The Best American Short Stories 2011

Mar 02, 2012 daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

there is some very good writing, of course, that does not stir the blood. it's cool, cerebral. tricksy, clever. i admire it in the same way i admire the technical proficiency of a cirque de soleil acrobat: 'look what she's doing up there. i didn't realize a rotator cuff had that range of motion.' but i'm not moved by it. and by the end of the show, so many amazing things have been done that amazement becomes a kind of boredom.

-- ms. brooks's introduction

with these best-of collections, it often s...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

Apropos to very little, I liked guest editor Geraldine Brooks's anecdotes about being a journalist where you learn quickly that the grit of a story is out in the world and not in flowery, distracting word choices. That being said, most of my favorites in this collection were about culture clashes/brushes with tragedy and didn't adhere to style over substance.

They are:

"Ceiling" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Granata.) The nouveau rich go shoulder to shoulder with the slums in Lagos, Nigeria.

"A Brid...more Apropos to very little, I liked guest editor Geraldine Brooks's anecdotes about being a journalist where you learn quickly that the grit of a story is out in the world and not in flowery, distracting word choices. That being said, most of my favorites in this collection were about culture clashes/brushes with tragedy and didn't adhere to style over substance.

They are:

"Ceiling" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Granata.) The nouveau rich go shoulder to shoulder with the slums in Lagos, Nigeria.

"A Bridge Under Water" by Tom Bissell (Agni.) I profess some personal connection to this story about a hastily married, strained couple touring Catholic and Jewish Rome.

"La Vita Nuova" by Allegra Goodman (The New Yorker.) A woman becomes an unconventional nanny and rekindles her artistic talent after her fiance leaves her.

"Soldier of Fortune" by Bret Anthony Johnston (Glimmer Train.) A man looks back to 1986 when, as a teenager, he cared for his crush's dog after a family tragedy.

"Property" by Elizabeth McCracken (Granata.) A recently widowed archivist moves temporarily into a house where he changes things up because he doesn't understand their meaning.

"To the Measures Fall" by Richard Powers (The New Yorker.) An overview of a literature major-turned-lawyer's life and how she perceives the changing media of five decades.

"The Call of Blood" by Jess Row (Harvard Review.) A mixed race nurse gets involved with a divorcee from a mixed faith marriage while taking care of her Alzheimer's mother.

Two stories I struggled with were "Free Fruit for Young Widows" by Nathan Englander and "The Dungeon Master" by Sam Lipsyte. The former dealt with the murky ethics of a man murdering likely enemies in cold blood after barely surviving the Holocaust, but I felt it was a copout to tell the story from an un-involved person's perspective, as if his sympathy was unquestionable absolution. The latter quite quickly equated violence and mental illness with tabletop roleplaying games, and although I don't doubt these characters could exist in real life, the negative stereotype is quite wearying.(less)

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Sep 22, 2012 christa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’m trying to become a short story writer, or better yet a novelist, and it is tricky. I don’t know what’s good. I don’t know if I’d read my own work if my work was by a stranger. I wonder if I’d close the anthology I was featured in and sigh, contentedly, at the way I tugged a heart string or made a reader feel bile burn in the back of her throat. Mostly I just want to a) tell a good story in a new way and b) make a reader want to barf.

I don’t have many idols in the world of short stories. I’m...more I’m trying to become a short story writer, or better yet a novelist, and it is tricky. I don’t know what’s good. I don’t know if I’d read my own work if my work was by a stranger. I wonder if I’d close the anthology I was featured in and sigh, contentedly, at the way I tugged a heart string or made a reader feel bile burn in the back of her throat. Mostly I just want to a) tell a good story in a new way and b) make a reader want to barf.

I don’t have many idols in the world of short stories. I’m not like, “Oh, Bradbury. His vision of the blah blah blah is really something to behold and his sentence structure is so blah blah blah.” Every once in awhile I make a pledge to myself: “Every Monday I will read the short story that appears in the New Yorker and I will think about the construction of the short story. What I like, what I don’t like.” I do this for awhile and then I get preoccupied with a new hobby. For instance, Sephora has trotted out a system of nail care that makes it look like your nails are covered in velvet. Lovely or trashy? What would the Pretty Little Liars, my nail-color inspiration team, think of it? Also: Have you seen “Gallery Girls” on Bravo? What a delicious time-waster. In a perfect world, this show would air 24 hours a day.

