The Collected Stories

Richard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate and accomplished writers of America's post-war generation. Whether addressing the smothered desire of suburban housewives, the white-collar despair of Manhattan office workers or the heartbreak of a single mother with artistic pretensions, Yates ruthlessly examines the hopes and disappointments of ordinary people with empathy and humour.

Contents:

Doctor Jack-o'-Lantern

The best of everything

Jody rolled the bones

No pain whatsoever

A glutton for punishment

A wrestler with sharks

Fun with a stranger

The B.A.R. man

A really good jazz piano

Out with the old

Builders

Oh, Joseph, I'm so tired

A natural girl

Trying out for the race

Liars in love

A compassionate leave

Regards at home

Saying goodbye to Sally

The canal

A clinical romance

Bells in the morning

Evening on the Cote d'Azur

Thieves

A private possession

The comptroller and the wild wind

A last fling, like

A convalescent ego.