The Best American Short Stories 1995

by Jane Smiley (Editor), Katrina Kenison (Editor)

The eightieth annual anthology in the best-selling, preeminent series contains the work of new talents as well as established authors, including Don DeLillo, Ellen Gilchrist, and Joy Williams, exploring the variety and drama of American life. Simultaneous.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Story Collection, Collections, Literature

366 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1995

About the author

Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained a A.B. at Vassar College, then earned a M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. While working towards her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. From 1981 to 1996, she taught at Iowa State University. Smiley published her first novel, Barn Blind, in 1980, and won a 1985 O. Henry Award for her short story "Lily", which was published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her best-selling A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. It was adapted into a film of the same title in 1997. In 1995 she wrote her sole television script produced, for an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Her novella The Age of Grief was made into the 2002 film The Secret Lives of Dentists.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005), is a non-fiction meditation on the history and the nature of the novel, somewhat in the tradition of E. M. Forster's seminal Aspects of the Novel, that roams from eleventh century Japan's Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji to twenty-first century Americans chick lit.

In 2001, Smiley was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

[James Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories are usually hit or miss for me, but this collection has quite a few I loved. The few stories I was less enthused about were more of a shrug than annoyance or anger. Here are the five best:

1. "The Stucco House" by Ellen Gilchrist
A wonderful story from the viewpoint of a child who narrates the action around him but doesn't quite understand what's happening (and probably won't be privy to it until he's much older). So distinct I rushed out to read the first Gilchrist novel I could get my hands one (which I didn't like as much as this, sadly).

2. "Honored Guest" by Joy Williams
Manages to balance the darkness with the light in this story of a teen watching her mother die slowly before her eyes. The end is inevitable but these two characters try to slow down time as much as possible, balancing the practical concerns with the absurd.

3. "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds" by Andrea Barrett
The story of scientist Gregor Mendel manages to intersect and weave in the story of a Czech immigrant and his granddaughter. Layered and detailed, accomplishes an incredible amount in a scant 20 pages.

4. "Hand Jive" by Andrew Cozine
The dreaded "personal essay" done absolutely perfectly. An absorbing trip into a character we don't often read about. Once you read it, it's hard to get out of your head.

5. "The Artist" by Edward Falco
Tells a complete story yet leaves enough unsaid or underdeveloped that I would read an entire novel about this.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am unsure of whether these stories are best when read in the order in which they're presented, but on the whole, they are worth reading. For the most part, they are well-written, structurally varied and deeply felt pieces that have to do with slightly skewed everyday situations. Though there is a sadness to them, stories like Max Garland's "Chiromancy" and Andrea Barrett's "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds" have some of the best development I've seen. A list of the stories included is as follows:

* "Orientation" by David Orozco
"Way Down Deep in the Jungle" by Thom Jones
"The Stucco House" by Ellen Gilchrist
"A Night's Work" by Jaimy Gordon
"Pity" by Avner Mandelman
* "Leg" by Steven Polansky
* "The Ugliest House in the World" by Peter Ho Davies
"Birthmates" by Gish Jen
"The Drowning" by Edward Delaney
"Honored Guest" by Joy Williams
* "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds" by Andrea Barrett
"Hand Jive" by Andrew Cozine
"So I Guess You Know What I Told Him" by Stephen Dobyns
"Undertow" by Jennifer C. Cornell
* "Pagan Night" by Kate Braverman
* "First, Body" by Melanie Rae Thon
"The Angel Esmeralda" by Don DeLillo
"The Artist" by Edward Falco
* "Chiromancy" by Max Garland
* "Xuela" by Jamaica Kincaid

* Personal Favorites

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very good stories that I’ll remember for a while. Nothing amazing. Really like reading the Contributors’ Notes after each story to learn more about the story and writing process.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some were good some were not to my taste

[Kyle Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

1995 must have been an off year for short stories...