The other day Regina Spektor was on Fresh Air and she told Terry Gross that she is really lazy and I thought, “Hey, me too! I’m just like Regina Spektor!” That felt good.

I gave myself an assignment: One short story from “The Best American Short Stories 2011” per night. My theory is that if I’m not doing, I should be reading so that when I do do, I’ll be that much more well-read. See also: Another way in which I justify my procrastination.

The best you can hope for in an anthology of short stories is that it is at least 50 percent readable and that you walk away from it with a) some ideas about structure, content, story arc and dialogue and b) an interest in a new-to-you writer. BASS, curated by Geraldine Brooks, totally succeeds. Out of the 20 stories:

1. I skipped one;
2. Loved at least four;
3. Liked twice as many;
4. Decided one of the writers was an asshole;
5. Decided a writer I thought was an asshole really was not;
6. Thought a lot about Jennifer Egan;
6. Added a novel by Allegra Goodman to my Amazon Wish List.

The hidden gem of this compilation is the contributors’ notes, which not only list accomplishments and spouses, it also gives a little blurb on how the story came to be. In many cases, if you’re using this as a textbook, this is just as much of a teaching tool as the stories. So many times the writer says something like: “This story took me 10 years to write” which means I have a longer deadline than I previously imagined. Allegra Goodman says that whenever she finishes a novel, she likes to write a short story because she can have fun and experiment. Her story, “La Vita Nuova” was my favorite. I’d eat there again. Tom Bissell writes in his note that his story has touches of autobiography, which tells me that not only do I not want to hang out with his self-righteous character, who is honeymooning in Europe with his pregnant wife and causes a huge scene while on a religious tour, I probably don’t want to hang out with him.

All in all, bravo, Geraldine Brooks, for putting together a compilation that made me both eager and terrified to write. (less)

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Jun 03, 2012 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, short-stories

This wonderful series is always a mixed bag by its nature, but kudos to the editors for always including a variety so there is something for every taste. That must be a challenge. There wasn't much to flat-out love here, but this year it was easy to see the talent and excellence in just about every selection.

My favorite was Claire Keegan's "Foster," an exceptional story that shows one of the best reasons to read this series - learning about great new voices. Keegan is clearly yet another in a l...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

Short stories are a gift to e-book readers--we end up using our devices during the in-between moments of our lives and, sometimes, the stories in this collection felt a bit like filler, actually. But most of them are amazing and serve as excellent introductions to the authors' work. I loved the story, "Foster" by Claire Keegan, in which an Irish girl discovers how parents are supposed to act when she is temporarily fostered by a loving couple. I liked the story by Jennifer Egan, "Out of Body," a...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This year's editor of The Best American Short Stories 2011 is Geraldine Brooks, an accomplished journalist and fiction writer. She says of her selections "that the easiest and the first choices were the stories to which I had a physical response". I would agree that the best stories in this collection are those that are most visceral and physical in nature. Ms. Brooks also states that "In the end, the stories I fell upon with perhaps the greatest delight were the outliers, the handful or so that...more This year's editor of The Best American Short Stories 2011 is Geraldine Brooks, an accomplished journalist and fiction writer. She says of her selections "that the easiest and the first choices were the stories to which I had a physical response". I would agree that the best stories in this collection are those that are most visceral and physical in nature. Ms. Brooks also states that "In the end, the stories I fell upon with perhaps the greatest delight were the outliers, the handful or so that defied the overwhelming gravitational pull toward small-canvas contemporary realism."

There are twenty stories in this alphabetically arranged collection. About half of them swept me away and the other half didn't move me as much as I'd hoped they would. Each year, I look forward to this collection with much anticipation and excitement. This year's collection felt a bit below par in consistency and quality.

I agree with Ms. Brooks that the best stories in this collection are those to which I had a physical response. They tended towards themes of violence and/or grief. One such story is by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. In `Ceiling', she writes about a man who realizes he is in the wrong life. He feels lassitude in his marriage which is superficial and without depth. He yearns for his college sweetheart who he's built up in his mind as perfect. As Ms. Brooks states, this story "perfectly captures the yearning spirit of a man who has settled for the wrong wife, the wrong life, in the stultifying salons of Lagos's corrupt upper class".

In `Housewifely Arts' by Megan Mayhew Bergman, a single mother drives nine hours to visit her dead mother's parrot because the parrot is so perfectly able to mimic her mother's voice. The parrot has more of her mother inside her than the daughter does.

