Book excerpt: Eleven of William Saroyan's most delightful tales, Fresno Stories springs straight from the source of the author's vision—"the archetypal Armenian families who inhabit Saroyan country, in and around Fresno, California." (Chicago Tribune) Selected from New Directions' collections of Saroyan's early stories (The Man With the Heart In the Highlands) and his later work (Madness In the Family), Fresno Stories spans his whole remarkable career.