Fun with Problems, Robert Stone
Fun with Problems, Robert Stone
List: $16.99 | Sale: $11.89
Club: $8.49

Fun with Problems
Stories

Author: Robert Stone

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 6 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/15/2010

Categories: Fiction, Short Stories

Synopsis

In Fun with Problems, Robert Stone demonstrates once again that he is "one of our greatest living writers" (Los Angeles Times). The pieces in this new volume vary greatly in length—some are almost novellas, others no more than a page—but all share the signature blend of longing, violence, black humor, sex, and drugs that has helped Stone illuminate the dark corners of the human soul. Entire lives are laid out with remarkable precision, in captivating prose: a screenwriter carries on a decades-long affair with a beautiful actress, whose descent into addiction he can neither turn from nor share; a bored husband picks up a mysterious woman only to find that his ego has led him woefully astray; a world-beating Silicon Valley executive receives an unwelcome guest at his mansion in the hills; a scuba dive guides uneasy newlyweds to a point of no return. Fun with Problems showcases Stone's great gift: to pinpoint and make real the impulses—by turns violently coercive and quietly seductive—that cause us to conceal, reveal, and betray our very selves.

About Robert Stone

Robert Stone has received most of the accolades and awards possible for a contemporary novelist, and he has been called the best writer of the post-Vietnam era. His many novels, which have enjoyed commercial success as well as critical acclaim, include the National Book Award winner Dog Soldiers, Damascus Gate, Bay of Souls, and A Hall of Mirrors. He is also the author of the short story collection Bear and His Daughter, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Steve on March 09, 2011

Strong collection by Stone. It lacks a power house story like Bear and His Daughter's "Under the Pitons." In fact there are probably at least three or so stories from Bear that I would rank higher than the offerings in Fun with Problems. That said, I do feel that Fun with Problems is more consistent......more

Goodreads review by David on April 10, 2010

The self-involved, self-destructive, tortured creative soul appears to have an unbounded appeal for certain authors. Apparently (sigh), Robert Stone is one of those authors. In this very slim collection of seven stories, he presents us with an assortment of characters, most of whom are living fucked......more

Goodreads review by soup on September 04, 2024

is there more to life than cheating, drugs, and killing yourself? idk but the back cover reviews say oooh wow what a view into the human soul and damn idk. ig i just don’t like the content? like the writing is good, it’s the plot points that are cringe. the genz censorship brain worms got me. it get......more

Goodreads review by Tim on March 26, 2012

I found these stories absolutely brilliant. Unlike most contemporary short fiction, these aren't work to read. They grab hold and won't let go. One reads on with a sense of growing, horrified pleasure, and the increasing certainty that one is in the hands of a storytelling genius. Because of Stone's......more

Goodreads review by Robert on March 03, 2017

Robert Stone was a writer who set a lot of store by the rough side of life. In some ways he wrote below himself. There was nothing ragged about his prose, but the characters he focused on and the places he put them in (geographically as well as situationally) definitely had a certain dysentery-like......more

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