22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT collection of stories, January 27, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The Contemporary American Short Story (Paperback)
This is an amazing collection of contemporary stories and essays about writing by contemporary writers. The commentary is beautifully written, and the history of short stories very helpful and informative. There are also story groupings in the back (chronological arrangements, stories grouped by subject and theme, which are useful either for teaching or for study for individual writers trying to figure out how stories work. As a reader, writer, and teacher, I really appreciate having such a good balance of stories by men and women, and from writers from all kinds of backgrounds. It makes for a much richer and more interesting book -- this is one I'd take to a desert island, to remind me of the pleasures and problems of life in the world.
This site doesn't list the stories, which are a great assortment of all different kinds of styles and techniques: Sherman Alexie, "Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Woodstock." Dorothy Allison, "River of Names." Margaret Atwood, "Happy Endings." Toni Cade Bambara, "The Lesson." Andrea Barrett, "The Littoral Zone." John Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse." Donald Barthelme, "The School." Richard Bausch, "The Man Who Knew Belle Star." Charles Baxter, "Gryphon." Ann Beattie, "Janus." Gina Berriault, "The Birthday Party." Raymond Carver, "Cathedral." John Cheever, "The Swimmer." Sandra Cisneros, "The Monkey Garden." Peter Ho Davies, "The Hull Case." Junot Díaz, "Fiesta, 1980." Andre Dubus, "The Fat Girl." Stuart Dybek, "Pet Milk." Nathan Englander, "In This Way We Are Wise." Louise Erdrich, "The Red Convertible." Carolyn Ferrell, "Proper Library." Richard Ford, "Communist." Karen Joy Fowler, "The Elizabeth Complex." Pam Houston, "How to Talk to a Hunter." Gish Jen, "In the American Society." Ha Jin, "The Woman from New York." Charles Johnson, "Menagerie: A Child's Fable." Denis Johnson, "Emergency." Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl." Jhumpa Lahiri, "The Third and Final Continent." David Leavitt, "Gravity." Andrea Lee, "Brothers and Sisters Around the World." Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Bernard Malamud, "The Jewbird." James Alan McPherson, "Of Cabbages and Kings." Bobbie Ann Mason, "Shiloh." David Means, "What They Did." Lorrie Moore, "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People." Bharati Mukherjee, "The Management of Grief." Alice Munro, "The Turkey Season." Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried." Flannery O'Connor, "Everything That Rises Must Converge." Grace Paley, "Wants." Jayne Anne Phillips, "Satisfaction." Mark Richard, "Strays." George Saunders, "My Flamboyant Grandson." Akhil Sharma, "Surrounded by Sleep." Leslie Marmon Silko, "Yellow Woman." Susan Sontag, "The Way We Live Now." John Updike, "Here Come the Maples." Helena Maria Viramontes, "The Moths." Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., "Harrison Bergeron." Alice Walker, "Everyday Use." John Edgar Wideman, "newborn thrown in trash and dies." Tobias Wolff, "The Rich Brother." Sherman Alexie, " The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." Dorothy Allison, "Context." John Barth, "A Few Words About Minimalism." Richard Bausch, "Dear Writer." Raymond Carver, "On Writing." Charles Baxter, From "Burning Down the House." Jamaica Kincaid, "Those Words That Echo...Echo...Echo...Through Life." Bharati Mukherjee, "A 400-Year-Old Woman." Alice Munro, "What Is Real?" Joyce Carol Oates, "Why Is Your Writing So Violent?"
Flannery O'Conner, "The Nature and Aim of Fiction."
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