Rating: 
Summary: Wideman zips up the BASS series with a multicultural slant.
Review: After last year's disastrous edition of this distinguished series, John Edgar Wideman puts it back on track with an eclectic and challenging potpourri of contemporary fiction. In 1984's edition, editor John Updike complained in his introduction that a cultural sameness had befallen the work he seleced from--middle class white folks struggling with identity and life circumstances (he compared it unfavorably to the 1934 edition, where he noted a good deal more pluralism in cultures and situations raised, and blamed magazine editors for not publishing more broadly). Well, Wideman has finally pushed this series over the line by keeping his fictional antennae up for alternative cultures, ethnic or otherwise. Although he only chose 6 stories from the slicks (as opposed to "little" magazines), I thought they had the edge this year. Five stories reprinted hit my favorite list, three of them from slicks: Stuart Dybek's hallucinatory treatment of the fiery eroticism of everyday life in "Paper Lantern" (The New Yorker); Angela Patrinos's heartbreaking portrayal of a female drifter's job as an fine art school's nude model in "Sculpture I" (The New Yorker), and Stephen Dixon's wrenching stream of consciousness evocation of the few days immediately following the loss of a man's young wife to cancer in "Sleep" (Harper's). From the small mags, two that really caught my eye were William Lychack's clever "A Stand of Fables" (Quarterly West), a magic realist updating of a traditional literary form, and Dan Chaon's "Fitting Ends" (TriQuarterly), a tragic tale of a boy whose pointless death later affects the lives of his parents, brother, and brother's family. Not among my favorites but liked by students in my creative writing class include stories by Butler, Oates, Gaylan, Lewis, Schwartz, and Thon (though the latter split the class--some loved it while others hated it). Overall the stories this year did not seem eccentrically selected, or part of an editor's personal hobbyhorse about what fiction should do or be. Minimalism seems to be dying, and an "anything goes" gaminess returning to the contemporary short story. That might bother some readers, but still leaves quite a few of us. As usual a couple of stories got in that I hated (Brown's and Adams's), but that's just me. I recommend this book for its mix of styles and up to date report on what short fiction writers are up to in the trenches of publication.
Rating: 
Summary: 99 was a good year
Review: Doctorow has excellent taste in short fiction. With only a few exceptions (Junot Diaz and Marilyn Krysl), the stories in this collection are excellent. Amy Bloom's story, "The Story", which i think is a great title, is an interesting story about writing, about the characters in the story, and it is a story about itself.Michael Byers has a great story about obsession and attraction rather than love (though he does go on a page or two too long). Ron Carlson has a wonderful story about about happiness and the ways you can get there. It is one of the best of these stories. There is a story from Raymond Carver, and it is as good as anything he has written. Kiana Davenport's story deals with abuse and family. Everett's "The Fix" is the best story in this anthology, which it's allusion to Christ, in a sort of Kafka-like way. Gautreaux's story about atonement is a winner as always. I remember reading Gurganus' story, "He's at the Office" when it was first published in the new yorker, and i remember thinking at the time that it had to be one of the better stories i'd read that year, so it was a pleasure to see doctorow select it. Aleksandar Hemon and Jhumpa Lahiri both have well told stories about being a foreigner in this country, though one has an uplifting feel and the other is more bleak, but both are a pleasure to read. Annie Proulx's "People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water" is a story you should read. but don't let the title fool you, it doesn't fit the story. Sherwood's story about loss is weak and a better selection could have been made, but it wasn't dull like the two mentioned earlier. i could go on about the stories i haven't mentioned, but there is a space constraint. i've only read best american short stories 2000 and 2001, so i can't say if these selected are better or worse than what is normally picked, but i can say that there are 18 stories here that are fine examples of what a short story should be.
Rating: 
Summary: An average vintage this year....
Review: Every November, I buy this anthology, several others, and two cases of beaujolais nouveau. Like the wine, the anthology is never bad, sometimes outstanding, but rarely mediocre. This year's book leans toward the mediocre, I think. Though it contains several excellent stories (Gautreaux, Gurganus, Ha Hin, ZZ Packer, and Annie Proulx), it also contains several that are closer to vignettes or character studies than actual stories, and one or two that are good stories but certainly not "the best". If this was an average vintage, I'd rank the 1997 (guest-edited by Annie Proulx) and 1999 (guest-edited by Any Tan) as the two latest outstanding vintages. In her foreward, Katrina Kenison says E.L. Doctorow was in the middle of a book tour as he read the submissions--perhaps that partly explains why the "O. Henry Awards" and "Best Short Stories from the South" collections this year, in my opinion, were better selected. Recommended, but not in the upper 33% of this anthology in the past 15 years. Then again, like wine, opinions vary--how else can you explain that the same wine store I visit has three brands of retsina?
