A review by melias6
The Best American Short Stories 2018 by Heidi Pitlor, Roxane Gay

3.5

This series continues to delight, even in years when the collection on the whole is middling. Guest editor Roxanne Gay wrote about selecting stories that "better reflect the world beyond gilded existences," and while characters from all walks of life grace each of these tales, they're often the only remarkable thing about them. As a gay man, I appreciated Jacob Guajardo's story of queer first love "What Got Into Us," but resonated more with Kristen Iskandrian's "Good with Boys," one of the very few stories I've read that captures pre-teen attraction with such precision. A similar specificity elevated some of the more political entries, like Cristina Henriquez's dread-infused immigration story "Everything Is Far From Here," and Esme Weijun Wang's "What Terrible Thing It Was," an anxious and persuasive account of how present-day anxieties (in this case, Election Night 2016) can trigger long-dormant traumas. Ann Glaviano's "Come On, Silver" stands out as one of the few genuinely funny stories (and also horrifying; apparently, "wife camps" are a thing), while Yoon Choi's "The Art of Losing" is a mini-nesting doll of marital secrets and lies, one of the few formally noteworthy entries in 2018.

The always reliable Danielle Evans and Curtis Sittenfeld return with thorny, terrific entries "Boys Go to Jupiter" and "The Prairie Wife," respectfully, but the far and away standout for me was "A Big True," Dina Nayeri's empathic father/daughter story that packs unease, excitement, and wonder into a more hopeful tale of immigration. (That this story came from a bet Nayeri had with her mother is a warm coda revealed in the Contributor's Notes.) More hits than misses overall, but these are the only three I’m likely to revisit.