Rating: 
Summary: A TREASURE!
Review: In her introduction to this estimable collection of short fiction, Barbara Kingsolver thanks the authors for "pieces of truth that moved me to a new understanding of the world." I add my gratitude for 20 memorable stories, diverse in concept but united by excellence. Arranged alphabetically by author, these tales are spare, one only four pages. All are vivified by rich narrative voices. The opening story, "Servants Of The Map" by Andrea Barrett introduces a young 19th century surveyor struggling through the Himalayas. Ridiculed by other members of his party, he carries a small wooden trunk holding letters from his wife. Powerful descriptions of the incapacitating cold bring chills, as does the gradual revelation that the surveyor is losing rational thought. Montana author Rick Bass imagines Kirby, a volunteer fireman so caught up in fighting fire that all else is tedium. His marriage suffers, yet it is fire that saves this relationship. The couple's ennui, their disagreements pale beside the dangers he faces when there is a blaze. "As long as the city keeps burning," Kirby thinks, "they can avoid becoming weary and numb. Always, he leaves, is drawn away, and then returns, to a second chance." It is Wales and D-Day once again in "Think Of England" by Peter Ho Davies. Sixteen-year-old Sarah works in a pub frequented by English soldiers who may use her. Another unlucky in love is "Pinky," the corpulent hero in Claire Davis's "Labors Of The Heart." For the first time in his forty plus years he falls in love. Can his affections ever be returned when he is categorized as "morbidly obese," and knows that "every movement, whether tying a shoe or climbing a short flight of stairs, becomes a labor of the heart?" Texas writer Annette Sanford offers "Nobody Listens When I Talk," an engaging mini-portrait of a young girl who spends a summer growing up. The maturation of two brothers is lined in "Boys," a poignant cameo of family life by Rick Moody. Bushels of laughter spark Trevanian's Basque-set story "The Apple Tree." Two village women, lifelong rivals, are next-door neighbors. While their original bone of contention had been which of them the village Romeo favored, (in truth, neither) they now square off for the fruit of an apple tree that sits on their boundary line. When harvesting apples the women come face to face. Each picks faster and faster until one pulls a limb over to gather more fruit. When she releases the branch it hits the other woman, toppling her into a bed of leeks. Mud begins to fly.
Not only mud but verbal assaults as well: They were "Crying out every vilification that years of rivalry had stored up in their fertile imaginations, decorating one another's reputations with those biologically explicit calumnies for which the Basque language might have been specifically designed, were it not universally known that it was invented in heaven for use by the angels." The Best American Short Stories 2001 is a treasure. Each story is a gem, but isn't that what treasures hold? - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Not experimental but worthwhile
Review: Kingsolver's introduction is well worth reading (much more thoughtful than Sue Miller's to the newest edition of B.A.S.S.). As always the collection is inconsistent, but there are some real winners: "Servants of the Map" by Andrea Barrett is a tour de force of a narrative with enough ideas and subtleties for a short novel; Rick Bass's "The Fireman" is heartbreakingly compelling; and a pair of stories about married couples and fertility (Elizabeth Graver's "The Mourning Door" and Marisa Silver's "What I Saw From Where I Stood") provide insight and feeling into an oft-experienced situation. Some clunker stories, of course, and very little experimental fiction at all, probably not a surprise given that Kingsolver made the choices. One piece of experimentation is "Boys" by Rick Moody, a clever but ultimately annoying tale that purports to follow the lives of twin boys but manages to cling to overly familiar stereotypes of male behavior. The collection is worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Not experimental but worthwhile
Review: Kingsolver's introduction is well worth reading (much more thoughtful than Sue Miller's to the newest edition of B.A.S.S.). As always the collection is inconsistent, but there are some real winners: "Servants of the Map" by Andrea Barrett is a tour de force of a narrative with enough ideas and subtleties for a short novel; Rick Bass's "The Fireman" is heartbreakingly compelling; and a pair of stories about married couples and fertility (Elizabeth Graver's "The Mourning Door" and Marisa Silver's "What I Saw From Where I Stood") provide insight and feeling into an oft-experienced situation. Some clunker stories, of course, and very little experimental fiction at all, probably not a surprise given that Kingsolver made the choices. One piece of experimentation is "Boys" by Rick Moody, a clever but ultimately annoying tale that purports to follow the lives of twin boys but manages to cling to overly familiar stereotypes of male behavior. The collection is worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: "Large truths delivered in tight spaces."