Nathan Englander's story, `Free Fruit for Young Widows', opens with a violent act and continues with acts of violence. The story examines the roots of violence as it explores the possibilities and rationales that make violence an appropriate act. Part tale of vengeance and part philosophy, the reader puzzles the situations as does the young son whose father is telling him the story.

Allegra Goodman's `La Vita Nuova' is a haunting story of grief. A woman who is a children's art teacher is left by her fiancé. She brings her wedding dress to school and lets her students paint all over it. The story is about the depths of grief and loss.

`Soldier of Fortune' by Bret Anthony Johnston tells about Josh, a high school freshman who is in love with his neighbor Holly, a senior. When Holly's three year-old brother accidentally gets severely scalded by boiling water and the family has to spend weeks at the hospital, Josh takes care of their home and dog. He grows up during this pivotal time.

In `Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart', by Rebecca Makai, a man and his friend, Peter, have known each other since high school. Both are gay and they initially bonded over that commonality. Peter was beautiful and charismatic and went on to become an actor. At one of his performances he has a meltdown and can't work again. His friend gives his all to Peter getting nothing in return. The reader wonders why his friend would risk so much for Peter.

Joyce Carol Oates, in `ID', tells about Lisette, an eighth-grader who is recovering from a shattered eye socket and broken nose incurred by a beating from her estranged father. Lisette lives with her mother, a black jack dealer in Atlantic City. Lisette's mother has been gone for several days, leaving Lisette alone with no idea of when she'll be back or where she went. The police appear at her school and ask her to ID a corpse that they think might be her mother.

George Saunders writes about prisoners who are used in an experiment where they are given psychoactive drugs that take them to the deepest recesses of their souls. `Escape from Spiderland' is about these prisoners, the experiment, and the feelings of ultimate love, eloquence and sexuality that these drugs render. The prisoners can be brought to the depths of despair and the height of exaltation and then returned to their baselines in a few seconds.

Overall, there are some very good stories in this collection and some that are just mediocre. The ones that stand out are definitely the ones that feel like a visceral gut punch and that pound on the reader's psyche. Ms. Brooks did not want "small-canvas contemporary realism" but sometimes it is the small canvas that shows the most detail and beauty. One just needs to look at it from the right angle.
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Feb 01, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stories so taut they twang
The most compelling part of the 2011 American short story anthology just may be the introduction by this year’s editor, author Geraldine Brooks.

She writes about short story form: setup, reveal, reversal and release. “If one element fails, the edifice crumbles.” Brooks writes that she likes stories that, well, tell a story.

She doesn’t care for short stories that treat plot “as if it were a hair in the soup.” If a story is bleak it ought to have clearly earned its bleakne...more Stories so taut they twang
The most compelling part of the 2011 American short story anthology just may be the introduction by this year’s editor, author Geraldine Brooks.

She writes about short story form: setup, reveal, reversal and release. “If one element fails, the edifice crumbles.” Brooks writes that she likes stories that, well, tell a story.

She doesn’t care for short stories that treat plot “as if it were a hair in the soup.” If a story is bleak it ought to have clearly earned its bleakness. The best short stories she tells us have a lot in common with the good joke. Each relies on economy and suggestion and I’d add timing.

Brooks tells us why she admires those she has selected. She offers advice to a new generation of writers who chose the short form: go out and live life, and if possible go someplace where “you have to think in one language and buy groceries in another.”Carry home in your soul what you learn and then write about it, Brooks advises.

Every story has earned its place in the anthology but a number of the stories especially grabbed me and won’t let go.

“Housewifely Arts” by Megan Mayhew Bergman hangs on more than any of the other nineteen. It’s a wrenching tale of a single mother reaching for atonement by seeking out the parrot that had been her dead mother’s pet so she could hear the bird mimic her mother’s voice. It’s a story that looks at the things in life that define our humanity. “What maniacs we are – sick with love, all of us.”

“A Bridge Under Water” by Tom Bissell is hilarious, erotic and ultimately sorrowful story that follows a young couple as their new marriage begins to crumble during a honeymoon tour of a Rome synagogue. Bissell throws in descriptive zingers that include people with “hydraulically sincere eyebrows” or American tourists from “one of the overfed states.”

