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The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories
The thirty-three stories in this volume prove that American short fiction maybe be our most distinctive national art form. As selected and introduced by Tobias Wolff, they also make up an alternate map of the United States that represents not just geography but narrative traditions, cultural heritage, and divergent approaches.
576 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1994
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1281 people want to read
About the author
Tobias Wolff
155 books1,223 followersTobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is a writer of fiction and nonfiction.
He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels.
Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Stanford from 2000 to 2002.
He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels.
Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Stanford from 2000 to 2002.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
July 25, 2022
Tobias Wolf has combed the length and breadth of the World of Short Stories and has come up with this gem of a collection.
But these are not for the faint hearted...
These stories are not for the beach, lounging under a shady stripped umbrella sipping lemonade nor are they for a summer evening with a genteel cup of tea and some cucumber sandwiches.
These stories are brutal. These stories twist your guts.
You need to be in a darkened room, a lamp illuminating just the page you are reading and a shot of vodka at your elbow with a bottle within easy reach.
No one should see your face when you weep as you read Dorothy Allison’s ‘River of Names’, you gasp when before your eyes eight-year old Billy is found hanging from the rafters.
Was it an accident? Was he playing?
But with a terrible shock you realise it is just an everyday occurrence in a society that has lost control over itself. The narrator is a part of this Society, the narration an attempt to cleanse her life of happenings that defy imagination.
What do you use to rape a woman? Just about everything, well try a broom handle, too banal? Grass shears? Imaginative.
You move on, Richard Bausch ‘All the way in Flagstaff, Arizona’.
What do you do when your father drinks, on a picnic he sneaks out to the boot of car where he has hidden a bottle...
You pretend everything is okay, it is of course.
You smile when he says, ‘I just found a bottle’.
Then your Mother just cannot take it anymore.
He now lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, alone and lonely...
He remembers the day he stood on the lawn, looking in...
His house all lit up, thinking of the people inside, whom he had named and who he loved and called sons, daughters, and wife.
How he had stood there, trembling, shaking as from a terrific chill, while the dark night descended.
How easy it is for the very rich to discard friends, she just sells a precious Vintage Thunderbird on a whim...
You want to but you just cannot do anything about it, you have no money to buy it, all you have is this tremendous desire to hit her when she says with a shrug ‘I need a new car’
Oh yes you know how helpless it is to be poor when you read Ann Beattie’s ‘A Vintage Thunderbird’
In Carol Bly’s ‘Talk of Heroes’, A Gestapo Officer methodically and slowly pries off the knee caps of a Norwegian resistance fighter, Willi.
The Gestapo Officer, promises Willi a good future if he betrays his compatriots. But the Gestapo officer makes one tiny mistake when he says
‘Willi everyone talks... sooner or later.’
It is then that Willi realises, ‘that talking sooner is not the same as talking several hours later’
He wipes his mind, no rosy future for him and then in his mind he follows the escape route his friends will take if he doesn’t betray them
Oh yes it is much later that he gives the names but it was not sooner but much later.
You are by now addicted to violence, sickness, alcoholism, sexual exploitation, as well as divorce.
You wait for everyone to leave the house, you light that lamp that encircles just your page, you are ready for your encounter with the violent psychopath, a murderer who dislikes men of all shapes and sizes in Scott Bradfield’s ‘The Darling’.
On her fifth month of sobriety she is stalked by Lenny a cocaine-heroin addict who drags her deep down into his dark world in Kate Braverman’s ‘Tall tales from the Mekong Delta’.
Raymond Carver in ‘Cathedral’, talks about the Husband who is exasperated by his wife. She has this friend who is her confessional, knows everything about her.
She has even told him about her husband. On the way to visit his in-laws, Robert, the friend and he is blind visits them.
How do you deal with a Blind person wonders the Husband, Robert comes, drinks, eats with gusto, the Husband even smokes pot with him and both realise that they enjoy each other’s company.
Then Robert and the Husband start building a cathedral so that the Husband can visualise what it is to be blind.
It is then that the Husband is aware that although he can see, he is drawn deep down in the world of the sightless.
You are confused by Andre Dubus’ ‘Fat Girl’.
By now the mood is happier, you decide just one more and it will be time for bed, just one more and then you will hit your pillow.
But you are mistaken, sadly mistaken...
Stuart Dybek in his ‘Chopin in Winter’ manages to wring out the last drop from you.
From some faraway place you hear your wife calling you for dinner, hoarsely you manage a weak, ‘coming honey’.
They ignore you and continue with their dinner, you sigh and move to the Eighteenth Street, that’s where Mrs. Kubiac, the Polish landlady lives and rents out apartments.
As you move through the small building you hear so many voices, so many stories, you hear Marcy, Mrs. Kubiac’s daughter a gifted pianist who returns home pregnant, but refuses to tell who the father of the baby is.
