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The Best American Short Stories 2008 (The Best American Short Stories)

by Salman Rushdie (Editor), Heidi Pitlor (Series Editor)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 1,072 ratings · 182 reviews

This brilliant collection, edited by the award-winning and perennially provocative Salman Rushdie, boasts a “magnificent array” (Library Journal) of voices both new and recognized.With Rushdie at the helm, the 2008 edition “reflects the variety of substance and style and the consistent quality that readers have come to expect” (Publishers Weekly).

“We all live in and with a...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published October 8th 2008 by Mariner Books

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Mar 16, 2009 Joseph rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone interested in fine writing in general and the short story genre in particular.

Recommended to Joseph by: Myself

While I have read only 30% of the stories so far, I'd like to make a preliminary comment,while recognizing that such a way of judging a work of art is both dangerous and subject to change. However, since we are dealing with unrelated short stories ,the problem is not so severe.
To begin,all editor's are subject to their prejudices when selecting "the best" of anything. Rushdie admits as much in the introduction,which ,thankfully says a lot more than series editor,Heidi Pitlor, does. Ms.Pitlor...more While I have read only 30% of the stories so far, I'd like to make a preliminary comment,while recognizing that such a way of judging a work of art is both dangerous and subject to change. However, since we are dealing with unrelated short stories ,the problem is not so severe.
To begin,all editor's are subject to their prejudices when selecting "the best" of anything. Rushdie admits as much in the introduction,which ,thankfully says a lot more than series editor,Heidi Pitlor, does. Ms.Pitlor seems to have a problem with waht is meant by best,or American. Short,or stories.I'm surprised she had no problem with "the."
At any rate if you love Rushdie,you will probably love his selections. I merely like Rushdie and consequently merely like the collection.
While I am not a big fan of surprise endings, I think the one in "Admiral" works well. T.C. Boyle does a nice job in leading up to it.
I likes "Virgins" also, although I believe they are an endangered species.While the story is not a new one and the ending somewhat predictable,Danielle Evans has written an enjoyable story.
I was less impressed with Goodman's "Closely Held." It's been awhile, but I remember feeling the writing a bit strained..forced. Perhaps the fact I hate computers has something to do with it.
I was not at all enamoured of "The Worst You Ever Feel."It was another story I felt was "forced." I like literature that flows;that has a sure rhythm to it. That's something Hemingway and Faulkner did equally well, though one wrote very short declarative sentences and the other wrote sentences of unsure parentage and several pages in length.
I very much enjoyed Krauss' "From the Desk of Daniel Varsky." I think it's well paced and well written. It's also quite clever. I think modern readers prefer that type of writing today,although I still pine for writing that actually says something profound about the "human condition."
A final note. All of the stories ,I've mentioned are,of course, examples of writing at a high level.My concerns about some of them are more a reflection of my own personal taste than anything else.
To fault a writer for not satisfying some particular reader whim(as too many inexperienced would be critics do)is both unfair and unwarranted.
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Marian "Big issues" or "small issues" who can tell when beginning a sstory? All issues are "Human" issues." Often it is in the small things that we are able...more
Mar 17, 2009 11:46am

Joseph Marian,
You make some interesting points, but I think you have misunderstood my point. I would never think Frost'a poem to to be a work that dealt wit...more
Mar 17, 2009 08:14pm

Dec 31, 2008 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Despite two incredibly lame introductions from both editor Salman Rushdie and series editor Heidi Pitlor (exactly how many variations on "What is 'Best'?" "What is 'American'?" "What is 'Short'?" "What is 'The'?" will we have to read before they find some other solution for the opening pages?), this book was definitely one of the better ones in the series. Way to go Salman! It does seem strange, though, that among the thousands of stories that came out this year, so many of the "Best" (whatever...more

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Jan 28, 2009 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

What I like most about this collection is the variety. There are some insanely dark stories, and some happier stories, some rigidly realistic stories, and some fantastical stories. I think this shows the wide variety that good writing comes in and challenges the rigid genre boundaries that I hate, but that everyone seems compelled to impose on quality fiction. As far as I'm concerned, a good story is a good story and this year's anthology has plenty of those. Some notables include "The Year of S...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Sarah Pi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies, fiction_non_genre