Richard Powers’ “To the Measures Fall” examines a woman’s entire adult life and records the cultural and political events of a generation by reflecting how an obscure English novel (a fictitious book by an author who doesn’t exist) can have influence over a lifetime.

Reading the book for the first time as a student bicycling in the Cotswolds, the woman is captivated. “The thing took you underwater and held you there for the better part of thirteen hours, and two days later you’re still winded.”

Each of the twenty stories in the 2011 edition has that power to pull the reader underwater. Of the hundreds of stories Brooks read she said she was seeking out those “so taught they twang.” I don’t think there’s any question that she found them.

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Jan 27, 2012 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There's no reason that in a given year several short stories will appear that are instant classics, and that appears to have been the case in 2011. Like most anthologies of this nature, there is an unevenness of quality compensated to a certain degree by a great variety of approach.

There are twenty stories here. Seven appeared in The New Yorker. That's thirty-five percent, far and away the most impressive representation from any periodical. Granta, Tin House and McSweeney's each made the collect...more There's no reason that in a given year several short stories will appear that are instant classics, and that appears to have been the case in 2011. Like most anthologies of this nature, there is an unevenness of quality compensated to a certain degree by a great variety of approach.

There are twenty stories here. Seven appeared in The New Yorker. That's thirty-five percent, far and away the most impressive representation from any periodical. Granta, Tin House and McSweeney's each made the collection twice. So now we have well over half the stories here selected from four magazines.

Let's start with The New Yorker stories and say right off that they aren't classic New Yorker stories of the poignant, lyrical kind Updike and Cheever once wrote, although Claire Keegan's "Foster," about a foster child in Ireland and Nathan Englander's "Free Fruit for Young Widows," about sentimental attachments in Israel come close. Both are fine stories. Joyce Carol Oates's story, "I.D.", is a fictionalized version of her much better essay about losing her husband. Here, unfortunately, the action is filtered through a familiar type of adolescent in Oates' work: the abandoned and abused kind. George Saunder's New Yorker story, "Escape from Spiderhead," is a fairly boring riff on chemical experimentation on human beings. Sam Lipsyte's New Yorker piece, "The Dungeon Master," is one of those tales that interweaves adolescent culture of the technological kind with the pathos and alienation that J.D. Salinger once took on more directly. It's difficult to know why either The New Yorker or this anthology's editor, Geraldine Brooks, selected the Oates, Saunders, and Lipsyte stories. Allegra Goodman's story, "La Vida Nuova," is a kind of New Yorker teardrop--through it you see a confused young woman sorting out the threats of maturity through aesthetic choices and preferences.

For me the best stories in this collection are Ehud Havazelet's "Gurov in Manhattan" and the aforementioned Englander piece.

The worst stories are Caitlin Horrocks "The Sleep" and Steven Millhauser's "Phantoms." Why? Because each is a kind of idea piece, not a compelling story, with an odd hook (one village decides to hibernate throughout the winter because things are so dull there and another village is full of phantoms no one else can see...or explain). These are static, predictable efforts that well-controlled prose can't rescue. Then there is the syrupy Bret Anthony Johnston story, "Soldier of Fortune," that really doesn't belong here at all. It's a workshop effort competently executed in one sense but undermined by the culminating fantasy in which the girl next door spreads her legs for the boy next door and draws him into her pain.

One of the best features of this volume is the end matter, by which I mean "Other Distinguished Stories" of the year and a long list of magazines and their addresses...whose writers are not represented here in anything like the New Yorker/Tin House/Granta/McSweeney's abundance.

The short story form still works, and people seem to be publishing and reading it in ever greater numbers. Perhaps what's needed here is an alternative to this "Best Stories" series that isn't so editorially clubby.

Would I recommend buying and reading this volume? I suppose I wouldn't. Except for a few gems, it's not exciting.(less)

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Jan 16, 2012 Jillwilson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://may-on-the-short-story.blogspo...

I’ve almost finished The Best American Short Stories 2011. One of my favourite reading events for the year – time-out with a 20 page short story that almost always leaves you transported in time and place and most importantly, wanting more. It’s like a perfect little entrée. I try to use it as a guide to new authors – to read more widely in the coming year. In this case I’d happily read any of the people featured in this anthology though I don’t think it w...more http://may-on-the-short-story.blogspo...