Dzia-Dzia has also returned from one of his endless wanderings. Soaking his feet in boiling water with a fizzy tablet that fogs the entire kitchen, he listens to Marcy playing some boogie-woogie and he tells his grandson Michael,
‘Marcy is playing boogie-woogie music, she’s in love with a coloured man’
Oh yes, Dzia-Dzia, loves and shares Marcy’s music. She plays her beautiful soul searching, heart wrenching Chopin on her magnificent piano and Dzia-Dzia plays Chopin on his dining room table.
Oh what duets they have and all the while Michael the dyslexic grandson tries his penmanship on the same table,
Dzia-Dzia screams music at Michael. And then Michael meets Marcy whilst playing on the landing and she says
‘Are you the little boy, I used to hear crying at night?’
‘I don’t know’
‘If your name is Michael and if your bedroom window is on the fourth floor right below mine, then you are,’ Marcy says.
Michael then realises it is not he crying but his Mother crying for hours seated at the foot of his bed after she loses her husband in the war.
Oh yes, you hear so many stories in Mrs. Kubiac apartments, whispers and shreds of music everywhere, in the chutes, in the vents, through open windows, through the wallpaper... and then ‘deep and pure silence beyond daydreams and memory.
You stagger to bed drained. You have a long day ahead of you.
For kinky sex you turn to Mary Gaitskill’s ‘A Romantic Weekend’. A sadistic married man and a masochistic unmarried woman decide to have a beautiful romantic weekend. ‘They are almost quaint in their attempts to be perverse’ but as the weekend moves on, you realise with alarm, that there are shades of dark as the liaison reveals itself as a fight for control.
In Allan Gurganus’ ‘Minor Heroism’, a young boy reveals how terrified he is of his father who has returned from the Second World War.
The father was used to a long war and does not have much to do in peacetime so he concentrates on disciplining his son who does not fit in his picture of ‘Son the Achiever’.
The son’s terror is palpable, whenever he tries to draw pictures that do not resemble his father, his father is incensed, as he has to have ‘himself’ in every picture.
Strangely the boy finds a way to pay back, but subtly.
You cannot believe adults bash their kids, such tender fragile bodies. Power?
You relax, this promises to be a nice coming of age story and it is. You loosen up, because the nicest part is that it is all about music. In fact it is all about Ravel’s Bolero which you love, just as a lark you put it on as you read Barry Hannah’s ‘Testimony of Pilot.
Just as you calm down and start Ron Hansen’s ‘Wickedness’ you are horrified at the devastation Nature can wreck, entire towns blanketed with such deep, deep snow and such mind numbing cold killing hundreds.
For some reason you cannot read Denis Johnson’s’ ‘Emergency’ as also Thom Jones’ ‘A White Horse.
It is one of those things, the stories fall flat for you.
You are so comfortable and enjoying yourself, such pleasure a short story is. But swiftly you are drawn into a pool of sadness, a whirlpool of disrespect when an illiterate black mother takes her well scrubbed daughter to school for the first time.
Your heart squirms when the story opens with ‘long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother’ in Edward P. Jones’s ‘The First Day’.
This feeling of sadness, such contempt for another human being spills on to Jamaica Kinkaid’s ‘Girl’ as she says ‘to prevent yourself from looking like a slut I know you are so bent on becoming’.
In John L’Heurex’s ‘Departures’ all the mother wanted to do was kiss and hug her son, a seminarian when he returns home on a vacation
But then he says with icy self control,
‘I’ll just kiss you on the cheek, don’t touch me, and I’ll shake hands with Dad.
As he bends to kiss her on the cheek, she pulls slightly away... ‘she has gone white, and the look of panic on her face is not nearly as terrible as the look of drowning in her eyes.’
Even when she is dying she thinks of that one occasion, she looks at her son and murmurs
‘You’re not to worry. When the train comes in, I won’t kiss you. I won’t touch you.’
‘No!’ the priest cries out sharply.
‘Mother, no’.
He leans over the bed to kiss her, but as he does she turns from him, saying, ‘I’ll be good. I promise. I’ll be good.
And she dies with her head still turned away from him.
You drink your last bit of vodka and stagger to bed...
But you cannot sleep.
You now have finished with most of the stories, they have drained you and you cannot stop weeping.
Your wife says you have changed, you drink too much, you are morose and you have forgotten to laugh...
But these are not for the faint hearted...
These stories are not for the beach, lounging under a shady stripped umbrella sipping lemonade nor are they for a summer evening with a genteel cup of tea and some cucumber sandwiches.
These stories are brutal. These stories twist your guts.
You need to be in a darkened room, a lamp illuminating just the page you are reading and a shot of vodka at your elbow with a bottle within easy reach.
No one should see your face when you weep as you read Dorothy Allison’s ‘River of Names’, you gasp when before your eyes eight-year old Billy is found hanging from the rafters.
Was it an accident? Was he playing?
But with a terrible shock you realise it is just an everyday occurrence in a society that has lost control over itself. The narrator is a part of this Society, the narration an attempt to cleanse her life of happenings that defy imagination.
What do you use to rape a woman? Just about everything, well try a broom handle, too banal? Grass shears? Imaginative.
