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O. Henry Prize Stories 2008
An annual collection of the twenty best contemporary short stories selected by series editor Laura Furman from hundreds of literary magazines, The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008 is studded with extraordinary settings and a teenager in survivalist Alaska, the seed keeper of a doomed Chinese village, a young woman trying to save her life in a Ukrainian internet café. Also included are the winning writers' comments on what inspired them, a short essay from each of the three eminent jurors, and an extensive resource list of literary magazines.
372 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2008
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226 people want to read
About the author
Laura Furman
67 books59 followersLaura J. Furman (born 1945) is an American author best known for her role as series editor for the O. Henry Awards prize story collection. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Mirabella, Ploughshares, Southwest Review.
She has written three collections of stories (The Glass House, Watch Time Fly, and Drinking with the Cook), two novels (The Shadow Line and Tuxedo Park), and a memoir (Ordinary Paradise).
She founded American Short Fiction, which was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award. She is currently Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in writing. Most recently, she has announced that she has submitted a collection of short stories to her agent, and the subsequent collection will be her first new work to follow the release of 2001's Drinking with the Cook.
She has written three collections of stories (The Glass House, Watch Time Fly, and Drinking with the Cook), two novels (The Shadow Line and Tuxedo Park), and a memoir (Ordinary Paradise).
She founded American Short Fiction, which was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award. She is currently Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in writing. Most recently, she has announced that she has submitted a collection of short stories to her agent, and the subsequent collection will be her first new work to follow the release of 2001's Drinking with the Cook.
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August 21, 2008
Each year, short story lovers eagerly anticipate two collections of stories: The Best American Short Stories collection published by Houghton Mifflin, and the O. Henry Prize Stories, edited by Laura Furman and published by Anchor. While the "Best American" series contains many worthy stories and authors (this year, the series editor is Salman Rushdie and the winners include Nicole Krauss, A.M. Homes, and Jonathan Lethem), the choices tend to be a bit more conventional than the O. Henry stories. For that reason, if I had to pick one short story anthology to read all year, I'd pick the O. Henry, if only to be introduced to writers whose work is unfamiliar to me. (There is a bit of crossover, since Alice Munro, unsurprisingly, turns up in both volumes, as does Steven Millhauser).
This year's series doesn't disappoint. The subjects range from a woman who joins a polyamorous society that she stumbled upon somewhere in an unspecified country outside the United States ("The Necessity of Certain Behaviors" by Sharon Cain) to a pre-teen growing up with her gruff, secretive father in a remote part of America ("Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska," by first-time author Tony Tulathimutte) to a composer whose unwilling babysitting for his girlfriend's bird brings unexpected benefits to his art ("A Composer and His Parakeets," by Ha Jin). The narrative forms also vary widely -- we get conventional narrative; a couple of stories written as a series of scenes; and another story that contains no characters at all, save the bizarre, baroque dresses designed by a mysterious fashion designer calling himself "Hyperion" ("A Change in Fashion" by Steven Millhauser, which, thanks to its strange flights of fancy, is at turns the most intriguing and most frustrating story in the collection.)
While not all the stories make a hugely favorable impression ("Bye Bye Natalia," by Michael Faber, about a Russian, HIV-positive mail-order bride, is a bit forced and obvious in spots), there's not a real dud in the lot. Some, like Rose Tremain's little jewel "A Game of Cards," stun with their ability to convey so much truth in such a compact package. Alexi Zentner's "Touch" and Olaf Olafsson's "On the Lake" also deserve special mention for their extraordinarily controlled and beautiful tone -- you find yourself almost holding your breath while reading, for fear you'll break the spell.
If you love short stories -- heck, if you even like short stories -- pick this one up.
This year's series doesn't disappoint. The subjects range from a woman who joins a polyamorous society that she stumbled upon somewhere in an unspecified country outside the United States ("The Necessity of Certain Behaviors" by Sharon Cain) to a pre-teen growing up with her gruff, secretive father in a remote part of America ("Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska," by first-time author Tony Tulathimutte) to a composer whose unwilling babysitting for his girlfriend's bird brings unexpected benefits to his art ("A Composer and His Parakeets," by Ha Jin). The narrative forms also vary widely -- we get conventional narrative; a couple of stories written as a series of scenes; and another story that contains no characters at all, save the bizarre, baroque dresses designed by a mysterious fashion designer calling himself "Hyperion" ("A Change in Fashion" by Steven Millhauser, which, thanks to its strange flights of fancy, is at turns the most intriguing and most frustrating story in the collection.)
