Customer Reviews

The Best American Short Stories 2007

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm a HUGE Stephen King fan. Always have been, always will be. I am also a fan of The Best American series. So, when I discovered that King was the editor of this year's Best American Short Stories, I was duly excited. (Of course, I had to remind myself that he didn't actually write these stories.) Therefore, I was disheartened when a friend whose opinion I value had no interest in this year's collection because she "hates Stephen King." Now, I know she meant his writing - or, more accurately, genre writing (as opposed to literary fiction) because I don't think she's ever actually read anything by King - but how should that reflect on his ability to edit a short story collection.

Well, Stephen King is an excellent editor. One of the things I love about him is that he understands why people read. Therefore, he understands what is wrong with the American short story these days. Writers "write for whatever audience is left. In too many cases, that audience happens to consist of other writers and would-be writers who are reading the various literary magazines...not to be entertained but to get an idea of what sells there. And this kind of reading isn't real reading...In 2006 I read scores of stories that felt...airless, somehow...written for editors and teachers rather than for readers." Beautiful - couldn't have said it better myself. (And King says it better in the book - notice all those ellipses?)

The stories in this collection were written for the reader. All collections such as these are somewhat arbitrary. You might have a different list of stories that you loved. Yet many of these stories - "Balto," "The Toga Party," "Eleanor's Music," and others - achieve greatness. They stick in your mind long after you've read them. With the modern American short story, I too often find myself asking: "Didn't I read this one already?"

While not all stories will please everyone, the 2007 edition has some strong stories. Here is a brief breakdown of some highlights:

1. T.C. Boyle "Balto": A teenage girl must choose between speaking the truth and defending her alcoholic emotionally-arrested father in a tale that recalls Faulkner's "Barn Burning."

2. Joseph Epstein "My Brother Eli": Epstein poses the question does the artist enjoy higher privileges than the rest of us in a story that must be about Saul Bellow.

3. Stellar Kim "Findings & Impressions" A widowed father, also a radiologist, meets a breast cancer patient who makes him confront love, death, and loss in a non-sentimental, moving portrait. The story recalls Thom Jones' "I Want to Live."

4. Aryn Kyle "Allegiance" An elementary school girl learns how desperate we all are to conform and belong to the group in a story that focuses on the social politics of grade school.

5. Alice Munro "Dimension" An abused woman can't break the bond between her and her murderer-husband in a tale of self-abnegation that reminds me of a Joyce Carol Oates essay "They All Just Went Away."

6. Karen Russell. "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves": Wolf-girls are raised by nuns and learn that price one must pay to "become civilized."

7. Richard Russo. "Horseman": A middle-aged lit professor is revealed as a fraud and a cipher with nothing to show for her scholarship other than her blind ambition.

In the introduction to this book Stephen King writes that every story makes him want to crow: "Oh man, you've got to read this." He sets the bar too high. I only found four stories that I would describe as "Oh man you've got to read this." In addition there were nine worth reading (some barely so), and six that just wasted my time. All of the writing was good though I discovered questionable punctuation, overused similes, similes that didn't make a bit of sense, and even some bad grammar. Reportedly, editors of literary magazines are super picky and use the slightest excuse to reject a manuscript. Obviously, established well known writers get a pass.

Here's my report card for every single story in the book rated from best to worst. The A's can be described as "Oh man, you've got to read this." The B's are worth reading. The C's and below were a waste of my time.

"L. Debard and Aliette: A Love Story" by Lauren Groff. Grade-A A bizarre love story circa the flu epidemic of 1918. It's enjoyably twisted and includes a castration scene.

"The Bris" by Eileen Pollack Grade-A A dying man wants to be circumcised on his death bed so he can be buried next to his wife. A realistic look at how anal some orthodox rabbis can be. Also, the story has some depth.

"Findings and Impressions" by Stellar Kim Grade-A Strong story about a dying woman and a radiologist who can't endure losing another loved one.

"Balto" by T.C. Boyle Grade-A A drunk fails as a parent. The final courtroom scene is the perfect ending.

"Sans Farin" by Jim Shepherd Grade-A An executioner during the French Revolution can't escape his profession.

"Allegiance" by Aryn Kyle Grade-B+ An interesting tale about a child choosing sides both on the playground and between parents suffering marital difficulties.

"The Boy in Zaquitos" by Bruce McCallister Grade-B+ This is all about the moral dilemma of collateral damage. Should be a must read for strategic bomber pilots.

"Where Will You Go When Your Skin Can Not Contain You" by William Gay Grade-B Interesting writing style used to reveal a man's feelings over the tragic murder of a loved one.

