Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Dybek, Stuart - Robert Ward (review date 1980)

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Robert Ward (review date 1980)

SOURCE: Ward, Robert. Review of Childhood and Other Neighborhoods and Brass Knuckles by Stuart Dybek.Northwest Review 38, no. 3 (1980): 149-57.

[In the following review, Ward views Dybek's stories as a “no-holds-barred assault on everything we have smugly assumed was reality.”]

We say the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty; the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath … that seems to ride on grapeshot—is more beautiful than the “Victory of Samothrace”. …

We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.

Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggressive action, a feverish...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 November 1979)
   2. Robert Ward (review date 1980)
   3. Bruce Cook (review date 13 January 1980)
   4. Phoebe Lou Adams (review date February 1980)
   5. Howard Kaplan (review date 23 May 1980)
   6. David Kubal (review date autumn 1980)
   7. Alice Bloom (review date summer 1987)
   8. Stuart Klawans (review date April 1990)
   9. Antioch Review (review date fall 1990)
   10. Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 February 1990)
   11. Don Lee (review date spring 1991)
   12. Terry Caesar (review date summer 1991)
   13. David Montrose (review date 26 July 1991)
   14. Thomas S. Gladsky (essay date 1992)
   15. Thomas S. Gladsky (essay date summer 1995)
   16. Jorge Febles (essay date fall 1996)
   17. Stuart Dybek with Mike Nickel and Adrian Smith (interview date winter 1997)
   18. Don Lee (essay date spring 1998)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright