Scan barcode
A review by swampyaugust
The Best American Short Stories 2014 by Heidi Pitlor, Jennifer Egan
3.0
I read this for my creative writing class, and obviously an anthology will be a mixed bag. I started out hating the stories, and I'm not sure if the quality gradually got better or I just started looking harder for something to enjoy. The stories I liked most were:
The Night of the Satellite by T.C. Boyle
God by Benjamin Nugent (this story has the lightest tone of all of them, which is not saying much. All these stories are ridiculously depressing.)
Antarctica by Laura Van Der Berg (I read her first novel Find Me, which was plagued by a messy plot, but I think her writing works much, much better in the short-story format.)
I have a more love-hate relationship with many of the other stories, like Next to Nothing. The only two stories I aggressively disliked were Charity and Medium Tough.
The Night of the Satellite by T.C. Boyle
God by Benjamin Nugent (this story has the lightest tone of all of them, which is not saying much. All these stories are ridiculously depressing.)
Antarctica by Laura Van Der Berg (I read her first novel Find Me, which was plagued by a messy plot, but I think her writing works much, much better in the short-story format.)
I have a more love-hate relationship with many of the other stories, like Next to Nothing. The only two stories I aggressively disliked were Charity and Medium Tough.