20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker

by Deborah Treisman (Editor)

In June 2010, the editors of The New Yorker announced to widespread media coverage their selection of "20 Under 40"—the young fiction writers who are, or will be, central to their generation. The magazine published twenty stories by this stellar group of writers over the course of the summer. They are now collected for the first time in one volume.

The range of voices is extraordinary. There is the lyrical realism of Nell Freudenberger, Philipp Meyer, C. E. Morgan, and Salvatore Scibona; the satirical comedy of Joshua Ferris and Gary Shteyngart; and the genre-bending tales of Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, and Téa Obreht. David Bezmozgis and Dinaw Mengestu offer clear eyed portraits of immigration and identity; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, ZZ Packer, and Wells Tower offer voice-driven, idiosyncratic narratives. Then there are the haunting sociopolitical stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Daniel Alarcón, and Yiyun Li, and the metaphysical fantasies of Chris Adrian, Rivka Galchen, and Karen Russell.

Each of these writers reminds us why we read. And each is aiming for greatness: fighting to get and to hold our attention in a culture that is flooded with words, sounds, and pictures; fighting to surprise, to entertain, to teach, and to move not only us but generations of readers to come. A landmark collection, 20 Under 40 stands as a testament to the vitality of fiction today.
Birdsong / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie --
The warm fuzzies / Chris Adrian --
Second Lives / Daniel Alarcón --
The train of their departure / David Bezmozgis --
The Erlking / Sarah Shun-lien Bynum --
The pilot / Joshua Ferris --
Here we aren't, so quickly / Jonathan Safran Foer --
An arranged marriage / Nell Freudenberger --
The entire northern side was covered with fire / Rivka Galchen --
The young painters / Nicole Krauss --
The science of flight / Yiyun Li --
An honest exit / Dinaw Mengestu --
What you do out here, when you're alone / Philipp Meyer --
Twins / C.E. Morgan --
Blue water djinn / Téa Obreht --
Dayward / ZZ Packer --
The dredgeman's revelation / Karen Russell --
The kid / Salvatore Scibona --
Lenny hearts Eunice / Gary Shteyngart --
The landlord / Wells Tower

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Unfinished, Literary Fiction, Literature, Collections

431 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2010

Reviews

[Leo Robertson · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It was difficult to choose who we believed were the new voices of American fiction. Thankfully we found a wide variety of mostly stories about immigrants in New York City in which nothing happens."

[rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't call my feelings about this collection "mixed," because frankly the majority of it was a delight. But I started feeling jaded by it somewhere around the middle of the alphabet, when I read and enjoyed the Nicole Krauss story and began browsing through Great House at work to decide whether or not it might be something I'm interested in buying. It was then that I realized that her "short story" in the collection was actually an excerpt from her new book.

So I skipped ahead in the table of contents and realized that Gary Shteyngart's "story" was also an excerpt from Super Sad True Love Story. And then I logged onto Goodreads and read another review that stated that CE Morgan's "story" is also (you guessed it) another excerpt. Ugh. I try to avoid reading novel excerpts passing for short stories on principle, because a novel excerpt is not a contained, condensed world. Which is what a short story is supposed to be. Which is why I read short stories in particular moods, instead of novels. So even though I enjoyed the Shteyngart and Krauss non-stories, it also chapped my ass a little bit that they were included in this collection. They're samplers! Incomplete!

Rant over. As far as the rest of the collection goes, Chris Adrian, Téa Obreht, David Bezmogis, and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum's stories were fantastic experiences, easily my favorites. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's story made me immediately seek out The Thing Around Your Neck, because I had realized after reading it that a.) I've never read a contemporary story about Africa that wasn't about war, and b.) this sort of story is something I would very much like to read. Wells Tower and Joshua Ferris's stories were reliably delicious, with their bleak humor that I find so addictive to read and so unexpectedly poignant.

I liked Jonathan Safran-Foer's story much more than I expected to.