Rating:
Summary: An average vintage this year....
Review: Every November, I buy this anthology, several others, and two cases of beaujolais nouveau. Like the wine, the anthology is never bad, sometimes outstanding, but rarely mediocre. This year's book leans toward the mediocre, I think. Though it contains several excellent stories (Gautreaux, Gurganus, Ha Hin, ZZ Packer, and Annie Proulx), it also contains several that are closer to vignettes or character studies than actual stories, and one or two that are good stories but certainly not "the best". If this was an average vintage, I'd rank the 1997 (guest-edited by Annie Proulx) and 1999 (guest-edited by Any Tan) as the two latest outstanding vintages. In her foreward, Katrina Kenison says E.L. Doctorow was in the middle of a book tour as he read the submissions--perhaps that partly explains why the "O. Henry Awards" and "Best Short Stories from the South" collections this year, in my opinion, were better selected. Recommended, but not in the upper 33% of this anthology in the past 15 years. Then again, like wine, opinions vary--how else can you explain that the same wine store I visit has three brands of retsina?
Rating:
Summary: A Good Year
Review: I disagree with many of the reviewers. This is an above average volume. With the exception of a couple of stories, I found the rest all highly readable and some of them truly outstanding. Ron Carlson, Allan Gurganus and Annie Prolux's pieces are gems. Carlson's The Ordinary Son reads like Salinger's the Glass Family, a surreal journey the keeps you turning pages. I was disappointed when it ended. He's At The Office is one of the best short stories I have read in a long time, absolutely engrossing from the begining to end and tragic without the slightest hint of sentimentality. Hard to do. Prolux piece is from her latest collection which has some great stories in it, but this one is a killer. The rest all fall slightly below these in my opinion but they are all good reads without a great deal of blather. Worth the price of admission.
Rating: 
Summary: Stale
Review: I felt very comfortable reading this collection of short stories. It was hard to put this one down. These stories rank close to Going Too Far by Steven Gardner which is another great book that you carry!
Rating:
Summary: A good work.
Review: I felt very comfortable reading this collection of short stories. It was hard to put this one down. These stories rank close to Going Too Far by Steven Gardner which is another great book that you carry!
Rating:
Summary: Always a treat, this year's is a good one!
Review: I love the "Best American Short Stories" annual collections - if nothing else they let you catch up on all those issues of The New Yorker, Harpers, Atlantic, etc. you didn't buy! The quality of any given year, though, depends both on how good the material was and who the editor is - this year it's E.L. Doctorow and he does a great job (in terms of quality, sequencing, variety of styles - even the short introduction is a nice read). If there's a flaw it's an overreliance on well-established authors (Amy Bloom, Walter Mosley, Jhumpa Lahiri, even Raymond Carver(!)) - I don't know if all these are really up to snuff, but the overall quality is right up there and you can't beat the price. Reader Alert: In my humble opinion, the two best stories appears towards the end: ZZ Packer's "Brownies" - a parable about race and growing-up that's a bit reminicent of, dare I say, Ralph Ellison. And Ha Jin's "The Bridegroom" - a thought provocing morality play about politics of all types. Not to be missed! A bonus in the authors' notes appendix lets the authors comment on their stories or writing in general.
Rating:
Summary: Always a treat, this year's is a good one!
Review: I love the "Best American Short Stories" annual collections - if nothing else they let you catch up on all those issues of The New Yorker, Harpers, Atlantic, etc. you didn't buy! The quality of any given year, though, depends both on how good the material was and who the editor is - this year it's E.L. Doctorow and he does a great job (in terms of quality, sequencing, variety of styles - even the short introduction is a nice read). If there's a flaw it's an overreliance on well-established authors (Amy Bloom, Walter Mosley, Jhumpa Lahiri, even Raymond Carver(!)) - I don't know if all these are really up to snuff, but the overall quality is right up there and you can't beat the price. Reader Alert: In my humble opinion, the two best stories appears towards the end: ZZ Packer's "Brownies" - a parable about race and growing-up that's a bit reminicent of, dare I say, Ralph Ellison. And Ha Jin's "The Bridegroom" - a thought provocing morality play about politics of all types. Not to be missed! A bonus in the authors' notes appendix lets the authors comment on their stories or writing in general.
Rating:
Summary: "The Sun the Moon and the Stars"
Review: If nothing else, the story by J. Diaz makes it worth your money to buy the anthology. I enjoyed it, and although I haven't yet read the entire collection, it's definitely on my list of things to do!
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