false 90871 1 The works that editor Ben Marcus has collected in <I>The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories</I>, while diverse in their stylistic methods, are uniformly accomplished. An almost confoundingly cerebral and brilliant novelist and short story writer, Marcus is a genre unto himself, a linguistic alchemist not primarily known for spinning yarns. It's to Marcus's credit that the stories in this anthology span a wide swath of American writing, not just the outer reaches of narrative invention. In his introduction, he calibrates our literary compass, proclaiming:<p> <blockquote>Stories keep mattering by reimagining their own methods, manners, and techniques. A writer has to believe, and prove, that there are, if not new stories, then new ways of telling old ones.</blockquote><p> The collection includes 29 of these new ways of telling stories. Herein are experiments with form by David Foster Wallace and Joe Wenderoth, flawless executions of realism from Mark Richard and Jhumpa Lahiri, and stories that waver in what could most easily be described as parallel realities. The granddaddy of this latter category, George Saunders's "Sea Oak," brilliantly fuses the inherent humor of male stripping with the undead. Elsewhere Gary Lutz proves himself to be one of our foremost artists of the sentence in "People Shouldn't Have to Be the Ones to Tell You," and Christine Schutt serves up "You Drive," an elusive piece unsettling with undertones of father-daughter incest. <p> The varied treasures in <I>The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories</I> accelerate outward into new modes of American writing as if from a radiant nucleus. While each story is daring in its own right, the most daring feat of all might have been including them all under the same cover. <I>--Ryan Boudinot</I> 87692 book 10 8 2004 The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories total:202|5:61|4:84|3:39|2:17|1:1| 202 793 260 35 2 4 false false Sun Nov 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 00:55:40 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 15 22:14:14 -0800 2008
"The Caretaker" by Anthony Doerr
"When Mr. Pirazda Came to Dine" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"Tiny, Smiling Daddy" by Mary Gaitskill

Some of the contributions, although they don't fully succ...more...]]> 4 0 true false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 09:48:40 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 17:16:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Oct 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 21:17:13 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 18:25:56 -0700 2009
Stand-outs:

"Tiny, Smiling Daddy" by Mary Gaitskill (about a father/daughter relationship)
"X Number of Possibilites" by Joanna Scott (which I enjoyed for the beautiful, tight language of the prose)
"Short Ta...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sat May 17 11:52:42 -0700 2008 Sat May 17 11:56:27 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Fri Aug 14 08:25:23 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 08:33:44 -0700 2009 Pastoralia) and the mysterious Wells Tower ("Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned," apparently available in his book of the same name), neither of whom I was fa...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 09 18:01:19 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 18:16:57 -0700 2008
While doing research for the creative writing class I will be teaching this year, I came across several recommendations for a short story contained in this book titled, "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burn...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jan 05 06:16:10 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 06:19:06 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 31 08:01:52 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 04:40:28 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Wed Apr 03 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Apr 03 09:55:57 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 09:56:34 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jul 21 20:22:01 -0700 2008 Fri May 23 23:02:46 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 20:22:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Mar 30 16:11:43 -0700 2007 Fri Mar 30 16:31:21 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 10 10:09:12 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 10:36:51 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Oct 27 15:03:19 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 15:04:10 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 12:25:07 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 12:29:37 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 22 16:28:16 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 22 16:31:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 13:59:20 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 04 16:04:01 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Nov 15 09:48:28 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 15 09:52:16 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 0 true false Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Aug 05 20:37:11 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 05 20:39:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Dec 05 12:21:06 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 07 16:12:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sat Jan 05 16:22:06 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 16:29:08 -0800 2008 ]]>