There were a few stories that were kind of static for me, for whatever reason. ZZ Packer's story, although there's no doubt about why she was included in this group, didn't capture my interest. Neither did CE Morgan's or Karen Russell's. Rivka Galchen's story...who even knows what that's all about, really. She's also a great writer, but she tends towards occasional tweeness and frequent incomprehensibility, never moreso than in her story here. Everyone raves about Dinaw Mengestu and I liked his story but didn't think it met the hype, although its last lines -- about how anyone who dwells on the past deserves the torment such "foolishness" will bring to them -- are as wise as the wisdom of the best short stories.

As a whole, I am happy I read this collection for the discovery of new, young authors whom I never would have heard of otherwise but who theoretically have years of production of awesome writing ahead of them. If these are the country's new Junot Diazs and Jhumpa Lahiris, then I am looking forward to the future.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's usually hard to rate a short story collection--so many dimensions and variations--but even harder, I think, to rate this kind of collection from The New Yorker, what with quite a few different authors and all, some you will never forget, some you vaguely recall. One thing is evident: these are all short stories crafted superbly, written with style and clarity, stories from writers who take creative liberties.

Clearly, the stories were all written to fit the New Yorker's style and audience, so how do you rate it?

One thing that I really liked a lot was the international appeal, these creations from writers of different backgrounds and descent, interlocking into one worldly read; a collection that takes you to different worlds and homes, through different minds. Some of these stories were familiar: like Nicole Krauss' "The Young Painters," which became a section of her novel that I read, "Great House" and Nell Freudenberger's story, "An Arranged Marriage," which also morphed into one of her latest novels. It was also interesting to note that some of these writers were up and coming when these stories were published (like Tea Obreht who was just working on her first novel, "The Tiger's Wife").

I was honored to get my copy signed by Deborah Treisman when she came to speak for my writing group, and listen to her talk about their publication process. Keeping that perspective when reading, it was clear how the magazine looks for subject and substance that is accessible to readers: Chimamanda Adichie's, "BirdSong," (about a working-class Nigerian woman and her privileged married lover) Wells Tower's "The Landlord,"(about a retiree and business man who has lost money and properties and is now faced with difficult choices) and Salvatore Scibona's "The Kid" (a man is abandoned by his mother and he abandons his child after the child's mother runs off) were my favorites. Entertaining, yet enlightening. I was in awe of some of these stories.

Downside? Some of the abrupt endings that seemed to come from word count issues, maybe? And the couple of stories that just didn't resonate.

[Danny Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories are tricky, in that they can't possibly hold the requisite depth or development of a novel or even a novella. Instead, their powers lie in the ability to grasp a moment, to understand and examine it under a fading light, before shelving it away somewhere deep. The best short story writers, from Mansfield to Thurber, fundamentally understood this power, creating tension and revelation and emotion in just a few scenes.

So many stories in 20 Under 40, a collection of New Yorker stories from younger American authors, fall flat because of their inability to exist as a short story itself. There are long, sprawling lifetimes that seem helplessly truncated in the span of 20 pages, and stories where nothing seems to happen at all. They are without a doubt beautifully written, but lack the magic of a truly wonderful short story.

There are three exceptions, coming from a variety of genre. "The Kid" by Salvatore Scibona recounts a lost child at an airport, tragically panicked and desperate in a larger world; "Dayward" by ZZ Packer vividly renders the compelling tale of two runaway slave siblings, pushing toward freedom; and Blue Water Djinn by Téa Obreht is magically alive, of a beach where a Frenchman has mysteriously disappeared. These stories feel explosive, living out a moment that could end at any second, as we try to salvage everything we can before it's gone.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