You move on, Richard Bausch ‘All the way in Flagstaff, Arizona’.
What do you do when your father drinks, on a picnic he sneaks out to the boot of car where he has hidden a bottle...
You pretend everything is okay, it is of course.
You smile when he says, ‘I just found a bottle’.
Then your Mother just cannot take it anymore.
He now lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, alone and lonely...
He remembers the day he stood on the lawn, looking in...
His house all lit up, thinking of the people inside, whom he had named and who he loved and called sons, daughters, and wife.
How he had stood there, trembling, shaking as from a terrific chill, while the dark night descended.
How easy it is for the very rich to discard friends, she just sells a precious Vintage Thunderbird on a whim...
You want to but you just cannot do anything about it, you have no money to buy it, all you have is this tremendous desire to hit her when she says with a shrug ‘I need a new car’
Oh yes you know how helpless it is to be poor when you read Ann Beattie’s ‘A Vintage Thunderbird’
In Carol Bly’s ‘Talk of Heroes’, A Gestapo Officer methodically and slowly pries off the knee caps of a Norwegian resistance fighter, Willi.
The Gestapo Officer, promises Willi a good future if he betrays his compatriots. But the Gestapo officer makes one tiny mistake when he says
‘Willi everyone talks... sooner or later.’
It is then that Willi realises, ‘that talking sooner is not the same as talking several hours later’
He wipes his mind, no rosy future for him and then in his mind he follows the escape route his friends will take if he doesn’t betray them
Oh yes it is much later that he gives the names but it was not sooner but much later.
You are by now addicted to violence, sickness, alcoholism, sexual exploitation, as well as divorce.
You wait for everyone to leave the house, you light that lamp that encircles just your page, you are ready for your encounter with the violent psychopath, a murderer who dislikes men of all shapes and sizes in Scott Bradfield’s ‘The Darling’.
On her fifth month of sobriety she is stalked by Lenny a cocaine-heroin addict who drags her deep down into his dark world in Kate Braverman’s ‘Tall tales from the Mekong Delta’.
Raymond Carver in ‘Cathedral’, talks about the Husband who is exasperated by his wife. She has this friend who is her confessional, knows everything about her.
She has even told him about her husband. On the way to visit his in-laws, Robert, the friend and he is blind visits them.
How do you deal with a Blind person wonders the Husband, Robert comes, drinks, eats with gusto, the Husband even smokes pot with him and both realise that they enjoy each other’s company.
Then Robert and the Husband start building a cathedral so that the Husband can visualise what it is to be blind.
It is then that the Husband is aware that although he can see, he is drawn deep down in the world of the sightless.
You are confused by Andre Dubus’ ‘Fat Girl’.
By now the mood is happier, you decide just one more and it will be time for bed, just one more and then you will hit your pillow.
But you are mistaken, sadly mistaken...
Stuart Dybek in his ‘Chopin in Winter’ manages to wring out the last drop from you.
From some faraway place you hear your wife calling you for dinner, hoarsely you manage a weak, ‘coming honey’.
They ignore you and continue with their dinner, you sigh and move to the Eighteenth Street, that’s where Mrs. Kubiac, the Polish landlady lives and rents out apartments.
As you move through the small building you hear so many voices, so many stories, you hear Marcy, Mrs. Kubiac’s daughter a gifted pianist who returns home pregnant, but refuses to tell who the father of the baby is.
Dzia-Dzia has also returned from one of his endless wanderings. Soaking his feet in boiling water with a fizzy tablet that fogs the entire kitchen, he listens to Marcy playing some boogie-woogie and he tells his grandson Michael,
‘Marcy is playing boogie-woogie music, she’s in love with a coloured man’
Oh yes, Dzia-Dzia, loves and shares Marcy’s music. She plays her beautiful soul searching, heart wrenching Chopin on her magnificent piano and Dzia-Dzia plays Chopin on his dining room table.
Oh what duets they have and all the while Michael the dyslexic grandson tries his penmanship on the same table,
Dzia-Dzia screams music at Michael. And then Michael meets Marcy whilst playing on the landing and she says
‘Are you the little boy, I used to hear crying at night?’
‘I don’t know’
‘If your name is Michael and if your bedroom window is on the fourth floor right below mine, then you are,’ Marcy says.
Michael then realises it is not he crying but his Mother crying for hours seated at the foot of his bed after she loses her husband in the war.
Oh yes, you hear so many stories in Mrs. Kubiac apartments, whispers and shreds of music everywhere, in the chutes, in the vents, through open windows, through the wallpaper... and then ‘deep and pure silence beyond daydreams and memory.
You stagger to bed drained. You have a long day ahead of you.
For kinky sex you turn to Mary Gaitskill’s ‘A Romantic Weekend’. A sadistic married man and a masochistic unmarried woman decide to have a beautiful romantic weekend. ‘They are almost quaint in their attempts to be perverse’ but as the weekend moves on, you realise with alarm, that there are shades of dark as the liaison reveals itself as a fight for control.
