Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eleven Kinds of Loneliness | 1962 | Richard Yates | Buy |
| 2 | Liars in Love | 1981 | Richard Yates | Buy |
| 3 | The Collected Stories | 2001 | Richard Yates | Buy |
Richard Yates published two short story collections during his lifetime. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (1962) established him as a short story master with eleven portraits of isolation. Liars in Love (1981) followed with seven more stories. The Collected Stories (2001) brings his short fiction together in a single volume.
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness cemented Yates’s reputation as a writer who could capture suburban disappointment and quiet desperation in a few pages. The stories focus on office workers, soldiers, and couples whose lives have gone off course in ways they can barely articulate. Liars in Love, published nearly two decades later, revisits similar ground with seven stories about deception in relationships.
The Collected Stories, released posthumously in 2001, gathers both collections into one book along with previously uncollected pieces. For readers new to Yates, it provides a single entry point to his short fiction. Those already familiar with his novels like Revolutionary Road will find the same sharp observation of American middle-class life at work here in miniature.