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balletbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
Very well-constructed anthology representing the range of the Best American Short Stories collection from 1915-2015. With no duplicates that Updike used for the 1915-2000 anthology. It's so interesting to see a) what kinds of stories were "the thing" in a given decade and b) how the diversity of writers (race, gender, orientation, etc) expanded particularly in the last 30 years. Lorrie Moore and Heidi Pitlor did yeoman's work to get this large volume together.
carlylottsofbookz's review against another edition
3.0
Finishing this book fees like a true accomplishment. 823 pages of short stories culled from the Best American Short Stories books from the last 100 years.
I started the read for May, for short story month, with the unrealistic expectation that I could finish it in a month. But two months isn't that bad.
I will say that cramming so many short stories together may not be the best way to read them. By the end (or maybe the middle?) of the book I was reading to complete the book, not to relish in the stories.
I started the read for May, for short story month, with the unrealistic expectation that I could finish it in a month. But two months isn't that bad.
I will say that cramming so many short stories together may not be the best way to read them. By the end (or maybe the middle?) of the book I was reading to complete the book, not to relish in the stories.
sydpdub's review against another edition
3.0
I’ve found that I’m not a huge fan of older literature so this wasn’t my favorite out there. A few of the stories caught my attention, but most didn’t. That being said, I would recommend this to someone who is interested in how American literature has changed over the years.
notesonbookmarks's review against another edition
I made it through more than half of these stories before realizing I had let it sit for 6 solid months without caring about picking it up again. Decided to admit that short stories really aren't my cup of tea.
bryceycle's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
davenash's review against another edition
4.0
This collection has the great novelists of the last century: Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Roth, Updike (a minor great) and the celebrated short stories writers O'Connor, Barthleme, Baldwin, Paley, Carver, and Cheever. I can do without Joyce Carol Oats.
However, the two best short stories were, partially because I've read the above authors before, Sherwood Anderson's Brothers and Lauren Groff's At the Rounds Earth's Imagined Corners. Anderson has a way of breathing life and perspective into his story while keeping it simple. I was just reading about snakes, and I appreciated how Groff was able to cover three generations in such a short amount of space.
However, the two best short stories were, partially because I've read the above authors before, Sherwood Anderson's Brothers and Lauren Groff's At the Rounds Earth's Imagined Corners. Anderson has a way of breathing life and perspective into his story while keeping it simple. I was just reading about snakes, and I appreciated how Groff was able to cover three generations in such a short amount of space.
williamsdebbied's review against another edition
4.0
I got off to a slow start with this book, and didn't really start to connect with the stories until I got almost 100 pages in. In high school and college, the curriculum was heavy with dead white guys, and I got my fill then.
I loved how the editors divided up the stories by decade, though, and felt like I got a mini crash course in American history as I moved through the collection.
Some authors I'd read before and loved (or not), and some authors were new discoveries. Stories by women and people of color resonated more deeply with my own interests and experiences. I also was fascinated by stories that were weird or a bit creepy. Here are some of my highlights:
Katherine Anne Porter--"The Cracked Looking Glass"
Nancy Hale--"Those Are as Brothers"
John Cheever--"The Enormous Radio"
Tillie Olsen--"I Stand Here Ironing"
James Baldwin--"Sonny's Blues"
Joyce Carol Oates--"By the River"
Donald Barthelme--"The School"
Grace Paley--"Friends"
Mona Simpson--"Lawns"
Alice Munro-"Friend of My Youth"
Mary Gaitskill--"The Girl on the Plane"
Jamaica Kincaid--"Xuela"
Junot Díaz--"Fiesta, 1980"
Jhumpa Lahiri--"The Third and Final Continent"
Benjamin Percy--"Refresh, Refresh"
Julie Otsuka--"Diem Perdidi"
George Saunders--"The Semplica-Girl Diaries"
Sherman Alexie--"What You Pawn I Will Redeem"
I loved how the editors divided up the stories by decade, though, and felt like I got a mini crash course in American history as I moved through the collection.
