I dunno: it didn't leave a lasting impression on me (I read it 20-ish years ago but can't recall the first thing about it now).

Also on Barthelme's syllabus, I noticed, is 'Samuel Beckett entire:' for me, it would be really hard to out-bleak Beckett...

Misteraitch: bleak, as in relentlessly depressing and brutal. There's not a single story in the entire collection that shows any hope, any lasting positive change for the characters, or even any characters who aren't completely fucked up.

Have you forgotten the story about the jr. high school girl who gives birth alone in the field, kills her baby with a scythe, and then watches the next morning as her pet dogs bring in pieces of it in their teeth?

That's what I mean with this book, kids. That story I just encapsulated is about a page long.

Totally. Fucking. Bleak.

I've been trying to read "Evil," by Rennie Sparks, and it's kind of like what you describe, LT- just fucked up with no sense of hope at all.

A friend gave it to me because he knows I like Flannery O'Connor, whom he hasn't read. Suffice it to say, this is NOTHING like Flannery O'Connor.

LT: About all I do remember about the book is that many of the pieces were very short, and that I didn't take to its prose style - that I found it hard going & unrewarding stylistically, which is likely why the particulars of character & plot never made the impact on me they maybe should have. I wonder if I would fare any better with it now, as I was relatively new to serious fiction when I read it.