Best of the South: From Ten Years of New Stories from the South

New Stories from the South

by Anne Tyler (Editor), Shannon Ravenel (Editor)

Since 1986, New Stories from the South has brought the best short fiction of the year to the attention of a national audience. The series has been called “the collection others should use as a model” (the Charlotte Observer ), and for twenty years it has held to that standard.

When Anne Tyler helped us celebrate the first ten years of the series in Best of the South , 1986–1995, the reviews were ecstatic. “A triumph of authentic voices and unforgettable characters,” said Southern Living . “An introduction to some of the best writers in the world today,” raved the Northwest Arkansas Times . Now that the anthology has reached its twentieth birthday, Anne Tyler has done it again. From the 186 stories found in the ten volumes from 1996 to 2005, she has picked her favorites and introduced them with warmth, insight, and her own brand of quiet literary authority.

Once again, her choices reflect her love of the kind of generous fiction she has called “spendthrift.”Here are twenty stories—by both famous and first-time writers, from Lee Smith and Max Steele to Gregory Sanders and Stephanie Soileau—that hold nothing back.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies

423 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. She has published 20 novels, her debut novel being If Morning Ever Comes in (1964). Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons , was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

[Djrmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of "the best" short stories from the annual anthology New Stories From The South, this is a collection of writings from contemporary writers that all have their roots, if not their body, in the South. A few are Southern-Gothic, a few are simple slice-of-life, and few almost fall into historical fiction territory. They are all extremely well told short stories, never failing to honor what I think is the one rule of this genre: Clarity. No matter how soft and fuzzy a character might be (and with several of these stories dealing with the down side of aging, there's a lot of fuzzy thinking going on), the plot can not meander. No matter how bucolic the setting, the jagged edges of nature must be shown. A good short story has no room for subplot, superfluous characters, or over blown description. Every one of these stories packs the intensity of a novel in so many fewer words.

My only criticism of this book (and what lowered it from five to four stars) is not in the story telling, but the story collection. Having a decade of work to choose from, it seems rather odd that there's so much repetition of theme. There are too many stories that focus on death, decay, or the darker side of the South's past. All of those make for good stories, but certainly there are talented writers who write about the young South, the one that continues to remake itself no matter how many times it gets blown down or financially ruined.

My favorite stories in this book are "Sheep" a story of a man caught up in a legal system and friendships that control his future; "Those Deep Elm Brown's Ferry Blues" by William Gay that gets into the mind of a man with Altzheimers so well that you'll have a whole new fear of that disease; and "Intervention", a story that looks at the "one half of a whole" idea of love and doesn't look away when it gets ugly.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Tyler’s selection of the twenty best short stories from the 163 that had been selected by series editor Shannon Ravenel for publication in New Stories from the South over the preceding ten years. In her selection, Tyler also tried to select stories which were uniquely Southern.

The ones I found had the most impact were: “After Moore” by Mary Hood; “Heart” by Marly Swick; “The Watch” by Rick Bass; “The Rain of Terror” by Frank Manley; “This is not the Picture Show” by Nanci Kincaid; “Intensive Care” by Lee Smith”; “Charlotte” by Tony Earley; “Marie” by Edward P. Jones; and “Nicodemus Bluff” by Barry Hannah.

[Pearse Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the majority of these stories to be disappointing. I skipped a bunch and wavered on others (in retrospect, I should have skipped them). Y'know what saved this collection? The first third, which included:
“After Moore” by Mary Hood, published in The Georgia Review
“The Watch” by Rick Bass, published in The Quarterly
Read those. Skip the rest! They aren't awful, they just aren't worth the time, IMO.

[Kim Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

some better than others, of course. Leon Driscoll (MARTHA JEAN), Richard Bausch (LETTER TO THE LADY OF THE HOUSE), Nanci Kincaid (THIS IS NOT THE PICTURE SHOW), Mary Hood (AFTER MOORE) and Edward P. Jones (MARIE) were my favorites.

[Marla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stories. Some weird (almost creepy) ones, too. Interesting.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord have mercy! Aren't there any happy stories to tell? I grew up in the South and I know for certain that there are some non-dysfunctional families there and stories with happy endings!

While I enjoyed reading this collection (I read most of them) it started to wear me down. I loved the language and the richness of the writing, but after a while it just wasn't doing anything for me.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few good stories here, some not so great.

[Bebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I belong to a Short Story book club, we read and discussed this book over a year of monthly meetings, the book stories inside sparked alot of conversation and discussion. I would recommend it.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting mix of short stories. I liked some more than others, but I'll definitely check out more of these collections, which come out every year.

[Michele Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story "The Winnowing of Mrs. Schuping," by Padgett Powell, was hilarious and unforgettable (I'm writing ten years after reading it).