"Riding the Doghouse" by Randy Devita Grade-B A boy recounts dealing with his father's mortality.

"St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell Grade-B As the title indicates, it's a convent where werewolves are trained to be human.

"Toga Party" by John Barth Grade-B- Imagine a toga party in a retirement community. The ending fit the story but I still didn't like it.

"Pa's Darling" by Louis Auchingloss Grade-B- A woman hated her dead overbearing father. Big deal.

"Do Something" by Kate Walbert Grade-B- I liked the story and the message, but it was too vague and was plagued with poorly constructed sentences.

"Horseman" by Richard Russo Grade-B- Good character development but I don't think the emotional handwringing of an academic over whether her work is inspired enough makes for a compelling story.

"Eleanor's Music" by Mary Gordon Grade-C The reader could skip long passages of this story and not miss anything.

"Wake" by Beverly Jensen Grade-C A brother and sister lose their father's coffin on a train in a blizzard. It's good honest writing but a bore nonetheless.

"Dimension" by Alice Munro Grade-C A woman copes with life after her husband murders their children. I don't understand why Alice Munro is so popular with literary magazine editors. She's long-winded, rambling, predictable, and has a penchant for too much telling rather than showing. She's wildly overrated.

"My Brother Eli" by Joseph Eptstein Grade-F The story is nothing more than a character sketch and everything the reader knows about Eli is evident after five pages. Unfortunately, the sketch drones on for twenty-eight pages.

"Solid Wood" by Anne Beattie Grade-F A pointless vignette. I wouldn't even classify it as a story.

"Wait" by Roy Kesey Grade F I'll just say it wasn't my cup of tea.

This year's best probably didn't include the best short stories published, but it is representative of what a reader will find in the average literary magazine these days: the excellent, the good, and the terrible meandering drivel.

For readers who buy anything with Stephen King's name slapped on the cover there are stories here that clearly have his fingerprints on the selection: "Riding the Doghouse," "L. Debard and Aliette," "Sans Farin," "The Boy in Zaquitos,"and "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves."

I am Mark Gelbart, author of Talk Radio, the book feared by radio talk show hosts, and author of the amazon short, "The Executioner's Store."

Both available here.

I had been a regular reader of the "Best American Short Stories" collections for years, until I finally decided that I was reading these stories more out of a force of habit than out of real interest. The stories were well written and all, but they lacked almost any imagination or spontaneity, and was very hard to relate to either the characters or the plot lines. This has been a trend in American writing for some time, where stories are all products of the same fiction workshop mentality. Even though they are written by vastly different writers and deal with distinct issues, just like the cafeteria food it all starts to taste the same after a while. With that in mind I was rather hopeful that for 2007 the editor of the collection was Stephen King, someone well outside of the academic fiction mainstream. I was hoping that his predilection for weird and unusual stories would shake up the short fiction scene, and infuse some freshness and rawness to this genre. However, to my dismay, this collection ended up being more or less the same as all of the previous ones. For the most part. There were a few stories that stuck out with their innovativeness and freshness, but for the most part writing, although stylistically impeccable, was uninteresting and dry. There were an unusual number of stories that deal with death and aging, and this might be what's on King's mind a lot these days. Or it might be the general property of American short fiction these days, and one might be tempted to read a lot into it, but that would make for a very boring story. The collection even contains a story about the unhappy life of a college professor - this theme, in my humble opinion, is by far the most overrated in all of literature. Lives of American college faculty are excruciatingly boring - and I say that as one of them. Sure, we do have a fair share of troubles and tribulations, but these are so insular and irrelevant to the world at large that it's hard to imagine anyone caring very deeply about them.

As I said, the writing in these stories is impeccable and of rather high quality - indeed, probably the best that English language has to offer. If that is all you care about, then the stories in this collection are well worth the effort and time invested in reading them. I myself will probably go back to getting the subsequent editions of the "Best American Short Stories." However, if you want interesting stories that will keep you glued to the printed page and fascinated with their content, then you will have to look around on your own. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any reliable guide to direct you in that pursuit.

In his introduction to the Best American Short Stories 2007, an anthology of short stories he selected, Stephen King writes that,

"I read plenty of kick-a** stories this year. There isn't a single one in this book....that didn't delight me, that didn't make me want to crow 'Oh man, you gotta read this!' to someone."