While not all the stories make a hugely favorable impression ("Bye Bye Natalia," by Michael Faber, about a Russian, HIV-positive mail-order bride, is a bit forced and obvious in spots), there's not a real dud in the lot. Some, like Rose Tremain's little jewel "A Game of Cards," stun with their ability to convey so much truth in such a compact package. Alexi Zentner's "Touch" and Olaf Olafsson's "On the Lake" also deserve special mention for their extraordinarily controlled and beautiful tone -- you find yourself almost holding your breath while reading, for fear you'll break the spell.
If you love short stories -- heck, if you even like short stories -- pick this one up.
March 2, 2021
تماس مجموعه داستان برگزیدگان جایزه ادبی اُ.هنری در سال ۲۰۰۸ است. این کتاب شامل ۱۴ داستان کوتاه از نویسندگان آمریکایی سرشناس و گاه کمتر شناخته شده برای مخاطب ایرانی است که در آن سال در یکی از نشریات ادبی ایالات متحده منتشر شده و مورد توجه داوران این جایزه قرار گرفته است. هر یک از داستانهای این مجموعه و نویسندگان آنها در آفرینش ادبی، شیوه و انگیزهای متفاوت از یکدیگر و منحصر به فرد داشتهاند. برخی از آنها از فضای داستان برای روایت و تصویرسازی از اندوه عمیق خود استفاده کردهاند و برخی دیگر برای خلق یک ژانر خاص قدم در میدان داستاننویسی گذاشتهاند. جایزه اُ.هنری یک جایزه سالانه آمریکایی است که به داستانهای کوتاهی که ارزش استثنایی دارند داده میشود. این جایزه نام نویسنده هنرمند آمریکایی اُ.هنری نامگذاری شده است. داستانهای جایزه نویسندگی اُ.هنری مجموعه سالانه ۲۰ بیست داستان برتر در ایالات متحده و مجلات کانادایی است که به زبان انگلیسی نوشته شده است.
August 25, 2018
I like “Bad Neighbors”, “The Composer and His Parakeet”, and everything by Yiyun Li, but overall didn’t think this was a strong collection.
March 26, 2019
The Touch was my favorite.
February 21, 2011
Last year when I wanted to write short stories, I picked up this book to get a survey of what were supposedly the best stories by the best writers. These were the winners handpicked by the judges for the prestigious O. Henry Prize, after all.
Unfortunately I hadn't done my research and didn't realize that these stories are primarily of the literary genre. I was expecting a mixed bag of genres, not pure literary.
I have mixed feelings about this genre. Even those in the writing field have conflicted views on what comprises literary fiction. The most cynical say anything that is dreary, moves slowly, and wrapped in sufficiently vague albeit florid prose can be classified as literary. On the other hand, literary works are often non-formulaic, cannot be neatly cast to a mold, and the best ones display incredible depth and insight. They tend to demand more from the reader because much has to be read between the lines. But the reward is great for a reader who perseveres.
However, I cannot say that the works in this collection would enjoy a wide appeal from a broad audience. I suspect only MFA students in Creative Writing programs and their mentors could truly say they enjoy most of the works in this book.
There is only one story here that I really loved, strategically placed right in the middle of the book as if the editor knew it was the spice and incentive to keep the otherwise bored reader reading. It was also the most conventional of the stories, not striving to do anything new and clever or trying too hard to be profound.
