Tell Me a Riddle
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Book Overview
This collection of four stories, "I Stand Here Ironing," "Hey Sailor, what Ship?," "O Yes," and "Tell me a Riddle," had become an American classic. Since the title novella won the O. Henry Award in... This description may be from another edition of this product.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0385290101
ISBN13:9780385290104
Release Date:August 1971
Publisher:Delta
Length:128 Pages
Weight:0.29 lbs.
Dimensions:8.0" x 0.3" x 5.2"
Related Subjects
Classics Contemporary Fiction Humor Humor & Entertainment Humorous Literature & Fiction Short StoriesCustomer Reviews
5 ratings
Brilliant, sad, and wise
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
Tillie Olsen packs a lifetime of enforced silences into this slender work of art. These are dense and poetic evocations of Joyce and Woolf, but with an added proletarian knife-thrust to the heart.
Powerful
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
"Hey Sailor, What Ship" is the most powerful, concentrated portrayal of alcoholism that I have ever read. Olsen gets inside the mind of a late-stage alcoholic. Her prose seems to stretch and distort as her main character goes on an unplanned bender while on shore leave. She shows beautiful restraint, too: there is nothing sensational or mawkish here. I am in awe of this story.
Will someone translate this for me please?
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
Tillie Olson is a brilliant woman. She was way ahead of her time, breaking through the constraints binding talented women back then by her sheer persistence and follow-through, becoming recognized as a notable author. Her insights regarding women authors of the 19th century are brilliant. And her story "Tell Me A Riddle" is a classic. However, her words sometime seem to start from the middle of a conversation, back up against one another, fall over themselves and then make a circuitous route to sometimes puzzling conclusions. "Tell Me A Riddle" occasionally found me shaking my head as if to dislodge some buzzwords that were way too loud and confusing. Although I understood the gist of this powerful story, I found its delivery to be irritating. Perhaps that is the way Tillie Olsen writes. However, despite the brilliance of her observations, I find her writing style too discordant.
I Sit Here Typing...
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
Amazed by her words and writing - the first story, I STAND HERE IRONING - where a mother is mulling over the changes in her and her daughter's lives and relationship. The stories were published in the 50s originally, but were written in a time-free fashion. Get you a copy, you hear?
She has a magic with words..
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
Olsen writes stories that are so powerful, and so well-written, you'll want to read them again and again. Although she uses Jewish culture as a backdrop, her talents bring a universaility to her stories which reminds me of Steinbeck in its power, and Morrison in its complexity.
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