People are always going to quibble over the choices of whom to include in an anthology of this sort, but overall I think the New Yorker editors and Deborah Treisman in particular did a great job with their selections. I'm somewhat surprised Nam Le isn't on the list, but his exclusion doesn't diminish the collection's value. As I read, I reminded myself that this was not a best-of set; these are not necessarily the writers' strongest stories but are instead an introduction to their work. One would hope these authors' best fiction lies ahead of them. As Treisman alludes to in the introduction, these pieces may have simply been those available at the time the anthology was assembled. (Take Wells Tower, for instance, whose story "The Landlord" is good but doesn't seem as rich in its language or as nuanced as the stories in his collection "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.") That said, there are some amazing stories here. Chris Adrian continues to mine the themes of children and religion with wonderful results. Joshua Ferris seems determined to be labeled a novelist, understandably, but he's also an incredible story writer. In his story here, "The Pilot," as well as in another story published by the New Yorker, "The Dinner Party," he takes characters in crisis mode and thrusts them into social situations; the resulting awkwardness creates a palpable tension in the stories. The standout pieces in this collection appear to be those that thrive on detail and character to evoke a specific time and place: "What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone," by Philipp Meyer; "Blue Water Djinn," by Tea Obreht; "Dayward," by ZZ Packer; "The Dredgeman's Revelation," by Karen Russell; and "The Kid," by Salvatore Scibona. These are the stories that form the heart of the collection. Interestingly, each of them centers on a child or adolescent. The writers sense the vulnerability of children, their innocence, the lengths we go to to protect them (Packer) or the repercussions of abandoning them (Scibona). Overall, a collection well worth reading, but I would urge you to approach it as a Whitman's sampler of style and themes, not as a greatest hits collection.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

My complaints with this anthology have more to do with the content within than the authors selected. I dipped in and out of this collection over the course of 3 weeks, and looking back over the titles, only a handful have stayed with me. The main problem is that several pieces are excerpts from forthcoming novels, and most of them read like excerpts rather than self-satisfying stories. I may eagerly seek out the novels when they are published (notably those by Nicole Krauss, Karen Russell, and C.E. Morgan), but the stories themselves seemed too slight. And in a couple cases, the authors just didn't connect. Nell Freudenberger's "An Arranged Marriage" reads like Jhumpa Lahiri's greatest hits, and Rivka Galchen's "The Entire Northern Side was Covered With Fire" came off as gratuitously absurd. Joshua Ferris, whose two novels I've admired, submits a story here that feels like a Joan Didion knockoff as written by David Foster Wallace.

I just got the feeling reading through these stories that 10-20 years from now, these won't be the stories many of these authors will want to be remembered for, and is more a collection of outtakes than a definitive statement on contemporary American fiction. The stories that do work (namely those by Philipp Meyer, Chris Adrian, and ZZ Packer) aren't enough to make up for that.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always think that I love short stories, but I'm slowly realizing that it is a genre filled with pain. I guess that's part of the point--with a short piece you have to really say something, get to some emotion, and get to it quickly. If the emotion you're visiting is negative, you can get there much faster. I feel the same way about short stories from more established authors, Raymond Carver, for example, as I do about most of the stories in this collection. (Of course, it is not universal, in my opinion the stories of writers like Hemingway, or even David Sedaris, do not fall into the same trap of repeatedly describing the dirtier parts of humanity and leaving you with a slightly sick feeling afterwards.) This does not mean these stories are no good--most of them are quite good--but the fact that many of them share themes and almost all of them focus on things that are bad, or that are obviously going to be bad in the near future, makes me shy away from reading this sort of thing on a regular basis. Maybe the real thing is just to read them spaced out with other books, if you're into that sort of thing.

[Felicity LuHill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less than half of these stories are worth reading; the rest are quite dull. The stories by Chimamanda Adichie, ZZ Packer, Yiyun Li, Dinaw Mengestu, and Joshua Ferris were my favorites. They're probably all great writers, but I think the process of choosing the writer first and then trying to get a story out of them can be a bit backwards, it doesn't guarantee a great stand alone story.

[Sidik Fofana · Rating 4 out of 5]

SIX WORD REVIEW: Personal favs: Mengestu, Krauss, Alarcon, Bezmozgis.