LOVED:
Touch by Alexi Zenter
CAUGHT MY INTEREST:
A Change in Fashion Steven Milhauser
The Transitional Object Sheila Kohler
Prison by Yiyun Li
A Game of Cards by Rose Tremain
Every Move You Make by David Malouf
A Composer and His Parakeets by Ha Jin
WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT BUT,:
Village 113 by Anthony Doerr
Taiping by Brittani Sonnenberg
WANTED TO LIKE IT BUT IN THE END THOUGHT IT RIDICULOUS:
Bye-bye Natalia by Michel Faber
CANNOT BRING MYSELF TO CARE ABOUT SUBJECT MATTER:
Other people's deaths by Lore Segal
On the Lake by Olaf Olafsson
What Do You Want to Know For? by Alice Munro
The Necessity of Certain Behaviors Shannon Cain
Bad Neighbors by Edward P. Jones
Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska by Tony Tulathimutte
The Bullock Run by Roger McDonald
Folie a Deux by William Trevor
The Little Boy by Mary Gatskill
A Little History of Music by William Gass
This collection, for the most part, was not enjoyable. Bleakness and dreariness seem to be requisite for literary fiction. It was hard to find joy in the pages. I got so weary of it I had to force myself to finish each story over a prolonged period of many months.
Most of the stories are centered on a theme such as loss, fear, or regret. Some also played with form. I gather that the writers explored their theme and form in the story, but I just couldn't bring myself to care.
But the stories have their merits. Each sentence is beautifully crafted. The subtle prose in elegant cadences is beyond reproach. It's almost a balm to the mind-numbing loss of subtlety in many genre works (hello, Stephenie Meyer?) Often, though, they seemed to me like perfect pieces of a puzzle that don't form a remarkable whole.
1 star for Touch, which truly touched me.
1 star for writing that didn't make me want to stab someone with a blunt knife
1 star for the new ideas I got from this book
----------------------------------------------
Speaking of short stories (literary or otherwise), I recommend:(/b>
(click link to read online)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jac...
Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/cyberpunk...
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Dianna Wynne Jones
http://www.harelbarzilai.org/words/om...
The Lottery Ticket by Anton Checkhov
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/...
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Alan Poe
http://www.poemuseum.org/works-tellta...
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe (yes I love Poe)
http://www.poestories.com/read/amonti...
Unfortunately I hadn't done my research and didn't realize that these stories are primarily of the literary genre. I was expecting a mixed bag of genres, not pure literary.
I have mixed feelings about this genre. Even those in the writing field have conflicted views on what comprises literary fiction. The most cynical say anything that is dreary, moves slowly, and wrapped in sufficiently vague albeit florid prose can be classified as literary. On the other hand, literary works are often non-formulaic, cannot be neatly cast to a mold, and the best ones display incredible depth and insight. They tend to demand more from the reader because much has to be read between the lines. But the reward is great for a reader who perseveres.
However, I cannot say that the works in this collection would enjoy a wide appeal from a broad audience. I suspect only MFA students in Creative Writing programs and their mentors could truly say they enjoy most of the works in this book.
There is only one story here that I really loved, strategically placed right in the middle of the book as if the editor knew it was the spice and incentive to keep the otherwise bored reader reading. It was also the most conventional of the stories, not striving to do anything new and clever or trying too hard to be profound.
LOVED:
Touch by Alexi Zenter
CAUGHT MY INTEREST:
A Change in Fashion Steven Milhauser
The Transitional Object Sheila Kohler
Prison by Yiyun Li
A Game of Cards by Rose Tremain
Every Move You Make by David Malouf
A Composer and His Parakeets by Ha Jin
WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT BUT,:
Village 113 by Anthony Doerr
Taiping by Brittani Sonnenberg
WANTED TO LIKE IT BUT IN THE END THOUGHT IT RIDICULOUS:
Bye-bye Natalia by Michel Faber
CANNOT BRING MYSELF TO CARE ABOUT SUBJECT MATTER:
Other people's deaths by Lore Segal
On the Lake by Olaf Olafsson
What Do You Want to Know For? by Alice Munro
The Necessity of Certain Behaviors Shannon Cain
Bad Neighbors by Edward P. Jones
Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska by Tony Tulathimutte
The Bullock Run by Roger McDonald
Folie a Deux by William Trevor
The Little Boy by Mary Gatskill
A Little History of Music by William Gass
This collection, for the most part, was not enjoyable. Bleakness and dreariness seem to be requisite for literary fiction. It was hard to find joy in the pages. I got so weary of it I had to force myself to finish each story over a prolonged period of many months.
