A Poetics for Bullies (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

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Of the nine stories in Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers, “A Poetics for Bullies” was the last to be written and the one Elkin liked best. The story marks Elkin's breakthrough from his earlier, more realistic, and generally more sedate style to the approach that characterizes his later work. The story's young protagonist-narrator is the unlovable but irrepressible Push the Bully. Push imposes his perverse will and vision on others, all of them, like Push, grotesques: Eugene, with his overactive salivary glands, fat Frank, Mim the dummy, Slud the cripple, Clob the...

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