There are only a handful of stories I enjoyed among those compiled here. My favorite was "The Worst You Ever Feel", by Rebecca Makkai, richly imagined and infused with music and history. Having just read Chabon's entreaty to put action back into fiction, which I fully support, I couldn't help but notice the preponderence of slice-of-life stories.
I put the book down, forgot about it, picked it up again. I went through the first lines of all of the stories, and the first paragraphs. "Make somethi...more

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Feb 11, 2009 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars

"What I learned from this book"... hmmm, that maybe there's a reason why the publishing industry is crashing along with every other industry - most modern short fiction (at least as represented here) is stylistically, linguistically, and thematically redundant. This could easily have been "The Best American Short Stories (fill in any year since 1987). I was much more impressed with the work in the "Best New American Voices." Good, well-crafted, well-written, polished stories of which I remember...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Carl Duzett rated it 2 of 5 stars

This edition's guest editor was Salman Rushdie, who pared down the top 120 or so stories selected by Heidi Pitlor into just 20 stories. Unfortunately, that didn't make those 20 stories any better. Especially after a 2008 edition that had five or six truly amazing stories, with almost all the others impressing in one way or another, this one was pretty disappointing. There were several stories that definitely classified as “good”, but the majority of the collection was pretty head-scratch-inducin...more This edition's guest editor was Salman Rushdie, who pared down the top 120 or so stories selected by Heidi Pitlor into just 20 stories. Unfortunately, that didn't make those 20 stories any better. Especially after a 2008 edition that had five or six truly amazing stories, with almost all the others impressing in one way or another, this one was pretty disappointing. There were several stories that definitely classified as “good”, but the majority of the collection was pretty head-scratch-inducing. “Missionaries” was stuffed full of awkward dialogue, unreasonable motives, and clumsy anti-religious sentiment, particularly against a specific religion. “The King of Sentences” was a horribly abstract mess with insane characters with no way for any normal reader to identify with them. Then there were the topical stories involving grad students, professors, poets, etc.--the typical incestuous nonsense that's killing the modern short story.

“The Year of Silence” was an interesting, albeit gimmicky story that was at least risky and entertaining. Another story was fairly ho-hum until a crazy twist ending occurred, which is not usually the stuff of High Literary Shorts. Alice Munro had a typically strong story in there, because, y'know, it wouldn't be the Best American Short Stories without throwing a Munro into it. Surprisingly, her story took place in Canada, and she used a first-person female narrator! Sarcasm aside, it also displayed some of her superb command of story, where things that don't seem to make much sense all come together in the end, making it a pretty strong, tight story. I also marked the anthology's final story as one worth re-reading, something by Tobias Wolff that read really well despite there being nothing really radical or noteworthy about it. I'm still trying to pinpoint why I liked that story, and it may just be that it was written really well.

The two stories that I was most impressed by, though, and make this anthology at least worth picking up off the shelf to read a select couple stories in your bookstore, were “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” and “Buying Lenin.” I was initially wary of “Vampires” because it seemed to be a gimmicky reincarnation of “St. Lucy's Home For Wolves,” which I wasn't a huge fan of. But the main character's dilemma was not only intriguing, but very humanizing and reflective of some of this life's most important conflicts—family, and death. You feel very powerfully for the guy and for his centuries' old relationship, and while it's no cut-and-dry parable of any sort, you get the feeling that you can learn a lot from the story, in a very odd, angular way.

“Buying Lenin” was, though, easily my favorite of the collection. Honest and humorous, and very tight. The characters felt very real, importantly so, and the structure of the story was brilliant. And not brilliant in a rocket-scientist-with-a-chalkboard way: brilliant in a “this is the only way this line should be written, and the only place it belongs is right here in this part of the story” way. Emotional intuition as a form of brilliance? I dunno. I just know that this story felt less pompous than anything else in the book, and more right.

