A review by joaniehow
The O. Henry Prize Stories 100th Anniversary Edition by Laura Furman

3.0

I find it difficult to review anthology collections, because inevitably there were will be stories you enjoy and stories you don’t. Averaged together thIS anthology was probably just okay, but I think that’s an unfair assessment of a collection that had its fair share of gems, duds, and meh’s. I tended to like the stories that had more narrative tension, and were grounded firmly on characters’ relationships. “Omakase” was one of the better ones for that reason, depicting an uncomfortable Omakase date which revealed quite a lot about the dining couple. Some of the other stories I enjoyed were “Funny Little Snake” (the relationships shown here were between mom, stepmom, and daughter, and as the story unfolds you’ll find your heart both breaking and warming) and “Julia and Sunny” (a very cleverly told story, as a couple recounts the dissolution of their friends’ marriage – it was almost gossipy in its tone, but utterly compelling). There were some not so good ones, where I found the style too distracting (“Maps and Ledgers” really could have used more punctuation IMO) or I felt like I was missing the point (“Unstuck” was… a metaphor? A ghost story? Just didn’t land with me). I did appreciate the diversity of the curation though, as the authors and settings came from around the world. I would probably give it 2.5 stars, but I rounded up for the overall experience.