Hmmm.....while none of the stories in BASS 2007 are bad, a little less than half of them are average at best, stuffy at worst, and far from "kick-a**" - I get the feeling that King included many of these less-than-stellar stories due to the reputations of their authors and simply because they felt literary. Having said all that, there are several "kick-a**" stories here that are delightful (my favorite was The Bris by Eileen Pollack) and make reading this eclectic collection worthwhile. As well, BASS 2007 will likely introduce you to some excellent writers you might not otherwise have encountered. And isn't that the reason to read short story anthologies? Recommended.

What I thought I would get with this edition of The Best American Short Stories, guest edited by Stephen King, was a look into the stories that inspire Mr. King. In the introduction he claims, "There isn't a single one in this book that didn't delight me, that didn't make me want to crow 'Oh man, you gotta read this!' to someone." While there were some very good stories in here, there were also some that made me shrug and wonder how many pages remained to the next story.

In his introduction, Mr. King does talk about the declining readership and dwindling markets for short fiction. I believe the short story's days are numbered and well not quite as pessimistic he does talk about how hard it is to find short story magazines in bookstores and how difficult it is to get motivated to write for a dwindling audience and how many stories out there seem to be designed to be in the mold of previously published stories rather than are excited page-turners. He's right - the market is incestuous enough that the readers are the writers who want to be read - by other writers.

There were some highlights in the volume -

My Brother Eli by Joseph Epstein - Eli was a famous writer, a self-centered wrecking ball who destroyed lives. His older brother recounts Eli's life and contemplates the question, do artists have special license for bad behavior.

L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story by Lauren Groff - this story was truly beautiful. A polio victim falls in love with her swimming instructor, a former Olympic medalist. It's set among the class disparity and political turmoil of 1918.

Wait by Roy Kesey - this is a fantastical story of the terrors of humanity brought to the microcosm of a group waiting for a much delayed plane flight out of a war-torn country. The satire makes it fun.

The Boy in Zaquitos by Bruce McAllister - my favorite story of the book and not surprisingly it was originally published in the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. This story is told about a boy who was used by the government to spread a deadly disease through other countries.

Sans Farine by Jim Shepard - A crushingly emotional story about the man who was the executioner during the French Revolution. The ending wasn't a surprise but the journey was wrenching nonetheless.

Most people's favorite seems to be T.C. Boyle's Balto. It's a very good story but seemed mechanical to me.

Here's the table of contents:

Introduction by Stephen King
Louis Auchincloss - Pa's Darling
John Barth - Toga Party
Ann Beattie - Solid Wood
T.C. Boyle - Balto
Randy DeVita - Riding the Doghouse
Joseph Epstein - My Brother Eli
William Gay - Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You?
Mary Gordon - Eleanor's Music
Lauren Groff - L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story
Beverly Jensen - Wake
Roy Kesey - Wait
Stellar Kim - Findings & Impressions
Aryn Kyle - Allegiance
Bruce McAllister - The Boy in Zaquitos
Alice Munro - Dimension
Eileen Pollack - The Bris
Karen Russell - St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Richard Russo - Horseman
Jim Shepard - Sans Farine
Kate Walbert - Do Something

- CV Rick, July 2008

Every reader is going to have a different list of favorite and not-so-favorite stories from this year's BASS anthology. (It's inevitable with any anthology, I suppose.) But the great thing about this series is, if you're a serious short story reader -- or writer -- there's always something in it you'll love. My favorites from this year were TC Boyle's "Balto" -- the most beautiful, lyric exploration of parental alcoholism and adolescent fury that I've ever read. The amazing, tour de force of William Gay's "Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You" and "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves," by the literary prodigy (she's only 25) Karen Russell. Russell's story begins with what seems to be an extended metaphor (can you *really* write a story of any length about girls raised by wolves?) but turns into a fully realized, poignant and funny story. Roy Kesey's "Wait" made me wonder why I'd never heard of this writer before. If you've ever spent time waiting in an airport (and thought you might never get to leave) this story's for you. The above stories are worth the price of admission alone, in my opinion, but there are many other great ones. I also love that the writers comment on their stories in the back, often revealing where their inspiration came from. Oddly, I found the first story by Louis Auchingloss to be stilted and over-written. I kept waiting for the real story to start. After it was over, I was a little worried that this collection overall was going to disappoint. I'm very glad I kept reading.

Every year I read both "The Best American Short Stories" and "The O. Henry Prize Stories", which both attempt to accomplish the same goal: collect the top 20 short stories published in North America in a given year. The highly subjective nature of this endeavor is proven by the fact that there is very little overlap in the stories chosen for each anthology (typically only one, or perhaps two). Nevertheless, I view each collection as a great way to read the works of a variety of authors, and I always end up recommending each volume to readers seeking a sampler of well-written short stories. The 2007 Best American Short Stories volume is no different; I recommend it, although I wouldn't rank it as one of the top volumes over the past decade.