In the end, this was a lackluster collection of short stories, and either Rushdie has vastly different aesthetics than I do, or he was wildly unambitious in selecting these stories. (less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Allison added it

The best BASS collection in years, mainly due to the fact that Salman Rushdie is the editor. It's obvious that he chose these stories to form a book that culls from an incredible diversity of voices and styles, not merely stories that he "likes" or that are similar to his own work. Stephen King, last year's editor, could take a huge lesson from this. It certainly upped my enjoyment factor that some of my favorite writers are included this year: A.M. Homes, Alice Munro, Tobias Wolff, and T.C. Boy...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Chantal rated it 5 of 5 stars

Since 1978, the best American short stories have been collected annually in a series plainly enough titled The Best American Short Stories. The Houghton Mifflin Company publishes it and Heidi Pitlor is the series editor. She does the heavy lifting, reading thousands of short stories published in such well-respected literary magazines as The New Yorker and in many more obscure publications, as well as the stories published by various university presses. It’s Pitlor’s job to whittle the collectio...more Since 1978, the best American short stories have been collected annually in a series plainly enough titled The Best American Short Stories. The Houghton Mifflin Company publishes it and Heidi Pitlor is the series editor. She does the heavy lifting, reading thousands of short stories published in such well-respected literary magazines as The New Yorker and in many more obscure publications, as well as the stories published by various university presses. It’s Pitlor’s job to whittle the collection down to approximately one hundred stories, then it’s the guest editor’s work to choose the top twenty. Each year a different writer is invited to fill this position; past guest editors have included Stephen King (2007), Barbara Kingsolver (2001), E.L Doctorow (2000), Amy Tan (1999), Tobias Wolff (1994), Richard Ford (1990), John Updike (1984), and Joyce Carol Oates (1979). And each year the series is a popular success -- regularly landing a place on the New York Times Best Sellers’ List. The Best American Short Stories 2008 is no exception.
Salmon Rushdie, this year’s editor, admits, in his introduction, that any anthology will reflect the preferences of the editor, but he also admits, regarding stories, “I’m pretty broad church, really.” This is an unusually appropriate admission considering, if there is a recurring theme amongst these stories (beyond old-fashioned naturalism), it is religion.
Take, for instance, “Missionaries” by Bradford Tice: a coming of age story, within this collection, in which Joseph, a devout boy, bike-riding through the streets of North Knoxville and door knocking for the Church of Latter- Day Saints, wrestles with the obligations of his religion, his desire to please his parents, his terror at the daunting task of soliciting for the Lord, his admiration for and disappointment in his missionary partner, and the usual temptations that haunt young men. At its core this story declares that sometimes it is the silent ones among us who are the truly devout, and that sometimes those loud voices in the choir belong to the people we need be most wary of -- an appropriate story this year, considering the recent foibles of a certain former governor.
“Man and Wife” (which, it should be noted, is Katie Chase’s first published story) calls to mind the Texas polygamy sect that made headlines in the Spring of 2008, when the main character, nine-year-old Mary Ellen, is forced to put away her Barbies in preparation for her wedding to the aging Mr. Middleton. This tale offers an intriguing look at a child bride in a contemporary religious sect, and is made even more fascinating for the unsettling effects of such commonplace words as Dixie cup, Diet Coke and Jeopardy, juxtaposed the author’s calm and competent handling of some rather condemnable material. Chase manages to serve up this tale of child brides and arranged marriages in America as if it was a mere tray of pickles and olives she was offering, while also highlighting the resiliency of man, or rather, girl.
“Hmmm, let’s see.” He’d (Mr. Middleton) mull over the choices, select a pimento-stuffed green olive. I’d turn to offer the tray to Dad, who had a penchant for sweet pickles, but then: “Please, wait just a moment – perhaps another. Hmm, let’s see.” And he’d choose a kalamata. The metal tray was heavy, but my arms grew stronger, and I learned to balance it on my shoulder.

It’s no surprise to have an Alice Munro story amongst these best of the best. Like Tice’s story, and Chase’s, Munro’s “Child Play” is also a sort of coming of age piece (although Munro’s reaches into mature adulthood) that warrants reflection on various religious notions and life choices when Marlene and Charlene, best girlfriends at a United Church of Canada summer camp, in a moment of spontaneous mischief commit an act of profound ruthlessness before returning to their respective and separate lives. The crime both shapes and haunts their remaining days, until years later, when the seriously ill Charlene solicits Marlene, a retired professor, to seek out a Father Hofstrader from the Catholic Church in order that he might hear her confession. From a religious standpoint the story speaks of the weight of sin and the individual nature of religion.
Was I not tempted, during all this palaver? Not once? Not swayed by longing, by a magical-lantern show, the promise of pardon? No. Not really. It’s not for me. What’s done is done, what’s done remains. Flocks of angels, tears of blood, notwithstanding.

