The Ice-Cream Headache: And Other Stories

A collection of short stories by one of America’s great twentieth-century writers


In his introduction to this collection of sharply crafted short stories, James Jones compares novel writing to a long-term, chronic illness. Writing short stories, he says, is like a brief, intense fever: the kind that can kill or disappear in a matter of days. Although best known for epic war novels such as From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line, Jones also wrote short stories, and the ones in this volume burn with deadly intensity.

Besides the expected stories of the soldier’s life, Jones gives us something surprising: five stories of childhood, tender and horrifying at the same time, inspired by his early life in the Depression-stricken Midwest. They and the other shorts in this volume are accompanied by author’s notes, which supplement Jones’s introduction, and a preface by his daughter, Kaylie Jones.
 This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author’s estate.