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane Smiley takes the reins this time around. In a preemptive half-apology, she declares upfront that she's not a particularly determined reader and that she traditionally avoids short stories(!). However, determined or not, she's still a fine reader with strong preferences--in her own words, "[the] peppery flavor of the strange or exotic," "wit," and "a vigorous storyline"--and so her editorial turn plays out in more-or-less the typical manner, with a lot of decent stories and some truly excellent ones.

Favorites of the bunch:
* Andrea Barrett - "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds"
* Edward J. Delaney - "The Drowning"
* Jaimy Gordon - "A Night's Work"
* Gish Jen - "Birthmates"
* Jamaica Kincaid - "Xuela"

Honorable mentions:
* Don DeLillo - "The Angel Esmeralda"
* Steven Polansky - "Leg"

[Stephen Dorneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid Best American collection. Despite the editor's occasional favoring of quirk (Andrew Cozine's "Hand Jive") or beauty of language (Jennifer Cornell's "Undertow," Jamaica Kincaid's "Xuela") over story, there's plenty to appreciate here that will stick with you long after the quirks and beauties are forgotten.

My personal favorites were: Edward Falco's "The Artist," the story of not-quite-a-marital-indiscretion told from two very different, both complex, perspectives; Kate Braverman's "Pagan Night," a deep dive into a mother's state of being as it becomes more and more logical and likely that she will kill or abandon her infant child; and Gish Jen's "Birthmates," on the surface the story of a down, but not yet out, salesman in a dying industry but underneath -- well, the same. Only much deeper.

Recommended.

[Konrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite of the bunch:

Daniel Orozco - Orientation
Peter Ho Davies - The Ugliest House in the World
Edward J. Delaney - The Drowning
Don DeLillo - The Angel Esmeralda
Edward Falco - The Artist

Which suggests I am a sucker for short stories with titles beginning with the definite article 'the,' but let it be known, other "The ____" short stories in the collection, Ellen Gilchrist - The Stucco House & Andrea Barrett - The Behavior of the Hawkweeds, left very little impression at all. But 4 out of 6 is a great batting average (extra innings of course).

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, it appears that Jane Smiley and I are not destined to become book buddies, as her tastes don't quite seem to match up with mine. I enjoyed "Orientation" (Daniel Orozco), "The Stucco House" (Ellen Gilchrist), "Leg" (Steven Polansky), "The Ugliest House in the World" (Peter Ho Davies), "Birthmates" (Gish Jen), "Pagan Night" (Kate Braverman), "First, Body" (Melanie Rae Thon), and "The Artist" (Edward Falco). That's 8/20 of the stories. The rest were more-or-less duds, or worse-- I don't remember anything about them.

[Kelly Paprocki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

Peter Ho Davies The Ugliest House in the World
Gish Jen Birthmates
Jennifer C Cornell Undertow
Joy Williams Honored Guest

Great

Edward J Delaney The Drowning
Stephen Dobyns So I Guess You Know What I Told Him
Andrew Cozine Hand Jive
Steven Polansky Leg
Thom Jones Way Down Deep in the Jungle

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like short stories. In fact I know I have read others in the past from the same series but from other years. In this book, my favorite story would have to be the first on with a "First day on the Job". Very funny and yet sometimes very true.

[Cathy]

Jane Smiley Editor
Orientation Daniel Orozco
Way down deep in the jungle Thom Jones
Hand jive Andrew Cozine
First, body Melaine Rae Thon

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short story First Day on the Job is hilarious.

[Kate Sweeney]

Just finished the Ellen Gilchrist story, and for these 20 pages or so alone, I am extraordinarily glad that I picked this up for a coupla dollars at a used bookstore. I'd have bought it new.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading short stories. Most of the ones in this version were quite well written.

[Ishaan Teja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection has some very entertaining stories. A lot of them have very abrupt and incomplete endings in my opinion but maybe that was the style of the time.