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A review by allieeveryday
The Best American Short Stories 2018 by Heidi Pitlor, Roxane Gay
3.0
The first several stories in this collection did not appeal to me, and I thought about putting it down but Googled first, and grabbed the names of other peoples' favorite stories. There were quite a bit more that I liked in the latter half of the book, and that I appreciated for their cleverness and storytelling. My big issue is that I simply didn't find very many of these memorable. (My memory also sucks, fwiw.)
I brought it to the doctor's office this morning, and the doc asked what I was reading. I said, "Short stories - they're supposed to be the best, but I don't know that I'd call them the best." Not to put Roxane Gay on blast or anything - art is subjective. I still trust her opinion, though it is different than mine.
Ones that stuck with me:
• A Big True by Dina Nayeri - about two middle eastern immigrants who become friends while living in a shelter
• Control Negro by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson - about a black professor at a university who is trying to prove that racism is a thing of the past
• The Prairie Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld - about a suburban mom obsessed with a lifestyle blogger she used to date; I liked how it turned on its head midway through.
I brought it to the doctor's office this morning, and the doc asked what I was reading. I said, "Short stories - they're supposed to be the best, but I don't know that I'd call them the best." Not to put Roxane Gay on blast or anything - art is subjective. I still trust her opinion, though it is different than mine.
Ones that stuck with me:
• A Big True by Dina Nayeri - about two middle eastern immigrants who become friends while living in a shelter
• Control Negro by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson - about a black professor at a university who is trying to prove that racism is a thing of the past
• The Prairie Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld - about a suburban mom obsessed with a lifestyle blogger she used to date; I liked how it turned on its head midway through.