Best American Short Stories, 1986 [Hardcover]

Raymond Carver (Author), Shannon Ravenel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1987

Short Stories by Ann Beattie, Ethan Canin, Joy Williams, Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff, Alice Munro, Thomas McGuane, Lord Tweedsmuir, Donald Barthelme, Raymond Carver, and many others.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Readers who agree with Raymond Carver that reading short stories is the second-greatest pleasure in the worldthe greatest, says Carver, is writing themwill find much to be pleased with in these 20 works, culled from 1811 entries originally published in 165 different periodicals. As in other similar collections, stories from the New Yorker predominate, but deservedly, since this journal appears every week and thus brings out far more fiction than any other journal in the country. Hats off to it and the other magazines represented here, to the editors, and especially to accomplished and promising writers like Charles Baxter, James Lee Burke, Frank Conroy, and Mona Simpson for their contributions to this invaluable series, now in its 71st year. David Kirby, English Dept., Florida State Univ., Tallahassee
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (T) (June 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031753355X
• ISBN-13: 978-0317533552
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,762,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Offering, November 15, 2009

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Brent A. Watson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best American Short Stories, 1986 (Paperback)

I have read many of the Best American Short Story collections, and this is certainly one of the better ones. Up front Carver, this year's editor, says that he likes "people in realistic detailed situations." All of these stories are very down to earth, much like Carver's own writing. No fantasy found here. The first story, "Basil From Her Garden" by Donald Barthelme threw me for a loop. It didn't seem anything that Carver described. Read pretty much like an interview on some rather off the wall things like making adultery acceptable. Very odd story that I didn't really care for, and Carver warns the reader that this one is slightly different.

The rest are really good, though.

James Lee Burke appears in this addition before he was typecast in the Mystery series. I like everything he writes. "The Convict" is no exception.

Tess Gallagher also appears, which to me, seems a little bias since the editor was married to her at the time.

Joy William is also here. Carver and her were good friends. He admits that he did not choose the selections blindly.

All in all worth the read.