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A review by clarkness
The Best American Short Stories 2010 by Richard Russo, Heidi Pitlor
5.0
I thought this was a really, really great edition of Best American Short Stories. I think the highest hit-to-miss ratio of any collection I've read recently. Of special note were the following:
- The Cousins: the older I get, the more time I spend thinking about frayed connections. We're always actively growing more distant from our past and leaving friends and relatives behind. I thought this story was a nice reminder of that fact and how hard it is to get back in touch.
- Delicate Edible Birds: Loved the shifting perspectives in a WWII story that was gripping and beautifully written. Still on my mind weeks later.
- Further Interpretations of Real Life: I read this story several years ago in its original publication in McSweeney's. I liked it even more on second read. The ending was a perfectly played note that just hung in the air for minutes after, resonating.
- The Ascent: a heartening and sickening escape into imagination.
- The Netherlands Lives With Water: A story so good that I still think about it often even years after the first time I read it. One of my all-time favorite short stories.
- The Cowboy Tango: wonderfully drawn characters in an absolute mess. It was a joy to watch them dig themselves in deeper.
- The Cousins: the older I get, the more time I spend thinking about frayed connections. We're always actively growing more distant from our past and leaving friends and relatives behind. I thought this story was a nice reminder of that fact and how hard it is to get back in touch.
- Delicate Edible Birds: Loved the shifting perspectives in a WWII story that was gripping and beautifully written. Still on my mind weeks later.
- Further Interpretations of Real Life: I read this story several years ago in its original publication in McSweeney's. I liked it even more on second read. The ending was a perfectly played note that just hung in the air for minutes after, resonating.
- The Ascent: a heartening and sickening escape into imagination.
- The Netherlands Lives With Water: A story so good that I still think about it often even years after the first time I read it. One of my all-time favorite short stories.
- The Cowboy Tango: wonderfully drawn characters in an absolute mess. It was a joy to watch them dig themselves in deeper.