Disruptions: Stories


Disruptions: Stories is a collection of short fiction by Steven Millhauser published in 2008 by Alfred A. Knopf.

Stories

Selected original periodical publication and date indicated.
I
  • "One Summer Night"
  • "After the Beheading"
  • "Guided Tour"
  • "Late"
II
III
  • "Theater of Shadows"
  • "The Fight"
  • "A Haunted House Story"
  • "The Summer Ladders"
IV
  • "The Circle of Punishment"
  • "Green"
  • "Thank You for Your Patience"
  • "A Tired Town" Japanese magazine.
V
VI
  • "A Common Predicament"
  • "The Change"
  • "He Takes, She Takes"
  • "The Column Dwellers of Our Town"

Reception

Critiquing Disruptions in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Kevin Koczwara regards the stories as "suburban fairy tales" which "inhabit a relatable world but delve into something far deeper and more sinister." In an interview with Steven Millhauser that accompanies the review, Koczwara compared the collection favorably to the works of John Cheever, particularly "Swimmer".
Reviewer Josh Cook at the LARB examines Steven Millhauser's designation as a notable literary stylist. Cook praises the author for fidelity to "clarity" and "sentences are fluid and usually uncomplicated, free of digression and the compounded clauses..." Cook registers this caveat:
Literary critic Charles McGrath at The New Yorker writes: ""Though there are some repeats in his body of work, and though some stories in Disruptions feel like sketches, the intrinsic components are still there. That is, even in thematic redundancy, you feel Millhauser boldly reaching for new heights..."