“Bible” a Tobias Wolfe story expands on this notion of individuality and religion. Maureen Casey is a professor in a Catholic college, who is abducted by the desperate father of Hassan, a student of Maureen’s who has cheated on an exam. (Although, of the stories mentioned in this review, this is the first to admit a diverse cultural element, be assured many others in the collection do.) Hassan’s father, desperate to save his son from expulsion intends to force Maureen to swear on a bible that she will not report the incident to Father Crespi. The irony in the story is the religious predilections of the characters teaching and attending Saint Ignatius. Hassan and his father are Muslim, while Maureen declares, “I’ve had it with clueless men passing on orders from God.” While exploring the depths of a parent’s desperation for his child’s success, Wolfe’s story also pokes at the incongruity that lurks at the foundation of many religious schools within North America, and reminds us of the very real conflict between Muslims and Christians that, for lack of understanding and tolerance, continually threatens peace in America.
“The human being is a storytelling animal, or, actually, the storytelling animal, the only creature on Earth that tells itself stories to understand what sort of creature it is.” Salmon Rushdie reminds us of this, in his introduction. That this collection, a sampling of this year’s favorite stories, boasts so many religious tales speaks of us as a people. (Another is Rebecca Makkai’s “The Worst You Ever Feel” in which a boy’s parents brag that he is a young Rabbi for the visions he professes.) Toss in a few stories of worship at its most extreme and ridiculous -- such as T.C. Boyle’s “Admiral’ in which a wealthy couple pays two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars to have their Afghan cloned, Jonathan Lethem’s “The King of Sentences in which a pair of undergrads worship an author to a most ludicrous end, and Miroslav Penkov’s story “Buying Lenin”, a story about purchasing Lenin’s body on ebay -- and it would seem that North Americans are weighing spirituality against their consumer society. Add A.M. Holmes’ “May We Be Forgiven” to the mix, and Karen Russell’s not-so-traditional story contemplating an eternity on earth, or more accurately a living hell, in “Vampires in the Lemon Grove”, and The Best American Short Stories 2008 makes for a fair portrayal of the conscience and concerns of our North American culture, a culture strongly in support of a new president, one who advocates change and asks the people to be responsible for this change.

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Jun 15, 2009 Billie Pritchett rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Best American Short Stories series is always worth reading as a digest of a year's good stories. However, some volumes are not nearly as good as others due to bad picks from the guest editor or the series editor, or just a bad year for published short stories in general. I don't know which was the cause for the quality of this volume, but few stories I would consider memorable, vivid, or enjoyable. Those that were really good, though, were Miroslav Penkov's "Buying Lenin;" Karen Russel's "Va...more

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Feb 16, 2009 Darren rated it 3 of 5 stars

Eh..Most of these are instantly forgettable; creative/well researched but underwhelming. I don't think much is missed by skipping to The King of Sentences. The Wizard of West Orange is unique and one of the few that takes chances with voice but it requires endurance even for a short story. I think Vampires in the Lemon Grove and Nawabdin Electrician are by far the best in the collection - they are such different stories; Vampires because I think it succeeds with the quirky/humorous viewpoint of...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Chad rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-story-collections

As is the case with every volume of "Best American", this year's edition is filled with all quality writing. Not every story will appeal to every reader, nor did every story appeal to me, but I can't say anything in here just didn't work. Again, it's all quality writing.

That said, the stories from this series can usually be broken down into three categories, "Meh", "Decent", and "Great", and the 2008 edition is no different.

The Great
There were a handful of stories that really jumped out at me, a...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Kevin is currently reading it

REVIEW #1: I battled this morning's waking temptation to begin the day by watching an episode of Community (which ranks at a solid 9/10, tucked neatly behind the perfect 10/10 rated, Bo Derek of television comedies, Parks and Recreation) by reading a splendidly sad story in The Best American Short Stories 2008: Edited by Salman Rushdie, a little anthology I picked up for a single dollar's bill at the local used book shack. Karen Russell's story "Vampires in the Lemon Grove" can be found beginnin...more

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Jul 06, 2009 Tani rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, fiction, short-stories, male-author, female-author

I'm not generally a huge fan of short stories, and that held true for this collection as well. I won't say that they were bad stories, but too many of them were either depressing or slice of life, neither of which I really enjoy. It'd be really nice to read more short stories with characters who make the right choice, do the right thing, and change for the better. Reading about people screwing up their lives just makes me discontent.