[Maron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the New Yorker Fiction podcasts and am sad that there's only one new one a month. That's why I was so pleased to find this collection. It includes a nice range of authors and exposed me to variety of worlds. Even though not all of the stories were "awesome", I still really enjoyed it.

My ratings:
1. Birdsong (Adichie) - 3
2. The Warm Fuzzies (Adrian) - 2
3. Second Lives (Alacon) - 2
4. The Train of Their Departure (Bezmozgis) - 3
5. The Erkling (Bynum) - 2
6. The Plot (Ferris) - 3
7. Here We Aren't, So Quickly (Foer) - 3
8. An Arranged Marriage (Frudenberger) - 3
9. The Entire Northern Side Was Covered With Fire (Galchen) - 1
10. The Young Painters (Krauss) - 3
11. The Science of Flight (Yiyun) - 2
12. An Honest Exit (Mengestu) - 4
13. What You Do Out Here When You're Alone (Meyer) - 4
14. Twins (Morgan) - 3
15. Blue Water Djinn (Obreht) - 2
16. Dayward (Packer) - 3
17. The Dredgeman's Revelation (Russel) - 3
18. The Kid (Scibona) - 2
19. Lenny Heart's Enice (Shteyugart) - 2
20. The Landlord (Tower) - 3

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked some of these stories better than others, but overall I can understand why the authors were chosen for this collection. I'm a fan of Jonathan Safran Foer, and I especially liked his contribution; it was unlike any of the others. All were well-written, polished stories; I guess my only complaint would be that they all conform to the current idea of a literary short story: deep on character and setting, very little dialog for the most part, light on plot and very ambiguous on resolution. Very cookie-cutter. Good cookies, but cookie-cutter nonetheless. Several of the stories were very dark: guys getting eaten by buzzards, children attacked by dogs, murdered by their mother, abandoned in airports. those were some of my favorites, actually; they seemed to take their characters right to the edge of endurance.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read about half of the stories in this collection and for the most part loved them. Some of them have that new thing that short stories have where they end and you look to see if you missed a page ... but there were some real gems here. It was here where I first read the excerpt from Tea Obrecht's The Tiger's Wife.

[Canuck Mom of Three · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection, great introduction to some contemporary writers who are making waves in the literary community.

My favorites:

"Birdsong" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Elsewhere, I found Adichie's book "Dear Ijeawele, Or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions" to be trite and superficial, but that was a work of nonfiction. Her story in this collection has stayed with me. It's a powerful exploration of the destructive force of an affair between an older, wealthy married man and a single woman employed in a low position in an office. The affair seems harmless at first but ends up ravaging the woman as she develops emotions (love, jealousy) that she can no longer control. I especially liked how "Birdsong" highlights the social inequality between men and women which places all power into the hands of the man, and gives him immunity to the fallout while the woman receives the brunt of social blame and ostracism.

"The Pilot" by Joshua Ferris. An exemplary short story, so good that I could taste the perfection. Ferris serves up a delicious tragicomedy filled with both food for thought and hilarious absurdity. Even the dark ending is peppered with comic relief. Reading this story, I was reminded of classics like The Cask of Amontillado - the elements of short story are just so perfectly exemplified and controlled here, this story shows that Ferris has what it takes.

"The Entire Northern Side Was Covered With Fire" by Rivka Galchen. This story is short and well done, and showcases Galchen as a strong writer. Towards the middle, I did get a sense that Galchen leans towards the obscurity of intellectual wit spiralling in on itself, but her spirals are captivating and strangely hypnotizing. Very nice work.

"What Do You Do Out Here, When You're Alone" by Philipp Meyer. Jarring and honest exploration of what happens when an only child nearly dies and the parents reevaluate their relationship and everything in their lives in this new and shattering light.

