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A review by untravel
The Best American Short Stories 2012 by Heidi Pitlor, Tom Perrotta
2.0
If going by this collection alone, the best American short stories would seem to require the following elements:
-At least one character who is a college professor.
-A depiction of sex with someone you no longer have sex with.
-A party
(I suppose if you've got a story about that time you had sex with your ex at the faculty mixer, you've hit the trifecta....)
All other stories would be mere shadows of this One True Platonic Form. After all, what's more real in life than *your* life? The lives of creative writing teachers would seem to be the most grounded, most authentic subject to depict. What's more real than the image in the mirror?
A honorable mention should go to the story about that time (kids remarkably similar to) your kids were Amazing. This story is perhaps second only that amusing picture of your cat at the apotheosis of modern bourgeois storytelling.
Snark aside, there are good stories in this collection. The ones I appreciated the most were the least likely to conform to the formula: Meginnis's "Navigators", Millhauser's "Miracle Polish", Otsuka's "Diem Perdidi", Saunders's "Tenth of December", and Walter's "Anything Helps". Skip this collection and read their stuff instead.
-At least one character who is a college professor.
-A depiction of sex with someone you no longer have sex with.
-A party
(I suppose if you've got a story about that time you had sex with your ex at the faculty mixer, you've hit the trifecta....)
All other stories would be mere shadows of this One True Platonic Form. After all, what's more real in life than *your* life? The lives of creative writing teachers would seem to be the most grounded, most authentic subject to depict. What's more real than the image in the mirror?
A honorable mention should go to the story about that time (kids remarkably similar to) your kids were Amazing. This story is perhaps second only that amusing picture of your cat at the apotheosis of modern bourgeois storytelling.
Snark aside, there are good stories in this collection. The ones I appreciated the most were the least likely to conform to the formula: Meginnis's "Navigators", Millhauser's "Miracle Polish", Otsuka's "Diem Perdidi", Saunders's "Tenth of December", and Walter's "Anything Helps". Skip this collection and read their stuff instead.