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The Best American Short Stories
 
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The Best American Short Stories (Hardcover)

by Stephen King (Introduction)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
US List Price: $28.00
UK Equivalent: £18.83
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) (10 Oct 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0618713476
  • ISBN-13: 978-0618713479
  • Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 15 x 4.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,276,827 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars The best AND the worst!, 30 Jun 2009
This review is from: The Best American Short Stories (Best American Series) (Paperback)
I generally enjoy anthologies, it's rather like having someone come over and cook a surprise dinner for you using their taste and not yours. Of course whilst one may not be partial to the entrée or the soup, it is hoped that a feast can be had on the main course and dessert.

That analogy provides a fitting introduction to this collection of short stories; that is to infer the entrée and soup were tasteless and thin. Thankfully the sorbet was sour and lively and lead us nicely on to a monumental feast. Fortunately being so full from the gluttony in the middle one hardly noticed the odd-tasting dessert tacked on the end. Something which the chef wasn't quite sure would work or not and when it wasn't quite ruined s/he decided to serve it up anyway in the home that no-one would notice. Sorry, we did!

As hinted at in the title, this collection should perhaps be re-titled 'The best AND worst American short-stories', because ultimately that is what it is. Fortunately, however, there is more, much more in the way of the 'best' and only a smattering of the worst. If you divide the stories up into the good and the bad, I would only put four stories into the latter category; those being:

i) Toga Party - John Barth
ii) Pa's Darling - Louis Auchincloss
iii) Solid Wood - Ann Beattie
iv) Where Will You Go...? - William Gay

In actuality, those four stories are utterly without merit and I shall not give over any more undeserved time trying to intellectualise and dissect what is essentially no more than bad writing.

On the flipside of these absolute waste of paper and space, lies all the other sixteen stories - that is a pretty impressive average by anyone's reckoning and credit should be rightly served up at the respective tables of messes Pitlor and King for their superb editing skills and for possession of a long-lost attribute - taste.

So to the winners. It is very hard to choose a top five, because the remaining sixteen were all either excellent, really excellent or middle-to-excellent, however, if I was pushed I would say my top five stories from this collection would be:

i) Findings & Impressions - Stellar Kim
ii) L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story - Lauren Groff
iii) My Brother Eli - Joseph Epstein
iv) The Bris - Eileen Pollack
v) Dimension - Alice Munro

To return back to the series and guest editors, and beyond them to the original editors and publishers of the magazines and journals that first published these stories I take my metaphorical hat off. I think that the breadth, depth and sheer quality of the writing contained in this anthology should be applauded. More than that, though, what it says about American publishing and American short-stories is that unlike the economy and the banking sector, the American Story is alive and well. And furthermore, unlike America's lost promise of democracy, its Literature is carrying the torch, forging ahead in the world and lighting the way; setting and maintaining the international standards it was once renowned for, the great American (literary) way, something which no other nation on earth can still come close to equalling. This collection gives us all hope that Literature and in particular the short-story is not lost, but alive and well and for that we should all rejoice.
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