Review: Never one to avoid a good debate, 2001 Editor, Barbara Kingsolver (THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, PRODIGAL SUMMER) begins the latest installment of this "best of" series with fighting words: "From what I gather, most Americans would sooner read a five-hundred page book about southern France or a boy attending wizard school or how to make home decor from roadside trash or anything than pick up a book offering them a dozen tales of the world complete in twenty pages apiece. And I won't even discuss what they will do to avoid reading poetry" (p. xiii). Amen, Barbara, ain't it the truth. "These stories were, for me, both a distraction and an anchor," she writes. "They were my pleasure, my companionship, my salvation. I hope they will be yours" (p. xix). This year's collection of short stories travels the world from Hollywood to Hong Kong ("After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town"), from a Welsh pub ("Think of England") to the tropics of Madagascar ("Brothers and Sisters Around the World"). Along the way, we experience amore in the grocery aisle ("Labours of the Heart"), marriage ("Post and Beam"), war ("Think of England"), the difficulties of getting pregnant ("The Mourning Door"), and the passions of fire fighters ("The Fireman"). We also encounter a 16-year-old girl wise beyond her years in "Nobody Listens when I Talk." In selecting the stories collected here, Kingsolver tells us: "I sat with this question early on and tried to divine why it is that I love a short story when I do, and the answer came to me quite clearly: I love it for what it tells me about life. If it tells me something I didn't already know, or that I maybe suspected but never framed quite that way, or that never before socked me divinely in the solar plexus, then the story is worth the read" (p. xvi). "A good short story cannot simply be Lit Lite," Kingsolver observes in her insightful Introduction; "it is the successful execution of large truths delivered in tight spaces" (p. xviii). With contributions from writers including Rick Bass, Peter Ho Davies, Ha Jin, Rick Moody, Alice Munro, John Updike, and Dorothy West, the twenty "tight spaces" collected here reveal "large truths" indeed. As Series Editor, Katrina Kenison notes, Kingsolver's selection of stories hums "with the energy of twenty disparate voices raised under one roof" (p. xi), making this latest collection definitely "worth the read.". G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Maybe not THE BEST, but I'm not complaining...
Review: So, in theory, you could call me a psycho. I actually run out and purchase the Best American Series for any given year the very day it comes out and I'm not ashamed. But, you know, I've noticed that of the reviews I've read so far from any year, half of the people who read the series are completely satisfied with it (or just lying) and the other half want to burn every single copy cover to cover. Well, this is what I think: this year wasn't half bad. In past years, I've put the book down half way through, sometimes skimmed through. But with the 2001 edition, I made a conscious effort to get through the entire thing, and I didn't do too terribly. For one thing, Barbara Kingsolver's introduction is well worth the read. I swear that in a few decades, the intro to every edition will become some sort of critical piece of literary criticism. It's interesting to hear what some so-called "in" authors have to say about the state of short fiction. But, more importantly, it gives you insight into who exactly picked what. Theoretically, this isn't necessarily the Best American Short Stories, but more like The Best American Short Stories According To Such-and-Such. Regardless, there are quite a few that deserve their slots. Among my favorites is "Brothers and Sisters Around the World", by Andrea Lee, a story set in Madagascar which explores the unique bonds between women of different cultures, and the relationship between Africans and African-American. Also up on my list is "What I Saw from Where I Stood" by Marisa Silver. I had read this story in the publication in which it had originally appeared and had put it down knowing it would be picked for the series. Other greats include "Boys" by Rick Moody, "The Apple Tree" by Trevanian, "Betty Hutton" by Roy Parvin, and "The Mourning Door" by Elizabeth Graver. However, I admit that quite a few of the stories lacked for me. Of the twenty stories, I didn't bother to finish "Servants of the Map", "The Rug Weaver", or "Post and Beam". Not because they were necessarily bad stories, but because they didn't really keep me wanting to turn that next page. And the others that I have not mentioned, though well written, obviously didn't hold much weight in my mind as far as memory goes. In short, this is a collection just like the collections of the past years, chosen with a biased, but rich and diverse just the same. It is a collection for people interested in the current state of the short story, and people who want to open up to new forms, and ideas, and styles. I'm not guaranteeing you'll want to read every story to your friends, but it keeps you interested most of the way. Besides, "best" is a relative term, anyway. Nowhere on the book does it say that you have to ADORE every single piece in it.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy and uplifting
Review: There is a solemn streak running through this collection. People die in most of the stories. The general idea seems to be that they are supposed to give us insights into human nature and, to be fair, they often succeed.
No science fiction is included. The editors don't say that this exclusion is a policy.It would be interesting to know whether any was considered. Is science fiction too frivolous? For me science fiction is the genre where I am most likely to read short stories rather than full length novels.
The word "American" is broadly interpreted; two stories are set in China, one in the Himalayas, one in Wales and one in Madagascar.
It's tempting to review a short story collection by picking out the ones I like best. In this case the five stars belong to the excellent Foreword by Katrina Kenison (who made the preliminary selection) and the Introduction by Barbara Kingsolver (who didn't have to work so hard) giving reasons we should read short stories and berating us for not doing so.
One reason I read collections like this is the hope of coming across a writer I didn't previously know and must rush out and read read more of. A problem with this collection for this particular purpose is that it contains work by well-known writers; one of the stories I liked best was by a writer whose every book is already on my shelves. The collections are also good for reading on flights with short hops (I bought this one at Logan Airport). For reading in bed or flying to California I need longer narratives.
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