Most of the stories are centered on a theme such as loss, fear, or regret. Some also played with form. I gather that the writers explored their theme and form in the story, but I just couldn't bring myself to care.
But the stories have their merits. Each sentence is beautifully crafted. The subtle prose in elegant cadences is beyond reproach. It's almost a balm to the mind-numbing loss of subtlety in many genre works (hello, Stephenie Meyer?) Often, though, they seemed to me like perfect pieces of a puzzle that don't form a remarkable whole.
1 star for Touch, which truly touched me.
1 star for writing that didn't make me want to stab someone with a blunt knife
1 star for the new ideas I got from this book
----------------------------------------------
Speaking of short stories (literary or otherwise), I recommend:(/b>
(click link to read online)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jac...
Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/cyberpunk...
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Dianna Wynne Jones
http://www.harelbarzilai.org/words/om...
The Lottery Ticket by Anton Checkhov
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/...
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Alan Poe
http://www.poemuseum.org/works-tellta...
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe (yes I love Poe)
http://www.poestories.com/read/amonti...
September 30, 2009
In recent years I've enjoyed the O. Henry more than Best American, but I'm not sure if that was the case this year -- sadly, only because Best American was unmemorable enough this year for me to be sure without looking up my review. Quelle disappointment!
There were a few stories in here I liked a lot -- the opener from Ha Jin was lovely, and there was a Mary Gaitskill piece near the end I liked quite a bit (though less so when I read the contributor's notes -- it's odd how sometimes those can tilt your opinion).
Overall though, I find that in spite of the commentators' claims to the contrary found here, the literary short story is really dying, at least for me. I may one of these years, maybe even this year, drop the O. Henry and Best American from my annual must-read lists (BANR is definitely going, curse you, Dave Eggers). A lot of weeks even getting through the lit fic featured in the New Yorker is a slog.
Why? For me, it feels as if there's some kind of center of gravity in the literary fiction universe, and that all authors are being drawn to it. Thus we get story after story after story that is simply predictable. I mean the same themes, over and over again. The one I always harp on is animals dying -- the only place you can be MORE certain a pet will die is in an R.L. Stine book, and he freakin' announces to the world that this is part of his formula! And in this collection, there are no exceptions to this rule, not one -- even in the seemingly most cruelty-free story, you'll find a long digression on killing litters of kittens.
I don't know what the problem is -- there's a lot of debate going on in various hoity-toity circles these days about the future and the purpose of writing programs, so part of me wonders if this is just something they teach you out in Iowa. If you let a dog, or pig, or hamster survive the last page of your story, do your workshop peers simply savage your manuscript? Or is there some rule that god forbid they make a town in Canada that is not full of simple folks living simple lives in spite of the harshness of the climate? Or that a good child actually have a loving parent, or a loving parent a good child?
This is why lit fic is just killing me lately... there's no surprise. Writers have long been taught that if you show a gun in the first pages of the story, it's got to go off at some point, in order that your reader be satisfied. But this is one reader who'd be really satisfied to for once find an author had just let the gun be.
There were a few stories in here I liked a lot -- the opener from Ha Jin was lovely, and there was a Mary Gaitskill piece near the end I liked quite a bit (though less so when I read the contributor's notes -- it's odd how sometimes those can tilt your opinion).
Overall though, I find that in spite of the commentators' claims to the contrary found here, the literary short story is really dying, at least for me. I may one of these years, maybe even this year, drop the O. Henry and Best American from my annual must-read lists (BANR is definitely going, curse you, Dave Eggers). A lot of weeks even getting through the lit fic featured in the New Yorker is a slog.
Why? For me, it feels as if there's some kind of center of gravity in the literary fiction universe, and that all authors are being drawn to it. Thus we get story after story after story that is simply predictable. I mean the same themes, over and over again. The one I always harp on is animals dying -- the only place you can be MORE certain a pet will die is in an R.L. Stine book, and he freakin' announces to the world that this is part of his formula! And in this collection, there are no exceptions to this rule, not one -- even in the seemingly most cruelty-free story, you'll find a long digression on killing litters of kittens.
