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Fiction by Donald Barthelme: My wife has been wanting a dog for a long time. I have had to be the one to tell her that she couldn’t have it. But now the baby wants a dog, my wife says.
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme , who died in 1989, was the author of numerous books, including the novel “ Snow White ” and the story collection “ Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts .”
Read more on The New Yorker →17 picks · 1963–2024
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This is an interview with Thomas Breaker, a fictional character. Towards the end of the interview, the interviewer seems to have disappeared and Brecker is…
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Fiction by Donald Barthelme: My wife has been wanting a dog for a long time. I have had to be the one to tell her that she couldn’t have it. But now the baby wants a dog, my wife says.
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Writer recalls places he has visited around the world, describing the scenes conjured up in his mind when remembering each city. These memories are being …
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Do they lie? Fervently. Do they steal? Only silver and gold. Do they remember? I am in constant touch. Hardly a day passes. The children. Some can't …
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The narrator is sitting in his new steel Butler building, practicing knocking down stepladders with his 43 foot crane, when he realizes that he is at a low…
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Suddenly, the narrator encounters a unit of the Swedish Army. Their vechicles are painted sand color, quite different from the American Army's dark …
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Fiction, from 1974: “They asked me, where did they go? The trees, the salamander, the tropical fish, Edgar, the poppas and mommas, Matthew and Tony?”
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Dr. Reginald Hobson, F.R.S., of Britain's Cavendish Laboratory shows a friend and colleague, Dr. Winston Watnick-Mealie, photos which he had Pioneer 10…
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Fiction, from 1972: “ ‘We are like other towns, except that we are perfect,’ he said. ‘Our discontent can only be held in check by perfection.’ ”
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Borys Althusser, wealthy young manufacturer of sensitive electronic instruments, for which he has immense govt. contracts, discovers one evening that …
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Seven short passages with an introductory paragraph. One passage is entitled "SHOUTING SLEEPING RHYTHMIC HANDCLAPPING WHAT RECOURSE?" It tells of a …
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It is the night of the Policemen's Ball. Horace, a policeman, is baking Rock Cornish Hens and wondering if Margot will "put out" tonight. Margot comes …
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Fiction, from 1966: “It was agreed that since the meaning of the balloon could never be known absolutely, extended discussion was pointless.”
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Fiction, from 1965: “But it is you I want now, here in the middle of this Uprising, with the streets yellow and threatening.”
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After ten years of writing program notes for "TV Guide," Redburn Backspace, completed his novelorama "Man's Face." His editors dispute that his work …
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Surrealistic short story. The woman in the story remarked to her husband: "When you galloped into the University of Texas on your roan Volvo, I thought you…