William H. Gass has written of Donald Barthelme that "he has permanently enlarged our perception of the possibilities open to short fiction." In Forty Stories , the companion volume to Sixty Stories , we encounter a dazzling array of subjects: Paul Klee, Goethe, Captain Blood , modern courtship, marriage and divorce, armadillos, and other unique Barthelmean flights of fancy. These pithy, brilliantly acerbic pieces tangle with the ludicrous, pose questions...