I don't know what the problem is -- there's a lot of debate going on in various hoity-toity circles these days about the future and the purpose of writing programs, so part of me wonders if this is just something they teach you out in Iowa. If you let a dog, or pig, or hamster survive the last page of your story, do your workshop peers simply savage your manuscript? Or is there some rule that god forbid they make a town in Canada that is not full of simple folks living simple lives in spite of the harshness of the climate? Or that a good child actually have a loving parent, or a loving parent a good child?
This is why lit fic is just killing me lately... there's no surprise. Writers have long been taught that if you show a gun in the first pages of the story, it's got to go off at some point, in order that your reader be satisfied. But this is one reader who'd be really satisfied to for once find an author had just let the gun be.
October 28, 2016
A sadly average collection of stories. However, there are a few stories that really jumped out at me. The following is a list of the stories and how I felt about them generally:
CAUGHT MY INTEREST (worth reading):
A Composer and His Parakeets by Ha Jin
A Change in Fashion by Steven Millhauser
Transitional Object by Sheila Kohler
The Little Boy by Mary Gaitskill
A Little History of Modern Music by William H. Glass
JUST OK (a good representation of average lit fic - but not worth writing home about):
Other People's Deaths by Lore Segal
Village 113 by Anthony Doerr
Touch by Alexi Zentner
Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska by Tony Tulathimutte
GRABBED MY ATTENTION (entertaining stories worth reading twice):
On the Lake by Olaf Olafsson
Taiping by Brittani Sonnenberg
ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT (the best of this collection):
What Do You Want to Know For by Alice Munro
The Necessity of Certain Behaviors by Shannon Cain
Every Move You Make by David Malouf
Bye-bye Natalia by Michel Faber
PERUSED (my least favorite stories):
Bad Neighbors by Edward P. Jones
The Bullock Run by Roger McDonald
Folie a Deux by William Trevor
A Game of Cards by Rose Tremain
MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE:
Prison by Yiyun Li (they should be teaching this one in school!)
CAUGHT MY INTEREST (worth reading):
A Composer and His Parakeets by Ha Jin
A Change in Fashion by Steven Millhauser
Transitional Object by Sheila Kohler
The Little Boy by Mary Gaitskill
A Little History of Modern Music by William H. Glass
JUST OK (a good representation of average lit fic - but not worth writing home about):
Other People's Deaths by Lore Segal
Village 113 by Anthony Doerr
Touch by Alexi Zentner
Scenes from the Life of the Only Girl in Water Shield, Alaska by Tony Tulathimutte
GRABBED MY ATTENTION (entertaining stories worth reading twice):
On the Lake by Olaf Olafsson
Taiping by Brittani Sonnenberg
ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT (the best of this collection):
What Do You Want to Know For by Alice Munro
The Necessity of Certain Behaviors by Shannon Cain
Every Move You Make by David Malouf
Bye-bye Natalia by Michel Faber
PERUSED (my least favorite stories):
Bad Neighbors by Edward P. Jones
The Bullock Run by Roger McDonald
Folie a Deux by William Trevor
A Game of Cards by Rose Tremain
MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE:
Prison by Yiyun Li (they should be teaching this one in school!)
May 4, 2009
The "O. Henry Prize Stories"? Is this the best they've got? I am sorely disappointed. If this O. Henry foundation is trying to tell me that these are the best stories written in 2008, then we've got very little going on.
I love O. Henry and his writing. His poorest stories are far and away better than any one of these, and I've read at least 30-40 of his stories.
Some of these stories are pretty good ( "What Do You Want to Know For?" by Alice Munro, and "Bad Neighbors" by Edward P. Jones, and the Musician and his parakeets was charming, but still lacking in my opinion), many others use vulgarity to add some kind of shock-value that the author is otherwise incapable of producing through creative writing.
Pretty disappointing so far. I've read about 8 of the stories, and I'd give 2 of them an "okay" rating (3 stars), but the rest get 1/2 of a star. I'll read the rest of the stories. Maybe I keep missing the good ones. Nope. Finished the book -- the stories didn't get better. Sorry world... O. Henry would die again if he knew this was being published in his name.
