Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story

OBJECT LESSONS
The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story
Edited by The Paris Review
On Sale: October 2, 2012
A Picador Paperback Original
Fiction / Short Stories / Literature

For a review copy (US and Canada only) or to schedule an interview with Lorin Stein (Editor of The Paris Review) or Sadie Stein (Deputy Editor of The Paris Review), please email gabrielle.gantz [at] picadorusa.com

PRAISE FOR OBJECT LESSONS
“The editors call this a guide for young writers and readers interested in literary technique, and the book achieves that purpose while also serving as a tribute to the role The Paris Review has played in maintaining the diversity of the short story form. The collection reminds us that good stories are always whispering into each other’s ears.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A compendium of The Paris Review’s short story hits, curated with the ambitious, aspiring writer in mind. … Jeffrey Eugenides’ discussion of Denis Johnson’s “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” captures that story’s heartbreak and serves as an essay on the virtues of the form itself. … A smart showcase of a half-century’s worth of pathways in fiction.”
—Kirkus

“Who needs an MFA when there’s The Paris Review?”
—The Millions

ABOUT OBJECT LESSONS
Twenty contemporary authors introduce twenty sterling examples of the short story from the pages of The Paris Review.

What does it take to write a great short story? In OBJECT LESSONS, twenty contemporary masters of the genre answer that question, sharing favorite stories from the pages of The Paris Review. Over the course of the last half century, the Review has launched hundreds of careers while publishing some of the most inventive and best-loved stories of our time. This anthology—the first of its kind—is more than a treasury: it is an indispensable resource for writers, students, and anyone else who wants to understand fiction from a writer’s point of view.

A repository of incredible fiction, OBJECT LESSONS includes:
Ann Beattie on Craig Nova’s “Another Drunk Gambler”
David Bezmozgis on Leonard Michaels’s “City Boy”
Lydia Davis on Jane Bowles’s “Emmy Moore’s Journal”
Dave Eggers on James Salter’s “Bangkok”
Jeffrey Eugenides on Denis Johnson’s “Car Crash While Hitchhiking”
Mary Gaitskill on Mary Beth Hughes’s “Pelican Song”
Aleksander Hemon on Jorge Luis Borges’s “Funes the Memorious”
Jonathan Lethem on Thomas Glynn’s “Except for the Sickness I’m Quite Healthy Now. You Can Believe That.”
Ben Marcus on Donald Barthelme’s “Several Garlic Tales”
Lorrie Moore on Ethan Canin’s “The Palace Thief”
Mona Simpson on Norman Rush’s “Lying Presences”
Ali Smith on Lydia Davis’s “Ten Stories from Flaubert”
Wells Tower on Evan S. Connell’s “The Beau Monde of Mrs. Bridge”
…and more

FROM THE EDITORS’ NOTE
“Some chose classics. Some chose stories that were new even to us. Our hope is that this collection will be useful to young writers, and to others interested in literary technique. Most of all, it is intended for readers who are not (or are no longer) in the habit of reading short stories. We hope these object lessons will remind them how varied the form can be, how vital it remains, and how much pleasure it can give.”

ABOUT THE PARIS REVIEW
Founded in Paris by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton in 1953, The Paris Review began with a simple editorial mission: “Dear reader,” William Styron wrote in a letter in the inaugural issue, “The Paris Review hopes to emphasize creative work—fiction and poetry—not to the exclusion of criticism, but with the aim in mind of merely removing criticism from the dominating place it holds in most literary magazines and putting it pretty much where it belongs, i.e., somewhere near the back of the book. I think The Paris Review should welcome these people into its pages: the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders. So long as they’re good.”

MEDIA
Interview with Sadie Stein at The Millions
Interview with Lorin Stein at The Rumpus
Interview with Sadie at Days of Yore
Interview with Lorin at Days of Yore
Interview with Lorin at the Huffington Post
Interview with Lorin on the Other People podcast
Chicago Tribune review
Christian Science Monitor review
Jeffrey Eugenides introduces Denis Johnson’s “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” (excerpt)
Aleksandar Hemon introduces Borges’s “Funes the Memorious” (excerpt)

MORE INFORMATION
Cover image for download
The Paris Review website
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