Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Dybek, Stuart - Thomas S. Gladsky (essay date 1992)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

Thomas S. Gladsky (essay date 1992)

SOURCE: Gladsky, Thomas S. Princes, Peasants, and Other Polish Selves: Ethnicity in American Literature, pp. 256-62. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992.

[In the following excerpt, Gladsky examines Dybek's thematic use of fading cultural identity and lost places, both physical and emotional, and the effect of this rootlessness on young Chicagoans.]

AMERICAN SELVES—ETHNIC PERSPECTIVES

THE MYSTERIOUS PRESENCE OF THE LOST: STUART DYBEK

Stuart Dybek's fiction immediately invites comparison to Nelson Algren's stories about “outsiders and underground men,” as Howard Kaplan describes Dybek's characters (319). A winner of the Nelson Algren Award, Dybek—like Algren—is essentially a realist-naturalist with a touch of fantasy and a commitment to the proletariat—“an interest in class,” as Dybek phrases it (TLS, 25 November 1989). More to the point, Dybek also...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

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