I love O. Henry and his writing. His poorest stories are far and away better than any one of these, and I've read at least 30-40 of his stories.
Some of these stories are pretty good ( "What Do You Want to Know For?" by Alice Munro, and "Bad Neighbors" by Edward P. Jones, and the Musician and his parakeets was charming, but still lacking in my opinion), many others use vulgarity to add some kind of shock-value that the author is otherwise incapable of producing through creative writing.
Pretty disappointing so far. I've read about 8 of the stories, and I'd give 2 of them an "okay" rating (3 stars), but the rest get 1/2 of a star. I'll read the rest of the stories. Maybe I keep missing the good ones. Nope. Finished the book -- the stories didn't get better. Sorry world... O. Henry would die again if he knew this was being published in his name.
October 10, 2008
A good collection of prize-worthy stories, but overall not nearly as strong as the "Best Short Stories of ___ (year)" series (I just saw the 2008 edition the other day on the Barnes and Noble shelf!! edited by Salman Rushdie!! so excited to tear into that one)
there were several stories in particular that i thought were, eh, not so compelling. even alice munro's story lacked her usual "i cannot look away from the page in front of me" mesmerizing quality. hmmmm.
My personal favorites:
"Other People's Deaths," Lore Segal
"A Change in Fashion," Steven Millhauser
"Touch," Alexei Zentner
"Bad Neighbors," Edward P. Jones
"The Little Boy," Mary Gaitskill
there were several stories in particular that i thought were, eh, not so compelling. even alice munro's story lacked her usual "i cannot look away from the page in front of me" mesmerizing quality. hmmmm.
My personal favorites:
"Other People's Deaths," Lore Segal
"A Change in Fashion," Steven Millhauser
"Touch," Alexei Zentner
"Bad Neighbors," Edward P. Jones
"The Little Boy," Mary Gaitskill
November 20, 2008
I took a couple years off from the O Henry anthologies and flirted with other collections of new fiction, the Pushcart, the Dzanc Press books. But really, this is the best series I know of. I accept the criticisms that some of the writers here are ringers (Alice Munro, Bill Trevor, Mary Gaitskill-- what, was Joyce Carol Oates sick this year?), but when you look past the well-known names, there are twenty stories here, each one of which is a little odd, a little off, and somewhere outside the range of New Yorker fiction in ways that gives then a telling thrill. Really, this series is dynamite-- it's not the end all and be all, but I think it is the best.
did-not-finish
September 1, 2009I took two books with me on my trip, this and "The heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius" (which I've already read). The first story of this book was super cheesy and we were getting a package ready for home and my bag was really heavy so I sent this home. Then found out that I would be spending a week alone on a island where there aren't any English books.... Big mistake. I will never ship another book home in my life! You never know when you will need it.
March 25, 2009
I enjoyed this, I think a bit better than the 2007 volume. There were a couple of stories that I had read previously (published in The New Yorker) but the rest were all new to me.
I think that's really all I have to say -- it's hard for me to review these anthologies, because there's not an overarching theme that I can really comment on - they're just the stories that the prize jury liked the best.
I think that's really all I have to say -- it's hard for me to review these anthologies, because there's not an overarching theme that I can really comment on - they're just the stories that the prize jury liked the best.
July 15, 2009
i didn't read every single story, but i read several. my favorite is the opener, ha jin's "a composer and his parakeets." i also really enjoyed "on the lake" by olaf olafson. both exhibited very deft handling of the dark side of human connectivity. both had me immensely interested and made me feel like i was snooping on their respective protagonists' emotional, somehow balding, frankness. good stuff.
Read
April 7, 2010Another retreat read. While it was fun to skip around and read a bunch of short stories by authors I was unfamiliar with the collection left me a little cold. None of the stories I read were bad but none of them really grabbed me either. My favorite, perhaps the least realistic of the bunch, was by Lore Segal. I especially like the fact that while the story sounded like it was written by a young man it was in fact written by an older woman.
sampled-a-few
November 16, 2010Rose Tremain -- kind of didn't wind up liking this story that much in the end, but maybe want to read more of her
Love Steven Millhauser's fashion story, must give to Karen
LOVE Shannon Cain story, must give to April, investigate this person
I know Alice Munro is like the Meryl Streep of short fiction or whatever, but I just.... I don't know. I mean, obviously she's good. I guess I bore easily.