I’ve almost finished The Best American Short Stories 2011. One of my favourite reading events for the year – time-out with a 20 page short story that almost always leaves you transported in time and place and most importantly, wanting more. It’s like a perfect little entrée. I try to use it as a guide to new authors – to read more widely in the coming year. In this case I’d happily read any of the people featured in this anthology though I don’t think it was quite as startlingly good as the 2010 collection. And a quibble – last year’s edition featured a story from Jennifer Egan’s book ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ which is arguably a novel. I felt a bit cheated encountering another piece from the same book, even though this is a classy bit of writing. It either falls into publication in 2010 or 2011, not both. My favourite stories were ‘Foster’ by Claire Keegan (you can read it as first published in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/feat...), A Bridge Under Water by Tom Bissell, The Sleep by Caitlin Horrocks, Housewifely Arts by Megan Mayhew Bergman and another story by the fabulous Rebecca Makkai who has been anthologised in this series four times.
Series Editor Heidi Pitlor makes some general comments about the kind of short stories that American writers are producing. She says that each of the 2011 stories sustains its own momentum through “premise or language, character or even perfectly placed silence.” Geraldine Brooks, who was the guest editor of the 2011 collection, is forthright about what she encountered(or did not encounter) in whittling down 20 stories from 100. "Enuf adultery!" "Foreign countries exist." "Consider the following: Caravaggio's Conversion of Saint Paul, Handel's Messiah, Martin Luther King. Why, if religion turns up in a story, is it generally only there as a foil for humor?" and on said humor: "There's so little. Why, writers, so haggard and so woebegone?"
I can’t really do each story justice here but there is a blogger who can. She is working her way through each story with a detailed review – very interesting and entertaining reading. Go to Claire Guyton’s Sideways Reviews:
http://www.hungermtn.org/sideways-rev.... If this is too much info, there is a shorter but detailed review which discusses each story here: http://www.booksandculture.com/articl....

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Oct 18, 2011 Kimberly Faith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I find that these collections are strongest when a favorite writer of mine is editing them (similar taste, perhaps). This was one of the more disappointing volumes. Which is a shame because my good friend Sara Batkie's story "Cleavage" was listed as a distinguished story in the back of the book!!! I love looking over that list after reading the collection and sighing to see which stories that floored me throughout the year of lit journal reading didn't make the volume or didn't make the distingu...more I find that these collections are strongest when a favorite writer of mine is editing them (similar taste, perhaps). This was one of the more disappointing volumes. Which is a shame because my good friend Sara Batkie's story "Cleavage" was listed as a distinguished story in the back of the book!!! I love looking over that list after reading the collection and sighing to see which stories that floored me throughout the year of lit journal reading didn't make the volume or didn't make the distinguished stories. But, it's only fair to note that we as readers have different tastes. Geraldine is on a different page from me. It's also discouraging to see so many stories selected from The New Yorker, Atlantic, and Harpers. There are a good bit from McSweeney's too which has become as difficult to get into as the aforementioned heavyweights. Out of 20, 7 are from The New Yorker. On the other hand, it's nice to see Tin House and One Story in the mix as they are both super fine journals. I love The New Yorker and all but there are just so many top literary journals struggling it's always my hope that smaller journals will wash forward onto the BASS list.

All of my favorites except for one were stories I'd already read this year (in their original printing at each journal) but one new surprise was "La Vita Nuova" by Allegra Goodman (somehow I missed it in The New Yorker). It's filled with perfect sentences and nary a stray lazy word. It's a lesson in a simple, but perfectly crafted story about loss. The narrator is an art teacher whose fiance has left her. She takes her wedding dress into her class of young kids who then proceed to draw and paint over it as she watches. From there, she continues to use her art skills on children's toys as she deals with the loss of her fiance and the gain of a young boy that she babysits and takes on adventures throughout Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's a swift story of a few pages but packs in such a believable world that the last sentence broke my heart.

My second favorite was Megan Mayhew Bergman's "Housewifely Arts" which I'd read earlier in the year in One Story. It's beautifully written, funny, and slyly moving. Essentially, a daughter mourning her mother's death drives to a zoo to find the former house-pet parrot that can mimic her mother's voice.

I loved Bret Anthony Johnston's story "Soldier of Fortune" from Glimmer Train up to the ending, which rang so sadly false and flat to me.

I enjoyed Rebecca Makkai's story "Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart" from Tin House which, yup, I'd read in the journal earlier. Lastly, "Property" by Elizabeth McCracken from Granta and Tom Bissell's "A Bridge Under Water" from Agni were great reads.