Some authors I'd read before and loved (or not), and some authors were new discoveries. Stories by women and people of color resonated more deeply with my own interests and experiences. I also was fascinated by stories that were weird or a bit creepy. Here are some of my highlights:
Katherine Anne Porter--"The Cracked Looking Glass"
Nancy Hale--"Those Are as Brothers"
John Cheever--"The Enormous Radio"
Tillie Olsen--"I Stand Here Ironing"
James Baldwin--"Sonny's Blues"
Joyce Carol Oates--"By the River"
Donald Barthelme--"The School"
Grace Paley--"Friends"
Mona Simpson--"Lawns"
Alice Munro-"Friend of My Youth"
Mary Gaitskill--"The Girl on the Plane"
Jamaica Kincaid--"Xuela"
Junot Díaz--"Fiesta, 1980"
Jhumpa Lahiri--"The Third and Final Continent"
Benjamin Percy--"Refresh, Refresh"
Julie Otsuka--"Diem Perdidi"
George Saunders--"The Semplica-Girl Diaries"
Sherman Alexie--"What You Pawn I Will Redeem"
mancolepig's review against another edition
5.0
Look I know this took me two months to finish but I have a very good reason for that, alright? These stories are all so dense, each one like a rich, delicate cheesecake. You don't just eat 40 cheesecakes in a week, do you? No, you eat one whole cheesecake every day, like an average American. So that is what I did, I read a story each day or every other day, giving these stories time to sink in, enjoying each delicious sentence as I wandered through the history of one of America's finest publications.
A Goodreads review could not possibly cover the scope of these stories so I will just highlight the very best of the best. To start from the beginning, F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited" is a great story about a man's love for his daughter and the alcoholism that prevents their being together. It's so good that it makes me want to revisit Fitzgerald's other works even after attempting to read that boring Gatsby book (Come at me, nerds). John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" is a strange tale of domestic life with a supernatural twist, while James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" tells the story of a drug-addicted jazz pianist from his brother's perspective, and describes music more beautifully than any writing I've ever seen.
As this tome moved into authors of more recent years, I worked my way through absurd and poignant stories like Mona Simpson's "Lawns", about a girl trying to break off a physical relationship with her father as she makes her way through college. There were also more diverse stories of people affected by colonialism and immigration, such as in Jamaica Kincaid's "Xuela" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent." There isn't much sci-fi or satire to speak of other than George Saunders' "The Semplica-Girls Diaries" which is an incredible story that makes you identify with people from two sides of a point of contention. But probably the best story of all, in my estimation, is "What You Pawn I will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie. No story in this volume is written more clearly, more effectively, or more humorously while relating very serious problems plaguing native American people. If you read only one story from the collection, that's the one to read.
There were some stories I skipped as you can only eat so many flavors of cheesecake before you find one that doesn't sit well, but even if it's not a perfect collection, it is still a great collection for its sheer coverage and scope. Reading from cover to cover provides a fascinating look at the history of the American short story, showing how our perspectives, ideals, and stories have changed so dramatically, while still remaining so essentially American. Now if you'll excuse me, I've eaten quite a bit of cheesecake and may need to regurgitate some of it onto my own paper. For isn't that what writing is at its most basic? Taking the ideas of others, digesting them, and creating your own projects from their inspiration? I don't know. The one thing I do know is that I could really go for some cheesecake.
A Goodreads review could not possibly cover the scope of these stories so I will just highlight the very best of the best. To start from the beginning, F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited" is a great story about a man's love for his daughter and the alcoholism that prevents their being together. It's so good that it makes me want to revisit Fitzgerald's other works even after attempting to read that boring Gatsby book (Come at me, nerds). John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" is a strange tale of domestic life with a supernatural twist, while James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" tells the story of a drug-addicted jazz pianist from his brother's perspective, and describes music more beautifully than any writing I've ever seen.
As this tome moved into authors of more recent years, I worked my way through absurd and poignant stories like Mona Simpson's "Lawns", about a girl trying to break off a physical relationship with her father as she makes her way through college. There were also more diverse stories of people affected by colonialism and immigration, such as in Jamaica Kincaid's "Xuela" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent." There isn't much sci-fi or satire to speak of other than George Saunders' "The Semplica-Girls Diaries" which is an incredible story that makes you identify with people from two sides of a point of contention. But probably the best story of all, in my estimation, is "What You Pawn I will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie. No story in this volume is written more clearly, more effectively, or more humorously while relating very serious problems plaguing native American people. If you read only one story from the collection, that's the one to read.
