Customer Reviews

The 1998 Pushcart Prize Xxii: Best of the Small Presses

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Pushcart Prize is an annual offering, a collection of short fiction, essays, memoirs and poetry. For anyone strapped for time (and who isn't these days) short pieces may satisfy the bibliophile's appetite. I have delved into several volumes of this series, and I think XXII is the BEST. The editors of the series choose from small and little known literary journals, often highlighting the brilliance of fledgling writers and occasionally better known writers. In Vol. XXII a story titled WOMEN DREAMING OF JERSULAM tells the story of a shelter for battered women in Jerusalem. With all the turmoil in the Middle East these days, it is a perfectly appropriate story. Within the Shelter are Jewish women from Russia, Hungary, America, Ethopia. Their stories are wrenchingly revealed and brilliantly written. The divisions among them reveal human (with a capital H) at their worst, and most natural. A real page turner. It is impossible to review all the offerings in this volume, but as a collection of diverse authors I find it the best I have ever encountered. It covers a broad spectrum of cultures, generations, classes, writing styles and points of view. There are "coming of age" stories (OXYGEN) stories of forgiveness and redemption, family struggle, everything life holds. Jim Croce sang of "Time in a Bottle." This book is "Life in a Book."

It is the ONLY collection I know of that includes fiction, non fiction and poetry. The best bang for your buck!