Six wonderful stories out of twenty isn't the best percentage for me as a reader but as with anything give it a go. Stories don't just entertain but answer questions we can't solve ourselves. This volume may be better meant for you than it was for me. (less)

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Apr 11, 2012 Victor Carson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

I don't read many short stories or short story collections, but chose this volume because Geraldine Brooks, one of my favorite writers, is the editor of the 2011 edition. I even read the introductions and thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Brooks' discussion of the type of short story she likes and what she likes specifically in the stories in the 2011 collection.

Four stories particularly appealed to me: Foster, by Claire Keegan; Gurov in Manhattan, by Elud Havazelet; Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart, by Rebec...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Ally Armistead rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Every year, I look forward to BASS with breathless anticipation. As a great lover and writer of the short story form, reading this collection is the holy mecca of genius and inspiration. My favorites over the years have included Stephen King's 2007 edition, and last year's (2010) Richard Russo's edition, so when I found out that Geraldine Brooks--author of March and A Year of Wonders--was 2011's guest selector, I was psyched.

However, while there were a handful of truly exceptional stories in Bro...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Geoff rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm rating this as a collection, and not the individual stories. Some of them were quite exceptional.
I found this year's collection to be disappointing. In the introduction, the editor called for creativity and new subjects, for authors to experience the world before writing. I found that advice to be frustrating, don't we all experience the world? Can we all afford to quit our jobs and spend a year in Afghanistan before putting pen to paper? Regardless, it would have been encouraging if the sto...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Chris is currently reading it · review of another edition

Making my way through this one. So far, on a scale from (1) "Wish I had those 15-30 minutes back" to (5) "Read, Reread, Repeat":

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "Ceiling" 3

Megan Mayhew Bergman "Housewifely Arts" 4

Tom Bissell "A Bridge Under Water" 2

Jennifer Egan "Out of Body" 3

Nathan Englander "Free Fruit for Young Widows" 2

Allegra Goodman "La Vita Nuova" 3

Ehud Havazelet "Gurov in Manhattan" 1

Caitlin Horrocks "The Sleep" 4

Bret Anthony Johnston "Soldier of Fortune" 4.5
No surprise here, btw. Pretty much...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Natalie Serber rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 20, 2012 Elizabeth B rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As with most collections, the stories will be hit or miss depending on the type of reading you like. I did not, unfortunately, notice the editor of this collection until after accepting this book for review. I am not a fan of Brooks’ writing and the chosen stories certainly follow the same style. I was able to find very few that even remotely appealed to me within the collection and usually I’m able to find a gem in the midst, so to speak. Each story does have its own merits and will appeal to m...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Deb Oestreicher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an excellent collection of short stories. I had read a number of them before because I subscribe to The New Yorker (several of the winning stories were published there first), but they were all worth reading again. In fact, many of the stories drove me back to reread the beginning in any case.

Some favorite stories here include George Saunders' "Escape from Spiderhead" (which convinced me he's actually pretty great after I was sure I'd become sick of him), Jennifer Egan's "Out of Body" (...more

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May 23, 2012 April rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe this deserves 4 stars; I think Brooks did a great job picking the stories, but some of them I just slogged through. Some were fantastic; I particularly liked Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jennifer Eagan, Richard Powers, Mark Slouka, and George Saunders. My favorite was Allegra Goodman's La Vita Nuova, about a woman whose fiance dumps her, and her first act is to let kindergarteners paint on her vintage wedding dress. Interesting tone, good plot, and a great main character! As always, Joyce Car...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Kawai rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The problem with short story collections, especially collections encompassing a wide range of authors, is the uneven nature inherent in the result. The latest Best American Short Stories is no different: there are stories that play with point of view, stories that work off a confusion of chronology, and stories set in countries most readers have never visited. Guest editor Brooks argues in her foreword that stories are best when they push the readers this way, but is she necessarily right?

The an...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Marco rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english, fiction

I love Geraldine Brooks books and I was googling her to see if she had published any new book. I was disappointed to discover she hadn't, but I was intrigued to discover that she was the 2011 editor for "The Best American Short Stories" series. I decided to give it a try. The stories have very little in common. They span multiple literary genres and narrative styles. Some of them are powerful, poetic, and touching: a good example is "Housewifely Arts" by Megan Mayhew Bergman, focusing on the rel...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Abbigail rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My review was originally published here:

http://themissingslate.com/2012/09/12...

