Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories is a collection of short fiction by Steven Millhauser published in 2008 by Alfred A. Knopf.Ingersoll, 2014 p. 141: Selected Bibliography

Stories Original publication periodicals and dates indicated:

Opening Cartoon "Cat 'n' Mouse (The New Yorker, April 19, 2004)

Vanishing Acts "The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman" (The New Yorker, November 14, 1999) "The Room in the Attic" (Tin House) "Dangerous Laughter" (Tin House) "History of a Disturbance" (The New Yorker, February 25, 2007)

Impossible Architectures "The Dome" (The American Scholar, September 1, 2006) "In the Reign of Harad IV" (The New Yorker, April 2, 2006) "The Other Town" (Tin House) "The Tower" (McSweeney's, Issue 25)

Heretical Histories "Here at the Historical Society" "A Change in Fashion" (Harper's Magazine, May 2006) "A Precursor of the Cinema" (McSweeney's, Issue 15) "The Wizard of West Orange" (Harper's Magazine, April 2007)

Reception New York Times literary critic D. T. Max notes the surreal qualities of the stories:

Max distinguishes Millhauser from postmodernist writers, locating his "mid-century prose" among the modernists" and adding "Millhauser's real subject is contemporary America" and as such, "not just brilliant but prescient."Max, 2008: "Millhauser's elegant mid-century prose has only gotten stronger, and here he moves his chosen themes forward with additional confidence and power."

Literary critic Ulin, David L. at the Los Angeles Times provides a thematic overview of the collection:

Retrospective appraisal Literary critic and biographer Earl G. Ingersoll identifies the opening and closing stories—"Cat 'n' Mouse" and "The Wizard of West Orange"— as both historically and culturally significant "bookends" to the volume.Ingersoll, 2014 p. 125

Footnotes

Sources Ingersoll, Earl G. 2010. Steven Millhauser, a Very Late Modernist in Journal of the Short Story in English, Les Cahiers de la nouvelle. Spring, 2010. https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/1046 Accessed 16 April 2025. Ingersoll, Earl G. 2014. Understanding Steven Millhauser. The University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC. Max, D. T. 2008. "The Illusionist." New York Times Book Review, February 24, 2008.https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/books/review/Max-t.html Accessed 15 April 2025. Millhauser, Steven. 2008. Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Ulin, David L. 2008. Disappearing acts. Los Angeles Times, February 10, 2008.https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-feb-10-bk-ulin10-story.html Accessed 14 April 2025