"Dayward" by ZZ Packer - I approach stories set in the days of slavery/early emancipation with suspicion, because it's just too easy to play on one's emotions with such powerful material. But ZZ Packer's story is great. She has created very real characters, a boy and his sister, and their story pulled me in and kept me riveted. The only thing I didn't like: the ending was a bit abrupt and the story didn't feel like it should have finished there - I wanted to know more. Still, a very good piece overall, and I'd be interested in reading more from Packer because she has a knack for creating convicing and interesting characters who drive the story.

"The Landlord" by Wells Tower - The characters were vivid, and there was humor in the pathos.


Less interesting:

"The Warm Fuzzies" by Chris Adrian

"Second Lives" by Daniel Alarcon

"The Train of their Departure" by David Bezmozgis. Some have said that this is an excerpt from his novel, but apparently the novel does not contain this exact story, though it deals with the same characters and the same events.

"Here We Aren't, So Quickly" by Jonathan Safran Foer - I "kinda" liked this story. Foer likes to be experimental and different, and this time it almost works. The writing style was novel and interesting, though the story was heavy on style and light on story. For that reason, I found the final impact underwhelming. Still, this story was definitely far, far better than Foer's book "Everything Is Illuminated", which I rated at one star.

"An Arranged Marriage" by Nell Freudenberger - I am impressed by Freudenberger's ability to take on this story about an Indian woman's marriage, since it's not easy to write about someone from a different culture in a way that is convincing and free of stereotypes, inaccurate impressions and simplifications. She seems to do this well, but this story didn't seem like a short story to me - and it really isn't, since it's an exerpt from her book.

"The Young Painters" by Nicole Krauss, apparently an excerpt from her novel. Was "okay".

"The Science of Flight" by Yiyun Li. Referring to the title, not sure what is actually scientific about the protagonist's psychological flight. Otherwise, this story was "okay."

"An Honest Exit" by Dinaw Mengestu - okay. Reminded me of the story of Henry "Box" Brown, too bad it made no reference to this.

"Twins" by C.E. Morgan - Morgan is gifted at lyrical, hauntingly beautiful description. I really enjoyed the imagery and the startling novelty of her similies and metaphors. The story itself though, plot and characters, was just "okay."

"Blue Water Djinn" by Tea Obrecht - just "okay." I'm not a fan of magical realism, but those who are might enjoy this more.

"The Dredgeman's Revelation" by Karen Russell - towards the end it leans towards horror.

"the Kid" by Salvatore Seibona - about a child Intentionally abandoned at the airport by his father. The parents are not in a relationship and live in different countries, and the father is supposed to be picking up the son because the mother has decided to live child-free. The story is more about the dad and his (non)relationship with the mother than about the kid. It shows, I suppose, how someone could decide, almost subconsciously, to abandon their child.

"Lenny Hearts Eunice" by Gary Shteyngart - a humorous and artsy (somewhat unconventionally written) story about a dating relationship between an old man and a much younger woman, told alternately from each one's point of view. Well written, but the male character was unlikeable and reminded me of Woody Allen.

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem I’m having with so many short stories is that, while fun to read, most are forgettable. Blame it on the titles. The best short stories have titles that stick in your mind: “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” by Conrad Aiken, “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver or “...When We Talk About Anne Frank” by Nathan Englander.

One in this collection passes the title litmus test: “Here We Aren’t, So Quickly” by Jonathan Safran Foer, a husband’s apologia and history of a marriage in short statements starting with “I” and “You” such as “You were terrible in emergencies.” and “I was not afraid of quiet; I just hated it.” Years together refined to the recurring squabbles and loving accusations that make up the personality of a marriage. Exquisite. And this is the shortest story in the collection. Its brevity earns an extra star from me because I consider frugality with words to be a hallmark of great storytelling.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

2010 was such an optimistic time! The great recession was receding! Obama was just half way through his first term! And there were all these great up and coming authors! Yeah, about that.

