Overview
Fiction. William Saroyan's gift to literature was his humanity. In his five decades of writing short stories, novels, and plays, he saw exuberance where others found sorrow, and he lived a life that was richer and stranger than his fiction. From his humble roots as a bike messenger in Fresno, California, Saroyan went on to enchant the world with his intelligence, insight, and integrity. In drama, short stories, novels, and autobiography, Saroyan explored the universal themes of human existence through a lens that was at once American, Armenian, and global in its outlook. ESSENTIAL SAROYAN brings together acclaimed stories as well as a few surprises from one of California's finest gifts to world literature.
Synopsis
His name was on the lips of two generations, and people around the world clamored for his work. An Armenian who grew up in Fersno, California, he traveled the globe, living in Paris, London, New York, and Los Angeles. He rubbed elbows with Steinbeck, traded insults with Hemingway, encouraged a young Toshio Mori, and stole a girl from Orson Welles. He was the only writer to turn down the Pulitzer Prize. Through his plays, short stories, and novels, he exalted the mysteries of youth, pondered the impossibility of love, and spoke to this strange condition of being alive. Above all, he declared that the duty of a writer is to have one hell of a good time.