Love Steven Millhauser's fashion story, must give to Karen
LOVE Shannon Cain story, must give to April, investigate this person
I know Alice Munro is like the Meryl Streep of short fiction or whatever, but I just.... I don't know. I mean, obviously she's good. I guess I bore easily.
April 2, 2013
Great vacation reading. These stories come from around the world, which made the book a pleasure for its variety of voices and experiences and subjects. Kudos to whoever chooses the winners.
My favorites included the funny "A Change in Fashion" by Steven Millhauser, the darling "A Composer and His Parakeets" by Ha Jin, the unforgettable "Touch" by Alexi Zentner, the thought-provoking "Prison" by Yiyun Li.
My favorites included the funny "A Change in Fashion" by Steven Millhauser, the darling "A Composer and His Parakeets" by Ha Jin, the unforgettable "Touch" by Alexi Zentner, the thought-provoking "Prison" by Yiyun Li.
December 3, 2009
I've only read a few of the stories in the book so far, but I have absolutely enjoyed them. Short stories can often give the feeling of "so what?" or "what on earth is the author trying to prove?" But when they are good, they can be fantastic. So far my two favorites are "A composer and His Parakeets" by Ha Jin and "The Necessity of Certain Behaviors" by Shannon Cain.
December 12, 2008
I'm going to rate everything four stars from now on, unless I'm completely blown away, one way or the other. I don't like this rating system. It feels like the thumbs up/ thumbs down, easy response.
Ha Jin's "A Composer and His Parakeets" and Michael Faber's "Bye-bye, Natalia" were my favorites.
Ha Jin's "A Composer and His Parakeets" and Michael Faber's "Bye-bye, Natalia" were my favorites.
December 30, 2008
Can't say enough about the selection of stories for this book. It starts on a high note with "A Composer and His Parakeets" by Ha Jin, but is topped by "What Do You Want to Know For?" by Alice Munro. "On the Lake" by Olaf Olafson is special, but the best one in the book is "Touch" by Alexi Zentner. I'll remember it for a long time.
May 13, 2009
Four of the stories
I want to reread
until I understand
what the author is doing
but most of these
are much more attractive
than the average short story
which I admit
I've had trouble staying interested in
I just acquired 2007
as a result
and o
fair warning
I've notified Amazon
but 2008's Table of Contents
was just that
a nonworking pdf table
I want to reread
until I understand
what the author is doing
but most of these
are much more attractive
than the average short story
which I admit
I've had trouble staying interested in
I just acquired 2007
as a result
and o
fair warning
I've notified Amazon
but 2008's Table of Contents
was just that
a nonworking pdf table
August 6, 2009
A very eclectic collection of short stories, which would be wonderful if all the stories were equal in quality. While some of the selections were masterful and exciting, others left me unable to suspend disbelief long enough to care about any of the characters and their fate...
September 15, 2012
Another wonderful collection of tales. The problem as well as the benefit with reading short story anthologies is the discovery of writers you may not have read before. Oh dear. Now I'm off to find books by Wendell Berry and Walker Percy and more Alice Munro....
Read
June 6, 2008mmmmm, yummy.
September 17, 2008
I'm excited about this and am saving it for a nice day in Golden Gate Park.
August 24, 2009
A good mix of stories and story-telling, by some well known and some new authors. They tend toward the sad side, but don't most short stories?
Read
June 17, 2008Very well written (as one would hope). Most made me think, which I enjoyed- lovely imagery, but mostly downers. . .
August 13, 2008
Expecting this to be a mixed bag, but started with the story by Mary Gaitskill "The Little Boy" and found it stunning.
September 23, 2008
Particularly enjoyed "Village 113."
January 24, 2009
Mixed bag. Some of the stores were good, others a bit average. I think it reflects the state of short story writing. I suspect many of our best writers are working in another medium.
September 5, 2008
I love these collections. I buy them almost every year. It is almost always a selection of unique stories most of which are extremely good.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews