Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers

A collection of some of Stanley Elkin's best-loved stories, emblematic of his keen eye and comic genius.

These nine stories reveal a dazzling variety of styles, tones, and subject matter. Among them are some of Stanley Elkin's finest, including the fabulistic "On a Field, Rampant," the farcical "Perlmutter at the East Pole," and the stylized "A Poetics for Bullies."

Despite the diversity of their form and matter, each of these stories shares Elkin's nimble, comic, antic imagination, a dedication to the value of form and language, and a concern with a single theme: the tragic inadequacy of a simplistic response to life.