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These interrelated stories are arranged in two sections, one devoted to virtues ("Bravery," "Loyalty," "Chastity," "Charity," and "Forbearance") and the other to vices ("Lust," "Sloth," "Avarice," "Gluttony," and "Vanity"). They are cast with characters who appear and reappear throughout the collection, their actions equally divided between the praiseworthy and the loathsome. They take place in settings as various as Tuscany, San Francisco, Ethiopia, and New York, but their central stage is the North Loop of Minneapolis, alongside the Mississippi River, which flows through most of the tales. Each story has at its center a request or a demand, but each one plays out differently: in a hit-and-run, an assault or murder, a rescue, a startling love affair, or, of all things, a gesture of kindness and charity. Altogether incomparably crafted, consistently surprising, remarkably beautiful stories.
"Starred Review. The prose resonates with distinctive turns of phrase that capture human ambiguity and uncertainty: trouble waits patiently at home, irony is the new chastity, and a dying man lives in the house that pain designed for him." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Charles Baxter's stories proceed with steady grace, nimble humor, quiet authority, and thrilling ingeniousness. In this his latest collection, all is on display—as are his honoring of the mysteries of love and his dramatic explorations of American manners, mores, family, solitude, and art." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. Bare storylines can't convey the quickly captivating simple narratives…Nearly as organic as a novel, this is more intriguing, more fun in disclosing its connective tissues through tales that stand well on their own." - Kirkus
"Baxter's delightful stories will make readers hungry for more. Fortunately, there are more out there, and one hopes, more to come." - Lorrie Moore, author of Bark
"Charles Baxter is nothing short of a national literary treasure. To read these stories - hilarious, tragic, surprising, and indelibly human - is to receive revelation at the hands of a master." - Julie Orringer, author of How to Breathe Under Water
"With his latest collection, Charles Baxter has given us something altogether new in contemporary fiction: a series of moral tales that contain zero moralizing...A stunning and unique work from one of the living masters of the story form."- Jamie Quatro, author of I Want to Show You More
This information about There's Something I Want You to Do was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: © Keri Pickett
Charles Baxter is the author of the novels The Feast of Love (nominated for the National Book Award), First Light, Saul and Patsy, Shadow Play, The Soul Thief, and The Sun Collective and the story collections Believers, Gryphon, Harmony of the World, A Relative Stranger, There's Something I Want You to Do, and Through the Safety Net. His stories have been included several times in The Best American Short Stories. Baxter lives in Minneapolis.
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Censorship, like charity, should begin at home: but unlike charity, it should end there.
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