When I picked up The Best American Short Stories 2011 at Bloomsbury, a small but popular book store in my town, I was looking forward to a variegated collection filled with voices both old and new, hand-selected from the vast amount of literary journals in existence. I was disappointed to find thirty percent of the stories were from The New Yorker; Tin House and McSweeney appeared twice. Whether or not these stories...more My review was originally published here:

http://themissingslate.com/2012/09/12...

When I picked up The Best American Short Stories 2011 at Bloomsbury, a small but popular book store in my town, I was looking forward to a variegated collection filled with voices both old and new, hand-selected from the vast amount of literary journals in existence. I was disappointed to find thirty percent of the stories were from The New Yorker; Tin House and McSweeney appeared twice. Whether or not these stories are truly ‘the best’, the scope of the search was narrow. It is always easier to look at the pieces from reputable magazines, and I suspect this is what Geraldine Brooks did, than to read through the surge of new names popping up every few minutes. But this is what we must do, if we hope to discover budding talents that are still not yet broken by rules that attempt to define what a short story looks like.

Though I enjoyed many of the stories, I couldn’t help but notice their uniformity—heavily plotted with a winding middle and a few beautiful closing sentences that attempt to justify the boredom we have endured. Housewifely Arts by Megan Mayhew Bergman, for example, is about a daughter whose guilt drives her to seek out her mother’s parrot—a bird the daughter despises but which ultimately holds the last remnant of her deceased mother. Her journey down memory lane seems to me nothing but trivial, yet by the end of the story I had almost exclaimed “Wow, that was wonderful!” I later realized that my reaction was solely based on the two last sentences, which wrap up the story beautifully: “But I know the truth now. What maniacs we are—sick with love, all of us.” If we read a story only for its ending, that would have done. But for me reading, like life, is not solely about the destination but also the journey.

My favorite in this anthology is The Sleep by Caitlin Horrocks. It is narrated in the second person plural— the “we” identifies as the people of Bounty, a small town. One by one the people of the town go to sleep through the winter, letting the structure around them fall into ruin. Considering the recent bankruptcies of California’s towns and cities such as Stockton and San Bernardino, the story is more relevant than ever. Whether through economic depression or other tragedies, life is drained from these towns. Sleep, for the people of a dying town, is not too unreasonable and rather economical, and as Horrocks writes, “After the lumber, after the mines, after the railroad, after the interstate, after the crops, after the cows, after the jobs. We’re better neighbors in warm bed than we ever were awake.”

Aside from The Sleep, I have little praise. I preordered the 2012 anthology and ardently hope that it does not limit itself to publishing stories from a few prestigious magazines, neglecting the great fiction out there that would have easily taken the place of some of the stories chosen for the 2011 collection.(less)

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Dec 03, 2011 Brad Hodges rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This year's volume of Best American Short Stories, edited by Geraldine Brooks, offers the usual eclectic fare, in stories ranging from comic to tragic, and located in such far-flung places as Ireland, Nigeria, Jerusalem and Rome. They range from the starkly realistic to the fantastic. All of them are interesting, but of course I liked some much better than others. I will say that I found none of them out-and-out bad.

I also found the opening essays interesting, both by Brooks and series editor He...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Pam Torres rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The editor, Geraldine Brooks writes, "A great piece of writing is one you feel on your skin." I thought this described accurately the pieces in the 2011 compilation. This is the best way to get familiar with the short story narrative. Each and every story effectively created a mood, unity of effect and the use of only a few characters.
I find reading these I can analyze what each writer does. Tight the sentences and perfectly balanced scenes where, "the beginning and the end are precisely anchor...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

These anthologies are amazing. Not every story is super but at least half of them are. I discover the best modern American writers every year by reading this anthology. This year my discoveries are: 1) Caitlin Horrocks, whose story, The Sleep, is a straightforward exploration of people like me who would be much happier if we could just sleep through winter and wake up when spring begins; 2) Claire Keegan, whose story, Foster, had the richest description of character and place I have ever read; a...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Vannessa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had to buy this book for my Beginners into Creative Writing Class for Fiction and Poetry. Never have I finished reading a 'textbook' and not be able to put it down. To say I loved this book would be a serious understatement. Now I know some of the storyies maybe questionable but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I feel it has really changed my perspective on not only writing but story telling in general. This made me want to make a story that soemone will read and have a strong emotional...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-fiction

A great collection to spark book group discussion!