Favorite stories:
1) "Buying Lenin" by Miroslav Lenkov
2) "The...more

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Nov 06, 2008 Anina Ertel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction, short-stories

Read in bed while deliriously ill with bird flu or something. Pretty much 100 percent of the stories were depressing this year. I don't really like fall.

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Jan 23, 2009 Olivia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Is it a coincidence that the first handful of stories in this collection were my favorites? Or is this further evidence of my reaction to most short story collections - I read them earnestly and appreciatively at first, and then I sort of get bored with the format?

In any case, there were some amazing stories in here, a few duds, and some so-sos. The stories I was most impressed with, that stuck with me the most were:

Admiral - T.C. Boyle
The Year of Silence - Kevin Brockmeier (*LOVED IT*)
Man And W...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Hannah rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Best American Short Stories of 2008 is about on par with the previous year's collection, which is to say that none of the stories in here are bad, but there are few that I would actually consider "great." Salmon Rushdie, the editor for this one, has chosen stories with a wider range of tone than Stephen King did in 2007, so I give Rushdie props for that, but overall I was still disappointed with how uninspiring most of these stories were.

The stand outs:

Rebecca Makkai, "The Worst You Ever Fee...more

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Apr 02, 2010 Meg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

Salman Rushdie's editorial eye provides an impressive collection of stories for the 2008 edition of this long-running series, with many of the stories providing a welcome twist on the litfic mold. Katie Chase's "Man and Wife" contains a very interesting twist, Steven Millhauser's "The Wizard of West Orange" is a delightful look back to the awe of fin de siecle scientific discovery, and two absolutely exceptional stories (Kevin Brockmeier's "The Year of Silence" and Rebecca Makkai's "The Worst Yo...more

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Jul 16, 2009 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, stories

Kevin Brockmeier's "The Year of Silence" is terrific -- a fantastically smart story that transcends what could be a gimmicky premise, and is as sincerely compelled by its imagined world as it is compelling. Check it out. Second runner-up would be "The Wizard of West Orange" by Steven Millhauser (in some ways, a literary kindred spirit to Brockmeier). Otherwise, this is a big yawn of a collection, ranging from the unobjectionable to the so-so to the ploddingly competent to the mediocre. (I read a...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Jillian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, ots-challenge, short-stories

Almost all of these stories were a pleasure to read, though some lost strength in their endings. A collection to keep.

My favorites:
"The Worst You Ever Feel" Rebecca Makkai
"The Year of Silence" Kevin Brockmeier
"Buying Lenin" Miroslav Penkov

The stories I also liked quite a bit:
"Admiral" T. C. Boyle
"Man and Wife" Katie Chase
"From the Desk of Daniel Varsky" Nicole Krauss
"The Wizard of West Orange" Steven Millhauser
"Vampires in the Lemon Grove" Karen Russell
"Child's Play" Alice Munro
"Puppy" George Sa...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Brandon O'Neill rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a pretty good set, but I liked the previous edition I read a bit better. No stories really stood out until the end. My favories this year:
The Year of Silence by Kevin Brockmeier was interesting about a few moments of silence and how that affected people.
The King of Sentences by Jonathan Lethem was weirdly entertaining about 2 young people obsessed with an obscure author.
Buying Lenin by Miroslav Penkov about a grandfather and grandson in post-Communist Russia was my favorite.
Vam...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really like this series. The different editors each year ensure that (across the series anyway) you don't get that sense that you're just rereading the same story over and over again. I have to admit that I accidentally left the book on an airplane, so I didn't read the last two stories. But, even if they were exceptionally good or exceptionally bad, my rating would probably still stand.

My one issue was with the story, "Missionaries". I'm OK with the fact that one elder was portrayed as a for...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read all 323 pages so you do not have to.

Here are, what I consider to be, the best of the Marginally Good American Short Stories:

Kevin Brockmeier "The Year of Silence" which originated in the lit. mag. Ecotone, whose Evolution contest resulted in the longest wait ever for a rejection letter. It is still a good magazine; I blame the guest judge.

