Elkin, Stanley 1930–

Elkin is an American novelist and short story writer whose technically brilliant fiction is episodic in nature, often constructed around vignettes or anecdotes. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)

The first story in [Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers] sounds a note of unrelieved despair, but the final one echoes with a moving shout for the human spirit—drowning both criers and kibitzers with its improbable splendor, and even if the misfits who crown Union Square fail to recognize its significance, the reader of these nine remarkable stories can hardly fail to do so, for their blend of farce and pathos, their sheer mastery of style and martinet-like understanding of the human condition surely make Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers one of the most important collections of short stories published in recent years.

David Galloway, in The...

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