nabokov once in a while . . . Much as Millhauser relishes the magical, he also has a soft spot for the humdrum: the sound of a lawn sprinkler, the sight of a basketball left on a driveway. His genius is to be able to evoke both so urgently.” —Charles McGrath, The New Yorker
“Several of the stories are among his best . . . [One] is a bit like Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’ if YouTube videos of the stonings had leaked out . . . It was always a treat to find his stories in The New Yorker, where many have appeared over the years . . . When Millhauser is on, he hands you a periscope of his own unique design, and he allows you to really look and feel.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times
“Cause for celebration . . . Once again his precision shines bright.” —Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books “More turmoil and magic in suburbia from one of America’s most accomplished short story writers . . . Each of these stories is open to interpretation as a study of prejudice, suburban narrowness, and groupthink. But Millhauser has always been too slippery a writer to pursue such obvious meaning-making; more often, the effect is that of Borges-ian strangeness and delight . . . Millhauser remains gifted at stretching time, space, and expectations.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred) “Millhauser shows his mastery for the short story in a collection that consistently addresses the absurdity of modern American life . . . These characters, like Millhauser’s bizarre worlds, feel fascinatingly real.” —Annie Tully, Booklist
“A mélange of fantastical imaginings and scenes of domestic oddness . . . Millhauser exhibits a Cheeveresque curiosity about—and a fun house distortion of—a small town’s placid façade . . . This will please Millhauser’s longtime fans and earn him new admirers.” —Publishers Weekly
