Astoria to Zion: Twenty-Six Stories of Risk and Abandon from Ecotone's First Decade

by Ben Fountain (Foreword), Lauren Groff (Contributor), Steve Almond (Contributor)

In his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2008, Salman Rushdie called Ecotone one of a handful of journals on which “the health of the American short story depends.” Now at the close of an award-winning first decade, the magazine has established itself as a preeminent venue for original short fiction from both recognized and emerging writers, with more than twenty stories from sixteen issues reprinted or noted in the Best American, New Stories from the South, Pushcart, and PEN/O. Henry series.

With the publication of this anthology, Lookout Books makes a permanent home for the vital work of Ecotoneregular contributors Steve Almond, Rick Bass, Edith Pearlman, Ron Rash, Bill Roorbach, and Brad Watson, along with rising talents Lauren Groff, Ben Stroud, and Kevin Wilson, among others. In keeping with the magazine’s mission to reimagine place, the collection explores transitional zones, the spaces where we are most threatened and alive. From a city fallen silent to a doomed nineteenth-century ship, from a startling birth in the woods to the bog burial of an adored archaeologist, from the loop of hair in a drowned trader’s locket to the sanctity of pointy boots in a war zone, these stories make beautiful noise of our most fundamental human longings.

Burning bright / Ron Rash --
What the ax forgets the tree remembers / Edith Pearlman --
Hagar's sons / Steve Almond --
The ranger queen of sulphur / Stephanie Soileau --
The year of silence / Kevin Brockmeier --
The way you hold your knife / Rebecca Makkai --
The wreckers / George Makana Clark --
Falling / Andrew Tonkovich --
The tree / Benjamin Percy --
Alamo plaza / Brad Watson --
Our pointy boots / Brock Clarke --
That winter / Miha Mazzini --
Only connect / Daniel Orozco --
Candidate / Karen E. Bender --
New animal / Douglas Watson --
Something like the resurrection / Maggie Shipstead --
Winter elders / Shawn Vestal --
Broadax Inc. / Bill Roorbach --
At the Cultural Ephemera Association national conference / Robert Olen Butler --
Leap / Marisa Silver --
Horse people / Cary Holladay --
The junction / David Means --
The blue tree / Rick Bass --
A birth in the woods / Kevin Wilson --
Abundance / Lauren Groff --
The traitor of Zion / Ben Stroud

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction

412 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2013

About the author

Ben Fountain's fiction has appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, and Zoetrope: All Story, and he has been awarded an O. Henry Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. He lives with his wife and their two children in Dallas, Texas.

Reviews

[Stew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really, really, really torn on what rating I should give this book. I struggled over how fair it is to give a general balloon-rating to a selection of short stories by multiple different authors. In the end I was teetering between 3 and 4 stars but it lands closer to a 3 since I can only rate them as a group.

I don't have much experience with short fiction. This is perhaps the 3rd or 4th book of short stories which I've attempted and I'm embarrassed to admit that one of those I didn't even realize was a collection of short stories until the end - I was confused the whole way through under the assumption that it was a novel. I am split on my overall opinion of the genre. I can clearly see that it takes a great deal of skill to tell a complete an entertaining story in a few pages.

Let me tell you, when I first received 'Astoria to Zion' as a free review copy from Goodreads, I was in love with what I held in my hands. The cover is smooth and soft and gave me an experience that immediately made me excited to read it. The paper is also beautiful - thick and silky (stuff that would work lovely with a fountain pen) - truly a pleasure as I turned the pages. I was unfamiliar with Ecotone prior to reading this but it is clear that love and time went into the design of this book. That itself may convince me to check out Ecotone in the future.

However, in the prose itself, 'Astoria to Zion' is a perfect example of why I'm torn on short stories. Some of them were absolutely incredible (some of the most entertaining few minutes of my life) while others were sleep-inducing. After a while I found myself skipping forward to the next story when I wasn't interested in the first 3 pages of a story. This happened perhaps 4 times total but there were other stories that I didn't love either.

Some of my favorites were 'The Year of Silence' by Kevin Brockmeier (my top pick of the book), 'Falling' by Andrew Tonkovich, 'That Winter' by Miha Mazzini, 'Winter Elders' by Shawn Vestal (a great story about some Mormon missionaries who drive a former church member to insanity), 'Broadax Inc' by Bill Roorback (the one that kept me on the edge of my seat), and the tale that finished it all off, 'The Traitor of Zion' by Ben Stroud. These were all incredible works of literary mastery. A lot of the others just fell flat. I was especially disappointed by Ron Rash's story, probably because I think he's an immensely talented author and this story just didn't shine.

Overall this is a book that short story lovers will totally adore and the rest of us will think is pretty decent. It's a good choice for those diving into short fiction for the first time but I'm not sure it will be enough to keep them coming back for more.

To end this review I want to share my favorite sentence from the book:

"We rose at the crack of a sparrow's fart, when the dew still clung to the rigging like crystals on a chandelier." (from 'The Wreckers' by George Makana Clark)

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grounded in place, many of these stories are both unique and transporting, strong statements to the quality of fiction presented in Ecotone issues. It may be, though, that they're a more enjoyable representation when read occasionally instead of straight-through. All literary and of a similar tone and length, the collection starts to feel repetitive about two thirds of the way in, and I have to admit that I found myself getting bored at various moments as I read the last portion of the anthology. I don't think that this is a statement about those last stories so much as it is an acknowledgement that 400 pages (exactly) of similarly toned (with rare exceptions) literary stories (of the type polished out of MFA programs) is simply a bit too much, particularly when all are chosen out of a similar aesthetic.

All in all, this is a collection worth wandering through if you enjoy literary short stories grounded carefully in location, or if you just want a collection from which you can read the occasional story in between other reads. Without fail, all of the stories are worth reading and worth exploring, and that in itself is admirable.

As an addendum, I also need to note that I received this book through a Goodreads First Reader Giveaway, and I'm glad to have read it.

[Margaret Gaudio · Rating 1 out of 5]

**I received this book as a First Reads

I got through about half of this book. That is as close to finishing it that I will get. Most of the stories were alright, but not interesting enough to keep me hooked on the book. It was a chore to get where I got.

Then, I read Pointy Boots. And that was where I decided I just couldn't finish the book. I started off confused about where this book was going, and why these soldiers were coming home and ignoring their families to go dance in some stupid cowboy boots. Then, as the story continued to unfold, it just got worse. By the time I finished the story, I had no desire to read any more of the book. I almost threw the book out right then, that's how much I didn't enjoy it.

[Cindelu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my first 5 star review. I won this book on Goodreads. It was awesome! I loved every story in it and the writing was sensational. Easily read, descriptive but not boring, wrought with feeling and really interesting stories. I am looking forward to reading more from these authors.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really good! Normally with multi-author anthologies, there are a few that don't grab me and I skip them, but in this book, every one kept me eager to read. They're all very different, which creates a cool tapestry effect.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories, especially those by Stephanie Soileau, Brad Watson, and Daniel Orozco.