It's pretty dark down there. But groping through the darkness and into the light together can be just the challenge to ignite a stellar book group conversation.

In fact, that's what just happened when our local book group got together over appetizers and The Best American Short Stories 2011. Although we all agreed that this was a rather bleak collection - with occasional and welcome rays of light - we had so much to talk about (twenty stories, to...more A great collection to spark book group discussion!

It's pretty dark down there. But groping through the darkness and into the light together can be just the challenge to ignite a stellar book group conversation.

In fact, that's what just happened when our local book group got together over appetizers and The Best American Short Stories 2011. Although we all agreed that this was a rather bleak collection - with occasional and welcome rays of light - we had so much to talk about (twenty stories, to be exact) and the content was so diverse that our conversation soared.

Our favorites in this collection included Irish writer Claire Keegan's gentle, affecting "Foster", the tale of a poor young girl sent to spend a summer with a couple who've recently lost their own young son; George Saunders' speculative "Escape from Spiderhead" (think "Harrison Bergeron" set in a human testing lab for psycho-active drugs); "To The Measures Fall" by Richard Powers, a piece about how one's shifting responses to the same novel over the course of one's life reveal more about who we are than about the story itself; and Caitlin Horrocks's "The Sleep", which intrigued the English teachers in our group with its third person plural perspective and provided plenty of grist for the conversational mill with its core premise: a town so depressing in winter that its citizens begin to hybernate from Thanksgiving through Easter.

And then there were the stories that stymied one or all ("Gurov in Manhattan" in particular); these, in fact, led to some of the most animated and thought-provoking discussions of all.

In addition, the introductory essays by series curator Heidi Pitlor and guest editor Geraldine Brooks offer fascinating and candid perspectives on the state of the contemporary American short story that readers will find intriguing.

Even with its somewhat sobering overall tone, I would heartily recommend this collection - or others in this series - to book groups. Most of our members noted with enthusiasm how much they enjoyed exploring this genre, one they don't usually indulge in, but we all agreed that the best way to read a grouping like this is to ration: read one per day and let it "sink in", percolate through your consciousness a bit, before moving on to the next.

I give this a five-star rating for book groups who welcome a diversity of opinions to match varied but high quality content.

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Feb 06, 2012 Sarah Pi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anthologies, short-stories

A solid entry in the series. The cycle of selection for these anthologies must be an odd one. One of the stories is a chapter from "A Visit From the Goon Squad," and I'm fairly sure another chapter was published in a previous Best American edition.
I liked about half of the stories in here. I've liked everything I've read of Rebecca Makkai, and I should really seek out her novel. I also enjoyed Megan Mayhew Bergman's "Housewifely Arts," Allegra Goodman's "La Vita Nuova," Caitlin Horrocks' "The S...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Mollie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh, sigh. Every year, I eagerly await the release of this collection, because I love short stories, and I am particularly partial to American short stories, and often these collections are just SO GOOD. Sadly, this is not one of those years. Sure, there are a few good ones; I liked Caitlin Horrocks's "The Sleep" and Sam Lipsyte's "The Dungeon Master" and Elizabeth McCracken's "Property". Steven Millhauser's "Phantoms" was interesting and gave me some shivers up my spine, and Richard Powers's "To...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Alan Bates rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mine

I love short stories and look forward to the each year's edition of the Best American Short Stories comes out. Each year there is a different editor and it is interesting to see what they pick. Also interesting is that each of the authors gets a short bio section and an opportunity to talk about the story. It's amazing how long these authors have been perfecting their craft and how educated they are. I think the competition is intense for an author to get their works published. Also interesting...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Georgiana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three and a half stars. Some stories were amazing, others just didn't work for me.

Ceiling, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- 3 stars
Housewifely Arts, by Megan Mayhew Bergman -- 5 stars
A Bridge Under Water, by Tom Bissell -- 2 stars
Out of Body, by Jennifer Egan -- 4.5 stars
Free Fruit for Young Widows, by Nathan Englander -- 5 stars
La Vita Nuova, by Allegra Goodman -- 3 stars
Gurov in Manhattan, by Ehud Havazelet -- 2 stars
The Sleep, by Caitlin Horrocks -- 4 stars
Soldier of Fortune, by Bret Anthony J...more

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