In Allan Gurganus’ ‘Minor Heroism’, a young boy reveals how terrified he is of his father who has returned from the Second World War.
The father was used to a long war and does not have much to do in peacetime so he concentrates on disciplining his son who does not fit in his picture of ‘Son the Achiever’.
The son’s terror is palpable, whenever he tries to draw pictures that do not resemble his father, his father is incensed, as he has to have ‘himself’ in every picture.
Strangely the boy finds a way to pay back, but subtly.
You cannot believe adults bash their kids, such tender fragile bodies. Power?
You relax, this promises to be a nice coming of age story and it is. You loosen up, because the nicest part is that it is all about music. In fact it is all about Ravel’s Bolero which you love, just as a lark you put it on as you read Barry Hannah’s ‘Testimony of Pilot.
Just as you calm down and start Ron Hansen’s ‘Wickedness’ you are horrified at the devastation Nature can wreck, entire towns blanketed with such deep, deep snow and such mind numbing cold killing hundreds.
For some reason you cannot read Denis Johnson’s’ ‘Emergency’ as also Thom Jones’ ‘A White Horse.
It is one of those things, the stories fall flat for you.
You are so comfortable and enjoying yourself, such pleasure a short story is. But swiftly you are drawn into a pool of sadness, a whirlpool of disrespect when an illiterate black mother takes her well scrubbed daughter to school for the first time.
Your heart squirms when the story opens with ‘long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother’ in Edward P. Jones’s ‘The First Day’.
This feeling of sadness, such contempt for another human being spills on to Jamaica Kinkaid’s ‘Girl’ as she says ‘to prevent yourself from looking like a slut I know you are so bent on becoming’.
In John L’Heurex’s ‘Departures’ all the mother wanted to do was kiss and hug her son, a seminarian when he returns home on a vacation
But then he says with icy self control,
‘I’ll just kiss you on the cheek, don’t touch me, and I’ll shake hands with Dad.
As he bends to kiss her on the cheek, she pulls slightly away... ‘she has gone white, and the look of panic on her face is not nearly as terrible as the look of drowning in her eyes.’
Even when she is dying she thinks of that one occasion, she looks at her son and murmurs
‘You’re not to worry. When the train comes in, I won’t kiss you. I won’t touch you.’
‘No!’ the priest cries out sharply.
‘Mother, no’.
He leans over the bed to kiss her, but as he does she turns from him, saying, ‘I’ll be good. I promise. I’ll be good.
And she dies with her head still turned away from him.
You drink your last bit of vodka and stagger to bed...
But you cannot sleep.
You now have finished with most of the stories, they have drained you and you cannot stop weeping.
Your wife says you have changed, you drink too much, you are morose and you have forgotten to laugh...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2016
it's funny to be reading a book of stories and turn the page and come upon "cathedral." always seems like something that came from on high and has been around since the dawn of man or something. hard to believe carver was ever anyone's contemporary. but i guess that's the story!
anyway! lots of good stories in this book-- mostly the usual suspects: "where are you going, where have you been?" and "the fat girl" and "a romantic weekend" and "a white horse" (which is still SO FUCKING GREAT) and "the things they carried" and "emergency," etc. but also there were a few stunners i'd never encountered before, including "tall tales from the mekong delta" by kate braverman ("There is always a garish carnival across the boulevard."), "the first day" by edward p. jones, and, most wonderful of all, a story called "talk of heroes" by someone named Carol Bly who i had never ever heard of before. and that story is brilliant! i went and ordered all her books and read the story three times and cried at the end each time! carol bly. i guess she's dead now. glad you stopped by, carol bly!
also there were a bunch of stories that were not as good, but we don't have to mention them. except "river of names" by dorothy allison, which just made me want to shoot someone. probably myself. but luckily that was the first story in the book and has now has been swept from my memory...
anyway! lots of good stories in this book-- mostly the usual suspects: "where are you going, where have you been?" and "the fat girl" and "a romantic weekend" and "a white horse" (which is still SO FUCKING GREAT) and "the things they carried" and "emergency," etc. but also there were a few stunners i'd never encountered before, including "tall tales from the mekong delta" by kate braverman ("There is always a garish carnival across the boulevard."), "the first day" by edward p. jones, and, most wonderful of all, a story called "talk of heroes" by someone named Carol Bly who i had never ever heard of before. and that story is brilliant! i went and ordered all her books and read the story three times and cried at the end each time! carol bly. i guess she's dead now. glad you stopped by, carol bly!
also there were a bunch of stories that were not as good, but we don't have to mention them. except "river of names" by dorothy allison, which just made me want to shoot someone. probably myself. but luckily that was the first story in the book and has now has been swept from my memory...
May 4, 2009
It's a shame that short stories are a somewhat forgotten genre these days, because when they are good (as these ones are), they can contain the joy, profundity and impact of much longer works, without the necessity of hours of time commitment. There are too many first-rate stories in here to make individual remarks practical, but I would offer a general salute to Tobias Wolff, the editor, for making almost uniformly first-rate selections.
