Sixty Stories

Donald Barthelme · 1931–1989 · USA

Why it matters

Three decades of Barthelme's short fiction (fairy tales fractured by corporate jargon, deadpan dialogues, footnoted parodies) assembled into the era's defining case for the short story as collage. The single best entry point into American postmodernism's most purely playful mind.

At a glance

Plotless, collage-built stories that abandon conventional narrative logic reward patience over momentum.