Eleven sparkling stories of family, love, and art from New York Times–bestselling author David Lipsky My mother doesn't know that I owe my father three thousand dollars. From the opening line of the acclaimed title story-a Best American Short Stories selection that first appeared in the New Yorker-to the tender last scene of "Springs, 1977," this pitch-perfect collection explores the unsteady terrain of early adulthood and the complex legacy of family. Self-aware, creatively ambitious, and just privileged enough to be acutely aware of all that they lack, Lipsky's characters are as real and unforgettable as the dilemmas they face-some of their own making, some that the world has thrust on them. In "Relativity," a college junior transfers to the Ivy League in order to please his mother and make new friends; he quickly realizes the fault in his logic. In "Colonists," a nervous young author searches for her muse at a New Hampshire writers' retreat attended by a priest who pens erotic poetry and a composer working on a comic opera about the Alger Hiss trial. " 'Shh,' " the genesis of Lipsky's highly praised novel The Art Fair, is the story of a dutiful son trying to shield his artist mother from the agony of her latest rejection. Witty, heartbreaking, and wise, the stories in Three Thousand Dollars are a testament to David Lipsky's exceptional talent and to the power of short fiction to transform the smallest of moments into the greatest of truths.
"Astonishing insights . . . Marvelously adroit and corrosively funny . . . Lipsky has given his contemporaries a general autobiography, one that will fit the majority with only minor adjustments."
Los Angeles Times
"I confess to not having read David Lipsky before this. . . . I intend to pay attention from now on if I see his name over a short story."
Los Angeles Times
"David Lipsky writes beautifully and compassionately about the place where adolescence and adulthood meet. Like his young characters, his stories have a palpable impatience about them; it's as though they're just waiting to be read."