I've had to pace myself going through the book because almost without exception, each story bears pondering. And in addition to the intrinsic merit of the stories themselves, a volume like this also has the singular advantage of exposing one to many undiscovered authors, greatly enlarging one's literary horizons.
I've had to pace myself going through the book because almost without exception, each story bears pondering. And in addition to the intrinsic merit of the stories themselves, a volume like this also has the singular advantage of exposing one to many undiscovered authors, greatly enlarging one's literary horizons.
January 31, 2014
I think my favorite story in the series was Chopin in Winter, for sure. In general the stories were good, but I found some unbearably painful to read. There are a couple of topics that I find very unsettling to have to delve into, particularly Vietnam veterans and people falling off the wagon. The wagon thing is by far the most uncomfortable and this book was rife with those stories for some reason. Why are contemporary authors so fascinated with what booze does to good people, or why good people turned to booze in the first place? Flagstaff Arizona, Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta and Helping were all painful in the same way that Jhumpa Lahiri's Only Goodness is painful. I suppose it comes from my family history and the fact that there was certainly a point in my life where it looked like I could have ended up being a drunkard. I guess it's a "there but for the grace of God" sort of angst. I also found the Lawns story unsettling, for some very understandable, and some very unexpected reasons.
In general, I'm sick of American stories about down on their luck, blue collar people who drink too much, beat their wives and children, work with their backs, possess "the common touch", revile education, and spurn sophistication. It might be an honest way to look at one of the bigger slices of American life, but it's not pleasant, and frequently not interesting. Henry James wrote about aristocracy for a reason. When you stop knocking back Keystone Light, beating your family, shoveling coal and being semi-literate, your range of emotional and intellectual experiences is really given the leisure to broaden.
In general, I'm sick of American stories about down on their luck, blue collar people who drink too much, beat their wives and children, work with their backs, possess "the common touch", revile education, and spurn sophistication. It might be an honest way to look at one of the bigger slices of American life, but it's not pleasant, and frequently not interesting. Henry James wrote about aristocracy for a reason. When you stop knocking back Keystone Light, beating your family, shoveling coal and being semi-literate, your range of emotional and intellectual experiences is really given the leisure to broaden.
April 6, 2025
"A Romantic Weekend" by Mary Gaitskill: 4 stars
- fumbles on the goal line. of course 'shoulda done this not that' is the lowest form of critique, but she really shoulda done this and not that, namely why see through a comic takedown of the bdsm mindset and the gendered incompatibility of master-slave mentalities only to blow another puff of hot air into the very balloon you've just deflated at the end? STORY: shitty weak dude tries and fails to establish dom-status over girl who tries and fails to like getting burnt with a lighter.
“Chopin in Winter” by Stuart Dybeck: 2 stars
- Especially bad for being from the 90s, given that Bronx Tale postwar ethnic nostalgia. STORY: treacly aloof depiction of boy experiencing aftermath of dads death in WWII, arrival of drifter grandfather, and tense situation of Czech neighbor girl upstairs pregnant with child of a black man.
- fumbles on the goal line. of course 'shoulda done this not that' is the lowest form of critique, but she really shoulda done this and not that, namely why see through a comic takedown of the bdsm mindset and the gendered incompatibility of master-slave mentalities only to blow another puff of hot air into the very balloon you've just deflated at the end? STORY: shitty weak dude tries and fails to establish dom-status over girl who tries and fails to like getting burnt with a lighter.
“Chopin in Winter” by Stuart Dybeck: 2 stars
- Especially bad for being from the 90s, given that Bronx Tale postwar ethnic nostalgia. STORY: treacly aloof depiction of boy experiencing aftermath of dads death in WWII, arrival of drifter grandfather, and tense situation of Czech neighbor girl upstairs pregnant with child of a black man.
May 17, 2025
I’m free!!!
Individually, I liked most of the stories in this collection more than my star rating indicates. But I did not appreciate how the collection was put together, in alphabetical order by author last name. It detracted from the reading experience and made it a slog to get through. Particularly, it is a mistake to start off with the Dorothy Allison story, which I think is the weakest in the whole book and I imagine would be off putting for someone who was just picking this up randomly.
I, on the other hand, was committed to finishing the whole collection before I even started reading it, because it was lent to me by a member of my writing group after I mentioned wanting to understand the art of the short story better. Ultimately, I do think I understand the art of this specific kind of short story better, and in retrospect, I’m not upset to have spent time on this, but man, there were some long stretches there where I was really forcing my way through.
Individually, I liked most of the stories in this collection more than my star rating indicates. But I did not appreciate how the collection was put together, in alphabetical order by author last name. It detracted from the reading experience and made it a slog to get through. Particularly, it is a mistake to start off with the Dorothy Allison story, which I think is the weakest in the whole book and I imagine would be off putting for someone who was just picking this up randomly.
I, on the other hand, was committed to finishing the whole collection before I even started reading it, because it was lent to me by a member of my writing group after I mentioned wanting to understand the art of the short story better. Ultimately, I do think I understand the art of this specific kind of short story better, and in retrospect, I’m not upset to have spent time on this, but man, there were some long stretches there where I was really forcing my way through.