There were some stories I skipped as you can only eat so many flavors of cheesecake before you find one that doesn't sit well, but even if it's not a perfect collection, it is still a great collection for its sheer coverage and scope. Reading from cover to cover provides a fascinating look at the history of the American short story, showing how our perspectives, ideals, and stories have changed so dramatically, while still remaining so essentially American. Now if you'll excuse me, I've eaten quite a bit of cheesecake and may need to regurgitate some of it onto my own paper. For isn't that what writing is at its most basic? Taking the ideas of others, digesting them, and creating your own projects from their inspiration? I don't know. The one thing I do know is that I could really go for some cheesecake.
bibliocyclist's review
4.0
"Being an old maid was a great deal like death by drowning--a really delightful sensation when you ceased struggling." --E.F.
"The writing was on the wall before the wall was even there." --J.D.S.
"They were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities." --J.B.
"The lights drifted farther away the faster he ran and his feet moved numbly as if they carried him nowhere. The tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow." --F.O.
"Hope bases vast premises on foolish accidents, and reads a word where in fact only a scribble exists." --J.U.
"Finally, he moved up over the bowl and urinated so hard it was like a bolt going down through his legs. He sighed luxuriously when he was through, leaned forward and let his head rest against the wall. His life was changed from tonight on. Were there many other men, he wondered drunkenly, who could look at one singular event in their lives and perceive the workings of the catastrophe that hereinafter sets their lives on a different course? Are there many who can perceive the necessary changes and adjustments that must necessarily and inevitably follow? Probably so, he decided after a minute's reflection. He stood there a while longer, and then he looked down: he'd urinated on his fingers." --R.C.
"There were so many diseases and only one way out of the world, only one death and so many ways to get it." --J.C.O.
"Then the water began to darken, very slowly, and the sky darkened a little while later, as if belonging to another, separate time, the same thing as always, and he had to turn his mind with an effort to the next thing he must do." --J.C.O.
“Let them have it. Let them have the straight lines of their trade wind, trade route, through street, thrown stone vengeance. Let them have everything. Their pastels back and their blues and their greens, the recollection of gratified thirst, and the transient comfort of a sandwich and beer that had hit the spot, all the retrospective of good weather, a good night’s sleep, a good joke, a good tune, a good time, the entire mosaic of small satisfactions that made up a life.” –S.E.
“Life, if one wishes to call it that, goes on: consciousness is all.” –J.G.
“Unwelcome thoughts came and went in his mind’s eye. His heart beat faster. He could not control the headlong promiscuity of his thoughts.” –R.S.
“One engages, and then one sees.” –R.S.
“At my end was nothing, no one; there was nothing between me and the black room of the world.” –J.K.
"The writing was on the wall before the wall was even there." --J.D.S.
"They were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities." --J.B.
"The lights drifted farther away the faster he ran and his feet moved numbly as if they carried him nowhere. The tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow." --F.O.
"Hope bases vast premises on foolish accidents, and reads a word where in fact only a scribble exists." --J.U.
"Finally, he moved up over the bowl and urinated so hard it was like a bolt going down through his legs. He sighed luxuriously when he was through, leaned forward and let his head rest against the wall. His life was changed from tonight on. Were there many other men, he wondered drunkenly, who could look at one singular event in their lives and perceive the workings of the catastrophe that hereinafter sets their lives on a different course? Are there many who can perceive the necessary changes and adjustments that must necessarily and inevitably follow? Probably so, he decided after a minute's reflection. He stood there a while longer, and then he looked down: he'd urinated on his fingers." --R.C.
"There were so many diseases and only one way out of the world, only one death and so many ways to get it." --J.C.O.
"Then the water began to darken, very slowly, and the sky darkened a little while later, as if belonging to another, separate time, the same thing as always, and he had to turn his mind with an effort to the next thing he must do." --J.C.O.
“Let them have it. Let them have the straight lines of their trade wind, trade route, through street, thrown stone vengeance. Let them have everything. Their pastels back and their blues and their greens, the recollection of gratified thirst, and the transient comfort of a sandwich and beer that had hit the spot, all the retrospective of good weather, a good night’s sleep, a good joke, a good tune, a good time, the entire mosaic of small satisfactions that made up a life.” –S.E.
“Life, if one wishes to call it that, goes on: consciousness is all.” –J.G.
“Unwelcome thoughts came and went in his mind’s eye. His heart beat faster. He could not control the headlong promiscuity of his thoughts.” –R.S.
“One engages, and then one sees.” –R.S.
“At my end was nothing, no one; there was nothing between me and the black room of the world.” –J.K.