Short story / book help needed

December 20, 2016 12:15 PM

There is so much information that I do not know about this book of short stories. I don't know the name of the author. I don't know the name of the book. I don't know any of the story titles. I don't have any actual quotes. All that I do have are below the fold.

I remember only a few things:

One of the stories in the book makes mention of sweeping the floor, and the broom being courteous enough to sweep the dust off the person's shoes.
The author mentions at some point that he is half-Chinese, and perhaps Jewish also.
The version of the paperback book that I owned had a Vermeer painting on its cover .. it may have been "Girl with a Pearl Earring", but I am not positive. The book would have had around 80-100 pages.

I am going on very old memories, and as you can see from the above, hazy wisps of old memories.

I purchased the book many years ago, maybe 25 or 30 years ago. I lost it in a house fire 20 years ago, but didn't remember what a great compilation of short stories it was .. until the past few years. I have sporadically searched the 'net for a clue on the author's name or a short story meeting my keywords .. to no avail.

Please hope me?

posted by dwbrant to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Was it an old book when you had it, or written about 1985-1990? Any theme to the stories overall - realism vs fables, present (to author) vs historical, city vs rural, any particular part of the world (i.e. set in China vs Europe vs US)? Even if it's not consistent across the stories you remember, every little bit helps.
posted by aimedwander at 12:24 PM on December 20, 2016

Do you recall if it was a book that was all stories by the same author or by different authors?
posted by jessamyn at 1:00 PM on December 20, 2016

That Pesky Magic By OlgaGodim? A lot of her books had similar covers.
posted by ridgerunner at 6:08 PM on December 20, 2016

It's definitely not Olga Godim - she started publishing in 2007, so several decades too late for the OP.

I've looked and looked given the parameters you listed in the post, and I'm coming up with nothing. I'm a little embarrassed at how long I've spent looking for this.

But the first thing I thought of was the British Literature Longman Anthology that I used in college in the early 2000's. It's probably not it, but it is short stories, has a cover similar to the Girl With the Pearl Earring and I'm sure there's something in there about brooms and sweeping.

I'm about 99% sure that's not the one you owned, but I throw it out as my starting point at least, in case that helps someone in their search.

I will keep searching, but I have the same question as jessamyn.
posted by guster4lovers at 9:49 PM on December 20, 2016

I'm also 99% convinced it's not this, but this also came up in my search and there is a broom on the cover.
posted by guster4lovers at 9:52 PM on December 20, 2016

Response by poster: The book I had was printed in the late eighties or early nineties. I don't know if it was second, third, whatever issue .. it was a paperback book (sorry, I should have mentioned that).

It was a compilation of short stories, all by the same author. The author was definitely a male.

The stories weren't really set in a specific location .. they were more general. More fableish than not ... no Sci-Fi or anything .. it seemed pretty much like present-time.

thanks everyone for taking your best shots, so far, no luck.
posted by dwbrant at 6:54 AM on December 21, 2016

I'm going to guess Pangs of Love by David Wong Louie
posted by warriorqueen at 9:35 AM on December 21, 2016

Could this be it?
posted by guster4lovers at 9:44 AM on December 21, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks, warriorqueen, close but no cigar. You did however turn me on to a new author; I like the style of his writing, which is as close as anyone has come so far.

guster4lovers, sorry, no not that either.

the author's writing style isoccasionally lightly humorous but not intended to be humor exactly. The style of writing is very close to how David Wong Louie writes.
posted by dwbrant at 7:52 AM on December 22, 2016