October 21, 2019
I loved working through this collection. A kaleidoscope of voices that entertained me, shocked me, scared me, and made me sad. Makes me want to pick up work by Tobias Wolff, the editor, because he chose such interesting stories.
June 13, 2011
Amazing. I'm not normally a literature consumer, but this one hit the spot. Most of the stories are sad, compelling and rich. Strong character development in each, a punch to the gut in most, an interesting piece of what it is to be human and american captured in all. Loved it. Highly recommended.
December 24, 2019
There were some wonderful new discoveries for me in this collection: “River of Names” by Dorothy Allison; “All the Way in Flagstaff, Arizona” by Richard Bausch; “Chopin in Winter” by Stuart Dybek; “Minor Heroism” by Allan Gurganus; “Home” by Jayne Anne Phillips; “Moonwalk” by Susan Power; “Lawns” by Mona Simpson; and “Dog Heaven” by Stephanie Vaughn.
An while there were other favorites I had read previously in one or more anthologies, the emphasis in this book’s title should be on the word Contemporary, rather than Vintage.
An while there were other favorites I had read previously in one or more anthologies, the emphasis in this book’s title should be on the word Contemporary, rather than Vintage.
February 20, 2022
Most of the stories are just okay. Maybe a third are actually good, predominately the ones written by Southerners.
September 30, 2019
Before I jump into the individual story reviews, I’d like to say a few things.
1. I did not read the entire book.
2. This was required reading and I did not choose to read this of my own free will.
3. I literally would have never read this if it wasn’t required.
4. I have strong opinions, so you’ve been warned.
Okay, now for the actual reviews.
-Cathedral by Raymond Carver
I liked the general concept of this story, but Carver’s execution isn’t really my kinda style. I thought it had potential, but I didn’t like the execution. Also some of the stuff just felt very unnecessary. 2/5 stars
-Rock Springs by Richard Ford
I didn’t care for this story. I wasn’t bothered by it, but there was no appeal in it for me. I really had no feelings about it, good, bad, or otherwise. It was just kinda...there. *shrugs* 2/5 Stars
-Emergency by Denis Johnson
Um...what even was the point of this story? I honestly hit a level of not caring that basically made me feel nothing about this one. 2/5 stars
-Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
The first time I read this I kinda hated it. But the second time I read it, I went into the entire thing with a very different perspective, so I was able to appreciate it in some, weird way. But it is very sexually suggestive/graphic in a lot of Arnold Friend’s dialogue. 3/5 stars
-The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
This was the one story I loved with all my heart. It employs unique formatting concepts and really dives headfirst into the real and raw concepts of war. I love it and it’s by far my favorite in the book. 5/5 stars
-Lawns by Mona Simpson
This one...hit some heavy material. It deals with sexual abuse in a way that made me uncomfortable to the point of actually struggling to get through it. I understand why the author felt a need to write it the way she did, but it’s not my cup of tea. 1/5 stars
-Rules of The Game by Amy Tan
I enjoyed this one. It’s about chess, but it’s not really “about” chess, if you know what I mean. I enjoyed that Amy Tan was able to use chess to create suspense and tension between the characters and the reader. It was a good read, but not one I’ll revisit. 3/5 stars
-Train by Joy Williams
This one had a few little one-liner gems, but that was about it. The plot was kinda boring and nothing about it really stood out to me as strikingly good or bad. 2/5 stars
I’m giving this collection 2/5 stars because I disliked almost every single story that I did read. And because of that, I probably will never reread or revisit this collection. The only exception to this would be to reread The Things They Carried because that one is a masterpiece. However, overall, I was very disappointed by this collection, in more way than one. I can’t recommend it, but if you find yourself required to read it, as I did, I wish you the best of luck and hope that you find some of the hidden gems that you find to your liking.
1. I did not read the entire book.
2. This was required reading and I did not choose to read this of my own free will.
3. I literally would have never read this if it wasn’t required.
4. I have strong opinions, so you’ve been warned.
Okay, now for the actual reviews.
