Nadine Gordimer is a master storyteller. It may not appeal to those with a need to be entertained but what makes it masterful is the way complex characters are displayed with subtlety and powerful issues are handled without preaching. Once Upon A Time will change the way you look at the fairytale and racism/xenophobia's destructive effects. Each word used to describe the scenery is necessary part that holds this tapestry together. Some of the chilling parts of a story like Beethoven Was One Sixteenth Black come in a spare poetic lines that seem to be normal thoughts on the surface until one goes back to see the layers they open, "Caches of old papers are graves . . ." A great collection that has much to offer for the complex multi-faceted problems of race and stereotyping in the States as well as South Africa. Not only covers overt racism but the complicity of the so called upper class. ( )