The Last Bizarre Tale: Stories by David Madden [Paperback]

"Some writers have a talent for storytelling. Far fewer writers have a talent for literary innovation. Madden masterfully combines both talents."
—Winston Groom, author ofForrest Gump

"This collection of stories by the celebrated David Madden showcases a wide variety of themes, styles, and approaches. It is also as if the author dared himself to undertake as many novel forms as possible; to each of them he brings deft artistry, piercing observation, and an uncanny understanding of the inner lives of outsiders. A fine achievement!"
—Fred Chappell, author ofAncestors and Others: New and Selected Stories

Though he has authored more than eleven novels including,Cassandra Singing, The Suicide’s Wife, Abducted by Circumstance, and the recentLondon Bridge in Plague and Fire, David Madden has been publishing short stories for all six decades of his active career.The Last Bizarre Taleconsists of works that appeared in journals but that have not appeared together as a collection.

Madden used two stories, “The Singer” and “Second Look Presents: the Rape of an Indian Brave,” as chapters in his 1980 novelOn the Big Wind. “The Headless Girl’s Mother” was first published as a chapter in a serialized novel entitledHair of the Dog. Two other stories developed out of longer versions of Madden’s novels. “A Demon in My View” is part of a sequel, not yet published, toBijou.

All of the stories in David Madden’s third collection are distinguished by variety of content and by shifting styles and often innovative techniques. They are to varying degrees and in various ways bizarre in their characters and their relationships, in the kinds of internal and external conflicts, and in locales and themes. The title story,The Last Bizarre Tale, involving a corpse that has hunglC,