-Cathedral by Raymond Carver
I liked the general concept of this story, but Carver’s execution isn’t really my kinda style. I thought it had potential, but I didn’t like the execution. Also some of the stuff just felt very unnecessary. 2/5 stars
-Rock Springs by Richard Ford
I didn’t care for this story. I wasn’t bothered by it, but there was no appeal in it for me. I really had no feelings about it, good, bad, or otherwise. It was just kinda...there. *shrugs* 2/5 Stars
-Emergency by Denis Johnson
Um...what even was the point of this story? I honestly hit a level of not caring that basically made me feel nothing about this one. 2/5 stars
-Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
The first time I read this I kinda hated it. But the second time I read it, I went into the entire thing with a very different perspective, so I was able to appreciate it in some, weird way. But it is very sexually suggestive/graphic in a lot of Arnold Friend’s dialogue. 3/5 stars
-The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
This was the one story I loved with all my heart. It employs unique formatting concepts and really dives headfirst into the real and raw concepts of war. I love it and it’s by far my favorite in the book. 5/5 stars
-Lawns by Mona Simpson
This one...hit some heavy material. It deals with sexual abuse in a way that made me uncomfortable to the point of actually struggling to get through it. I understand why the author felt a need to write it the way she did, but it’s not my cup of tea. 1/5 stars
-Rules of The Game by Amy Tan
I enjoyed this one. It’s about chess, but it’s not really “about” chess, if you know what I mean. I enjoyed that Amy Tan was able to use chess to create suspense and tension between the characters and the reader. It was a good read, but not one I’ll revisit. 3/5 stars
-Train by Joy Williams
This one had a few little one-liner gems, but that was about it. The plot was kinda boring and nothing about it really stood out to me as strikingly good or bad. 2/5 stars
I’m giving this collection 2/5 stars because I disliked almost every single story that I did read. And because of that, I probably will never reread or revisit this collection. The only exception to this would be to reread The Things They Carried because that one is a masterpiece. However, overall, I was very disappointed by this collection, in more way than one. I can’t recommend it, but if you find yourself required to read it, as I did, I wish you the best of luck and hope that you find some of the hidden gems that you find to your liking.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2024
Finally, I’m free!
Each of the stories in this collection is carefully workshopped, technically successful, and packed with just the right amount of character development, dialogue, etc.
Unfortunately, most of them are also pretty dull in scope, emotionally traumatizing, and written in an unimaginative, hyper-conventional prose. That is: the genre most often described as dirty realism.
There are exceptions. I loved “Chopin in Winter” by Stuart Dybek, a meditation on the end of childhood and its youthful exuberance, as such is symbolized in the music of Chopin heard through the ceiling of a city apartment. “Minor Heroism” by Allan Gurganus, especially its final section, gets the retrospectively viewed relationship of a father and son perfectly right, with all the superficial disapproval, underlying love, and personality distance these two characters share.
However, plenty of the other stories just feel like humorless depictions of blue collar suffering, riddled with alcoholics, physical abuse, and dirt-poor poverty.
Fans of postmodern literature, where the language is grand, the humor always present, and the intricate plots ever twisted into infinite mazes, are advised to look elsewhere for meaningful reading.
Each of the stories in this collection is carefully workshopped, technically successful, and packed with just the right amount of character development, dialogue, etc.
Unfortunately, most of them are also pretty dull in scope, emotionally traumatizing, and written in an unimaginative, hyper-conventional prose. That is: the genre most often described as dirty realism.
There are exceptions. I loved “Chopin in Winter” by Stuart Dybek, a meditation on the end of childhood and its youthful exuberance, as such is symbolized in the music of Chopin heard through the ceiling of a city apartment. “Minor Heroism” by Allan Gurganus, especially its final section, gets the retrospectively viewed relationship of a father and son perfectly right, with all the superficial disapproval, underlying love, and personality distance these two characters share.
However, plenty of the other stories just feel like humorless depictions of blue collar suffering, riddled with alcoholics, physical abuse, and dirt-poor poverty.
Fans of postmodern literature, where the language is grand, the humor always present, and the intricate plots ever twisted into infinite mazes, are advised to look elsewhere for meaningful reading.
September 25, 2008
The stories in this collection are inspiring. Wolff collected works from the best writers of our time. Stories like Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are you going? Where have you been?" and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," while more wildly read and better know, fit in superbly with Andre Dubus' "Fat Girl," Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" and Edward P. Jones' "The First Day." I was particularly happy to read Susan Power's "Moonwalk," a story about a dying native american woman's last gift to her grandson and to herself. It is a beautiful and breathtaking story. "Aunt Granny Lith" also stood out. A fascinating tale of a childhood game intertwining with a local legend and ghost story (of sorts). I was thoroughly impressed by this collection.
November 29, 2008
After listening to a New Yorker Fiction podcast reading of "Dog Heaven," I picked this up from the library because I was so drawn to this particular story about the military child--most stories about the military center on the service member. The tone is lightly nostalgic and the author teases out funny little anecdotes as she brings us to the bittersweet conclusion of youth and innocence. Everything is just right about this little story. So good.
Other favorites from the collection: Cathedral, The Things The Carried, The Fat Girl, The Testimony of Pilot, Rules of the Game and so much more.
Other favorites from the collection: Cathedral, The Things The Carried, The Fat Girl, The Testimony of Pilot, Rules of the Game and so much more.
December 19, 2013
Very excellent collection of stories that really broadened my literary horizons. I really needed to read this as an aspiring writer. The Mona Simpson piece is awesome, awesome! I could not put the book down reading it, and re-read it several times.
This was also my first reading of Carver, who had his piece "Cathedral" in here. It was interesting, but it didn't really speak to me like some of the others. There's even a cliff notes about that piece...which I read...and it did help me to think about it.
The Dubus piece was great also.
Overall, a highly recommended collection of modern writing. A pleasure to read.
