A review by davidabrams
The Best American Short Stories 2007 by Heidi Pitlor, Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Scan the table of contents and you'll find an all-star line-up of literary heavy-hitters: Louis Auchincloss, John Barth, Ann Beattie, T. C. Boyle, William Gay, Mary Gordon, Lauren Groff--the list goes on, you get the idea. They skimmed the most delicious cream from the top of the cream! It's hard to pick the standouts in a collection that contains so many short masterpieces. I will say this: two very memorable stories involve cutting: "Bris" by Eileen Pollack and "Sans Farine" by Jim Shepherd--the latter about an executioner during the French Revolution--both of these stories will cut you to the quick. So to speak.

One other note: the 2007 edition of the annual series is perhaps the longest in its decades-long history--400 long pages of short fiction. Some selections border on novellas--but I don't begrudge their inclusion.