The Best American Short Stories 2003 (Paperback)

by Walter Mosley (Editor), Katrina Kenison (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Listeners may be tempted to gorge on all seven selections in this abridged audio collection at once, but most of the stories deserve to be savored for their complexity and insight. The star in this tiny galaxy is E.L. Doctorow's "Baby Wilson," read by Wyman, about a mentally unbalanced woman who steals a baby. Wyman delivers a pitch perfect performance; he keeps his tone even and neutral and allows the story to tell itself. Lonnie Farmer faces a different challenge in his narration of Louise Erdrich's "Shamengwa." In this instance, Farmer's distinct, sage-like voice enriches this simplistic tale of a violin. Other stories make the transition to audio less successfully. Mona Simpson reads her own work, "Coins," with a gravelly, and often off-putting, intensity; and reader Will LeBow is an odd match for Emily Ishem Raboteau's "Kavita Through Glass," a complex story of race and gender relations. When all is said and done, however, this audiobook's biggest flaw may be selection. Mosley's poetic introduction leads listeners to expect something more innovative than these carefully balanced choices. While these stories represent many ethnicities and religions (including Chinese, Hindu, Muslim, Filipino, African-American and Native American), political correctness is a controversial measure of literary greatness, and this audio abridgement is bound to spark debates as to how these stories stack up to the 13 that didn't make the transition from print.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist
You don't expect to be deeply moved by the foreword to an illustrious annual collection of short stories, yet there it is, Katrina Kenison's eye-misting account of her fourth-grade son going through that secret rite of passage, being brought to tears by a book. That fiction possesses such power remains an astonishment, no matter how many novels or short stories a person reads, a boon that guest editor Walter Mosley celebrates in his beautifully metaphorical introduction, and then the reader is wowed all over again in 20 different ways by the superb stories that follow. Mosley has selected dazzling, unsettling new work by such brilliantly imaginative, compassionate, and artistic storytellers as E. L. Doctorow, Edwidge Danticat, Susan Straight, Mona Simpson, Louise Erdrich, ZZ Packer, Dan Chaon, and Dorothy Allison, whose stories touch on every phase of life and illuminate a rich spectrum of disturbing predicaments, intense feelings, surprising resolutions, and enduring mysteries. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618197338
• ISBN-13: 978-0618197330
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #125,706 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vintage sampler, December 7, 2003

By	cs211 "cs211" (United States) - See all my reviews

I don't think you can go wrong reading either the Best American or the O. Henry short story anthologies; I read both each year. It's somewhat surprising that they are not more popular, since they expose the reader to a wide variety of the best writers and writings, and since short stories can be easily fit into the busiest of lifestyles, especially plane and train rides.

Having now read both 2003 editions, I would give the edge to this year's Best American anthology. The collection of stories that guest editor Walter Mosley has chosen are, in general, more readable, more entertaining, and cover a broader range of human emotions, subject matter, and genres. I would also rate the 2003 Best American anthology as a better-than-average or even a vintage year.

I especially enjoyed the two "genre" stories included, a horror story and a science fiction story. Each is memorable not because of the aspects of their plots that classify them in their genre, but for what they reveal about human nature. Dan Chaon's "The Bees" shows the dangers of keeping secrets in an attempt to escape the past, and Ryan Harty's "Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down" contains a bizarrely fascinating plot element (a robotic child for couples unable to conceive their own), but what it actually illustrates is the difficult decisions parents make about their children, the immense power they have over them, and the changing relationships when a couple becomes a threesome by having a child.

Other highlights: Susan Straight's "Mines", which is a stark, realistic portrayal of the tough choices facing people on both sides of the U.S. criminal justice system; Mary Yukari Water's "Rationing", which illustrates the generational differences in Japanese society; and Anthony Doerr's "The Shell Collector", which is the only story chosen for inclusion in both the Best American and O. Henry anthologies (and rightfully so). Interestingly, there are actually two pairs of stories concerned with similar plot elements (robotic children, and father/son relationships after the mother has passed away), but each pair is very different. This shows why this collection is so strong: it's not so much due to the plot of each story, but rather to what each story says about the human condition.

Since choosing favorite stories is such a subjective process, each reader will no doubt have their own favorites. However, this year's Best American anthology provides plenty of good stories from which to choose your own favorites.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with fantastic stories, October 3, 2003

By A Customer

I've been a fan of Best American for years. This one is particularly great--I love Walter Mosley's choices. Mona Simpson's "Coins" is sharply characterized through a unique and memorable voice. Louise Erdrich's "Shamengwa," full of haunting music, has a quiet, beautiful ending. And Ryan Harty's "Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down," a heartbreaking story about a man faced with a choice between his wife and his very human (but technologically imperfect) android son, is like nothing I've ever read before--so terrific I had to go out and buy Harty's collection, "Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona," which was a knockout too. (Noticed that Tin House made the strongest showing here, with three stories selected. Guess what cool magazine I'll be subscribing to this year?) What a pleasure to read so much outstanding fiction. Very glad to see the short story thriving.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars if you only read one story, read "The Bees", June 2, 2004

By	Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Having never read one of the "Best American Short Stories" collections, I have no way to judge this latest edition to past efforts. The only thing I can speak to is how I felt about the stories contained in this collection and how good I think they are. There are some very fine stories in this collection with one in particular that I just loved.

Louise Erdrich has long been my favorite novelist, but I was still nervous about what she would make from the short story format. "Shamengwa" is a moving story which revolves around a violin and the effect it has had, in various ways, on the lives of several members of a community. Anthony Doerr has one of the better stories in the collection, "The Shell Collector". With such a deceptively simple title, one would not expect such raw power and an interesting story about a man who lives alone but has gained worldwide attention because of the poison in one particular kind of shell. Another standout is Ryan Harty's "Why the Sky Turns Red when the Sun Goes Down", a story of a family with a robotic son (literally, the boy is a robot, or, perhaps an android). This is a touching story.

The best story in the collection, and then one that blew me away is Dan Chaon's "The Bees". This one was completely unexpected and shocking. While this one would probably fall into the category of "horror", don't let that mislead you. This one starts out easy, just identifying a man and his family and we start to learn about his past. He wasn't a good man during his first marriage and he deeply regrets it. But as the story continues and we get snippets of revelation, the tension grows and so does this air of creepiness that I got while I was reading it. The tension does not let up until the end of the story, but rather it keeps building because we don't quite know what is going on and this is not what you would assume a typical "horror" story would be. It is a psychological horror and it is just gripping.

This is a very fine collection, but "The Bees" was the one story that truly stood out for me and it continues to be memorable.

-Joe Sherry