The Best American Short Stories 1993 [Paperback]

Katrina Kenison (Editor), Louis Edrich (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Best American Short Stories | Publication Date: November 22, 1993

Short Stories by Andrea Lee, Thom Jones, John Updike, Mary Gordon, Joanna Scott, Diane Johnson, Antonya Nelson, Harlan Ellison, and Alice Munro.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Erdrich ( Love Medicine ) has assembled a remarkably rich collection of short stories that probe the state of their characters' hearts and minds as they negotiate familial relationships and cope with births, deaths and the living that goes on in between. Jane Shapiro depicts a single mother endlessly hassled by teenagers who have discovered their sexual selves; after she is implicated in the death of a friend's baby, Lorrie Moore's protagonist makes a stab at going on with a normal life, even marrying and going off to a pretentious academic conference with her economist husband; and Susan Power's Sioux widow, whose child has just died in 1935 North Dakota, uses magic to take a terrible revenge on her negligent cousin. John Updike's elderly man has stopped fearing death and is ready to embrace it; cancer is a painful and humiliating death for a woman in a piece by Thom Jones; believing herself to be a burden on her family, Alice Fulton's Irish widow feels she has no place in this world; and Mary Gordon shows a child grieving for a dead father whom her mother doesn't seem to miss. Other stories deal with May-December relationships, rape, the mutability of history, infidelity, the restorative power of natural wonders and the corruption of indigenous populations. If this collection can be seen as a reflection of the state of this year's short fiction in general, then short fiction is thriving indeed.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The latest volume in this distinguished series, a valued resource in public and academic collections alike, contains 20 stories selected from American and Canadian magazines by novelist Erdrich. Her selection testifies to the abiding and growing appeal of the short story as a literary form and to the important role of general-audience magazines and journals in providing a medium both for established masters and emerging talents. Erdrich pays tribute to both in her choices: John Updike's "Playing with Dynamite" is an exquisite portrayal of the onset of old age, and Wendell Berry's "Pray Without Ceasing" explores the control of time by memory. But the volume will also strengthen the growing reputation of younger writers: for instance, Tony Earley's "Charlotte" is a memorable and original treatment of professional wrestling as a metaphor for unfulfilled love. Highly recommended. --Eleanor Mitchell, Arizona State Univ. West, Phoenix
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (November 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395636272
• ISBN-13: 978-0395636275
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)