2007 guest editor Stephen King made the final selection of the twenty stories included in this volume. The guest editor in the Best American series often selects works that are within that editor's style or genre. Hence you might expect this volume to contain twenty horror stories, but instead, Stephen King does an admirable job of selecting a wide variety of different stories. As his introduction demonstrates, King has a true love of reading and short stories, and the stories selected roam far and wide from King's home turf of the horror genre. The two aspects of Stephen King's style which I felt crept into this volume are a preference for long works, and (in some of the stories, such as Richard Russo's "Horseman"), a lack of polish in the wording, perhaps indicating that the stories were written quickly or without a strong editor analyzing every word.

My favorite story in this volume, and the one that I feel combines all the elements of a great short story, namely a gripping plot with a twist at the end, interesting characters, some deep lessons about the human condition, and precise, well-chosen wording, was T.C. Boyle's "Balto". This story alone is worth the price of the book; think of the others as a bonus that you get for free. John Barth, who has been writing smartly and satirically about society and interpersonal relationships for nearly half a century, shows that he still has all his powers in "Toga Party", which not only has a great plot twist at the end, but an absolutely perfect last sentence.

Other stories that I enjoyed included: Roy Kesey's "Wait", which, although it quickly jumps into the realm of the fantastic, illustrates a very interesting microcosm for international relationships; and two stories that obviously had a lot of research put into them, to recreate eras of history: Lauren Groff's "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story", and Jim Shepard's "Sans Farine". The dud of the book, I felt, is Kate Walbert's "Do Something", a forgettable anti-war tirade. The book also contains the obligatory Alice Munro selection; she obviously appeals to some (or many) people, but not so much to me, although "Dimension" is indeed one of the more interesting Munro stories that I've read over the years of reading these short story anthologies.

So, while not the best volume ever in this series, I do recommend The 2007 Best American Short Stories.

With many fewer mainstream outlets for short stories than there used to be, most of these stories come from the literary magazines that remain devoted to the form. While the slice-of-life-minor-epiphany-or-not story remains popular, this collection ranges wide in style, content and quality.

Among the best stories are Alice Munro's tightly plotted story of a woman's loss, grief, guilt and redemption; Eileen Pollack's manic, funny, bittersweet tale of a son dealing with a revered father's imminent death and big lie, William Gay's charged story of an addict's scary, unpredictable grief, Lauren Groff's dramatic and atmospheric love story in the time of the 1918 flu and Richard Russo's deceptively quiet tale of emotional containment and catharsis.

Karen Russell's tale about a school for the human children of werewolves is delightfully strange, while Bruce McAllister offers a chilling futuristic tale of a CIA operative's small, desperate attempt to redeem himself.

A society woman's inner monologue on the death of her prominent father has Louis Auchincloss' subtle style but little punch and Ann Beattie's tale of a man visiting his mentor's widow In Key West has a bit of a twist but no satisfying resolution.

The only real dud in the bunch is John Barth's overlong story about a retired couple, more dull and ignorant than they need to be, who go to a toga party put on by the newest, richest folks in their development. It will stick in your head like a bad taste in your mouth.

However, Barth's story is one of editor Stephen King's favorites, which goes to show that taste is all in your head. King states in his introduction that he looks "for stories that care about my feelings as well as my intellect," especially stories that are "all-out emotionally assaultive," and most of this varied collection fulfills that welcome requirement.

If you're interested in the health of the short story today, this collection is for you.

I saw this collection a few days ago, but it wasn't until I read Stephen King's essay in the NYT Book Review, which is also the (edited) introduction of this year's collection, that I flew back to the bookstore to pick it up. I have been up all night, each night, reading it since.

EACH story is spectacular so I won't go into details about each one; I can't speak on old favorites being chosen, but perhaps it's because they are amazing writers who put out amazing work each year?!?! Don't let anything stop you from picking up this book. If there's anyone who knows a thing or two about storytelling, it's Stephen King. And if there is a collection that will blow you away, as King says stories should do instead of being written for teachers and editors, it's THIS ONE.

I love how the authors talk about their inspirations for the stories in the back of the book, and all of the other books of theirs you may be turned onto because of their inclusion in this volume. For example, as *soon* as the bookstore opens, I am buying everything William Gay has ever written.

I can't wait to discuss these stories with others who are reading, so hurry up and get this!!!