This book, written in 2010, obviously features stories from 20 authors who were under 40 at the time. The names are familiar to you - Joshua Ferris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Karen Russell, Gary Shteyngart and Wells Tower, as the highlights. Is it possible that they all peaked in 2010? This was clearly intended to be a preview of the future of fiction, but to this reader at least, the bright lights have dimmed.

My favorites were Birdsong by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, who I hadn't even heard of last decade, and Here We Aren't, So Quickly, by Jonathan Safran Foer. I know. I know.

I'll still cheer for Adiche. She has a new novel out that is getting great reviews. Who would have guessed that of all those big names, hers would stand the test of time?

[Adri · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason I read The New Yorker and even The Atlantic is for the short stories. However, I was disappointed in the selection of short stories included in this anthology by the New Yorker. I found most of the stories had a cynical tone regarding human decisions and the consequences that can follow. They were thought-provoking but with a depressing mood.

The only two stories I enjoyed were Blue Water Djinn by Tea Obreht and The Dredgeman's Revelation by Karen Russell. The characters and events in Blue Water Djinn were fantastical and unique. Both stories contained wonderful imagery and were so well written that the story was immensely engaging.
The fate of the boy and the robust Frenchman in Blue Water Djinn was humorous and at the same time worrisome. While the main character in The Dredgeman's Revelation was someone I was rooting for from the beginning to the end.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have commented, it’s hard to rate a collection of stories from different authors. Overall, it’s an excellent collection of very prominent writers.

Some stories were disarmingly haunting and tragic and have compelled me to follow the authors’ careers more closely (namely, C.E. Morgan and Yiyun Li). Some I recognized as excerpts from novels I had already read (Super Sad True Love Story and How to Read the Air), some stories just reminded me why I’m already a fan of their work (here’s looking at you Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), and others were just meh (I was not a fan of “The Pilot” or Rivka Galchen’s bizarre “story”).

Some stories were easily 5 stars while others were 1 star. So, I guess it’d be fair to rate this book a 3.75, but GR doesn’t allow half points.

[Rahul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually do not read fiction but I picked this up as I thought reading 20 budding writers rated by The New Yorker would be a great way to immerse back in fiction. But I labored through this book - as I couldn't connect to some of the stories which is expected. Only a few writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss and Dinaw Mnegestu impressed me.

[Neeti · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a beautiful collection. Styles, situations, settings, cultures, were all diverse and unique to the story. The Pilot, by Joshua Ferris and Twins, by C. E. Morgan were my favorites, but I would probably pick others if you asked me at a different time.

[Madelynp]

As with many other short story collections, there were some stories that I really liked, and others that did not appeal quite as much; nevertheless, the editors selected fantastic writers, and with a few exceptions, I really enjoyed most of these stories.

[Erika Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book inspired me to seriously get into writing. I'm generally a fan of compilations highlighting various writers — you get to compare and contrast the styles; it was a great help to me in guiding my own tone and method. Would recommend for anyone looking to get into fiction writing!

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standouts were :
Birdsong / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie --
Second Lives / Daniel Alarcón --
The young painters / Nicole Krauss --

I disliked Lenny hearts Eunice / Gary Shteyngart -- so much that I couldn't finish it.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this a year ago, but what I remember standing out was the ZZ Packer, Wells Tower, and Philipp Meyer stories. Then, Nicole Krauss and Dinaw Mengestu's. The others were alright or I don't remember them. And some, ("Lenny hearts Eunice") have stayed with me as particularly bad.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

some great stories, some ok and some just excerpted from novels.. Not the short story form.

[Kaitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of the stories, but it felt a monochromatic in tone in the same way that all New Yorker stories do.

[Serenity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Olatomiwa Bifarin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few great stories: Second Lives, An Arranged Marriage, An Honest Exit, The Landlord.

[Savannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read most of these for my advanced creative writing course. Favorites were definitely "The Erlking," "Birdsong," and "The Kid."

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a few stories that I found disturbing, and a couple stories that I thought were just fine. Mixed with some amazing works!

[Pamela Likely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short story and three others all were
really good.