This was also my first reading of Carver, who had his piece "Cathedral" in here. It was interesting, but it didn't really speak to me like some of the others. There's even a cliff notes about that piece...which I read...and it did help me to think about it.
The Dubus piece was great also.
Overall, a highly recommended collection of modern writing. A pleasure to read.
November 19, 2013
I felt that this book of short stories really did its best to gather great writers and (just one of) their best stories. It worked well with my first fiction class in college and I've kept it since. Coming back to them a little older, I've definitely appreciated each story even more. It made me look into authors that I really liked and as a result, eventually I've read more of them.
It's definitely a must-have-book for everyone's library!
It's definitely a must-have-book for everyone's library!
April 13, 2007
This book will make you love short stories. I won't say every page was amazing, and in fact there were two or three stories in here I didn't think were all that great. But the other twenty or so were great. Some were amazing. So seeing as this book is roughly 95% great, I'm giving it 5 stars. This is fiction that sticks to your ribs, not in your teeth.
September 9, 2007
The first story, "River of Names," by Dorothy Allison ripped my friggen head off. Brutally good. Another favorite was, "Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta," by Kate Braverman. A few stories are already heavily anthologized (Oates, Tan, Carver) but overall this was a spectacular anthology with only a few misses.
July 16, 2015
A great collection, and I'm a man who knows collections. This has many of the greats that I think are essential in any collection as well as some others I hadn't ever seen before. The first story, which I can't remember the name of, really hit me, as did a magnificent and horrifying piece near the middle called "Wickedness." Scribner anthology is still my favorite, but this is a close second.
June 23, 2008
Highlights: "All The Way In Flagstaff, Arizona" by Richard Bausch;
"Rock Springs" by Richard Ford;
"Testimony Of Pilot" by Barry Hannah;
"Emergency" by Denis Johnson;
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates;
"Cody's Story" by Robert Olmstead;
"Helping" by Robert Stone
"Rock Springs" by Richard Ford;
"Testimony Of Pilot" by Barry Hannah;
"Emergency" by Denis Johnson;
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates;
"Cody's Story" by Robert Olmstead;
"Helping" by Robert Stone
March 17, 2009
This is my favorite anthology of short stories. Mona Simpson's "Lawns" is probably my favorite because it is so disturbing, but I also love several of the teachable stories in here such as Carver's "Cathedral," Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," Vaughn's "Dog Heaven," Dubus' "The Fat Girl," and so on.
June 14, 2010
I don't typically read short stories, but was given this book and quickly became hooked on it. I'm very impressed with the depth of emotion that some of these stories accomplish in 10 or 15 pages. My favorites from the book,
- A Vintage Thunderbird (*)
- Tall Tales From the Meekong Delta (*)
- Men Under Water
- The Things They Carried
- Lawns
Really great stuff.
- A Vintage Thunderbird (*)
- Tall Tales From the Meekong Delta (*)
- Men Under Water
- The Things They Carried
- Lawns
Really great stuff.
July 22, 2010
I picked up this collection of short stories because it was edited by Tobias Wolff, who has recently become one of my favorite authors. Practically every story in this collection is breathtaking. Each is engaging in its own way. If you're hoping to discover some new authors as well as read some absolute classics by people like Carver, and Denis Johnson, then this is a great place to look.
September 12, 2016
This is a solid collection. The standouts (excluding the obvious selections from Amy Tan, Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, and Tim O'Brien) were "The Darling," "The Fat Girl," "The First Day," "River of Names," "Wickedness," and "Chopin In Winter."
There were only a couple that I didn't care for at all but naming them seems unnecessary, so I won't.
There were only a couple that I didn't care for at all but naming them seems unnecessary, so I won't.
Read
July 27, 2011All very good writing, although it requires a little cognition. Favorites include "Chopin In Winter" by Stuart Dybek, "Talk of Heroes" by Carol Bly, "Aunt Granny Lith" by Chris Offutt, "Moonwalk" by Susan Powers, and "Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan.
October 23, 2014
Favorites: The Darling, The Fat Girl, Chopin in the Winter, A Romantic Weekend, Minor Heroism, Testimony of Pilot, A White Horse, Girl, Departures, Men Under Water, Aunt Granny Lith, Home, Lawns, Helping, Rules of the Game, Daddy Garbage.
Or maybe not favorites. But they made me pause.
Or maybe not favorites. But they made me pause.
August 11, 2021
Not really contemporary any more as this book was published in 2003. What I found was some average stories interspersed with stories that made me wonder about the selection process. Disappointing.
5.5/10
5.5/10
April 1, 2008
Monotone; lack of aesthetic diversity; taught this book in advanced fiction writing and had to supplement heavily with course pack.
purgatory
August 2, 2011This is the best stash-in-the-car-or-purse book for whenever I unexpectedly need something to read while waiting for whatever. The even better part is reading Julie's notes in the margins.
January 7, 2020
I've read it start to finish twice and probably will again.. some stories are better than others: my favourites are 'a white horse', 'the darling' and 'tall tales from the mekong delta'
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