Jonathan Lethem "The King of Sentences"

Steven Millhauser "The Wizard of West Orange" (This was my pick for the best of the best)

George Saunders "Puppy"

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Jan 05, 2010 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Kevin Brockmeier is always a treat--The Year Of Silence reminds me of the kind of dreamy supernatural short stories I wrote to get into Columbia.

Alice Munro's Child's Play is magnificent and devastatingly haunting. Eesh.

George Saunders's Puppy is perfect in its brevity, funny and unassuming.

But by far my outstanding favorite is Steven Millhauser's The Wizard of West Orange. An actual steampunk Edison/Tesla crazy invention lab story! In Best American! Written in breathless, article-less prose tha...more

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Oct 25, 2009 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, fiction, short-stories, own

I guess my problem is that I'm not "literary" enough. But I like to think that I know a good story when I read one. And there were, probably 4 in this collection of 20. Maybe five. So I would have to go with 1/4th of the stories that I enjoyed. Or understood, maybe.

I've been taught maybe things about the art of crafting a short story, and because of that I've had the time to develop my own opinions based on the opinions and teachings of others. One thing that I believe must hold true in a short...more

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Apr 26, 2009 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

It's been my january ritual for the past several years to start the best short story anthology. ..this year it took 4 months of intermittent reading to complete. Salman Rushdie was the guest editor, and I must say, I liked his overall taste much more than last year's, Stephen King. There are rarely any "bad" stories in this long-running series, of course. The permanent editor reads thousands of submitted entries and transmits a fraction to the guest editor who makes the final choices, which incl...more

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Mar 10, 2009 Tiny Pants rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, short-stories, series

Either I'm really procrastinating packing my stuff to move later this week, or this was the best Best American in a few years, because I read this in about three days flat. Yes, it was a bit heavy on the genocide, creepy and manipulative lovers, and cruelty to pets (I know, I'm going to hell for casually tossing off that as a list) but come on people, it's literary fiction, what do you expect. Depressing or not, this was a much stronger collection than 2006 or 2007, possibly the best of the '00s...more

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Jul 23, 2009 Harley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jan 09: I keep all the editions of these when I buy them, and traveling would be too rough on this heavy paperback, so it waits for me at home.

July 20: One of the fun things about this series is that the guest editor flavors the final selections. There is a series editor who reads thousands of stories, and delivers at least 120 to the guest editor, who reads those and maybe others that he or she has found, and winnows it down to about twenty stories. I would say that a quarter of Rushdie's choic...more

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Nov 08, 2008 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

As typical with these sorts of collections, it's hit and miss. But luckily this year, more often there were hits and despite being a fan of lit mags, most of these were new to me which made for an exciting experience. Short stories are an unappreciated art, I think. When done well, they're about as close as literature can come to perfection. They require an author to do so much with minimal space and the best stories are those that get you right in the gut. Several this year did that for me. Bro...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Kevin Quinley rated it 4 of 5 stars

A short story compendium seems highly suitable given my daily reading diet of text messages, blog entries, and message board posts. Fortunately, these selected tales allow me to binge guilt free on carefully constructed narratives with themes ranging from the mundane (Alice Munro's "Closely Held") to the metaphysical realm ("The Year of Silence"). To be sure, this literary buffet is subject to your own tastes, and while I wasn't particularly compelled by "The Worst You Ever Feel" or the "Wizard...more

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May 11, 2009 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Back to form. Standouts included "The Year of Silence," "Puppy" and "From the Desk of Daniel Varsky." Boyle is consistently good and I enjoy his short fiction more than his novel.

This year the forewords grabbed me with the interesting thoughts about what is "American" anymore. There are authors who have come from somewhere else to become American, or at least spend most of their time here. There are Americans now living other places. Are they still American? Just interesting.

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About Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a novelist and essayist. Much of his early fiction is set at least partly on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism, while a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western world.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, led to protests from Muslims in several coun...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3192709-the-best-american-short-stories-2008?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327935613l/3192709.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3192709-the-best-american-short-stories-2008?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Best American Short Stories 2008 by Salman Rushdie[/url]

The Best American Short Stories 2008 (The Best American Short Stories)

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