You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe

by Ron Hansen (Editor)

Thirty-four of America's most distinguished fiction writers--including Oscar Hijuelos, John Irving, and Joyce Carol Oates--introduce the short stories that inspired them most.

A mother's tale / James Agee --
Guy de Maupassant / Isaac Babel --
Sonny's blues / James Baldwin --
The school / Donald Barthelme --
The Aleph / Jorge Luis Borges --
A day in the open / Jane Bowles --
A distant episode / Paul Bowles --
The Star Cafe / Mary Caponegro --
Reflections / Angela Carter --
Cathedral / Raymond Carver --
Goodbye, my brother / John Cleever --
Gooseberries / Anton Chekhov --
A Christmas carol / Charles Dickens --
Pie dance / Molly Giles --
Greatness strikes where it pleases / Lars Gustafsson --
The interview / Ruth Prawer Jlabvala --
The dead / James Joyce. In the penal colony / Franz Kafka --
Girl / Jamaica Kincaid --
The smallest woman in the world / Clarice Lispector --
The daughters of the late colonel / Katherine Mansfield --
Labor day dinner / Alice Munro --
Spring in Fialta / Vladimir Nabokov --
The things they carried / Tim O'Brien --
A good man is hard to find / Flannery O'Connor --
I stand here ironing / Tillie Olsen --
Wants / Grace Paley --
In dreams begin responsibilities / Delmore Schwartz --
The man to send rain clouds / Leslie Marmon Silko --
Helping / Robert Stone --
Master and man / Leo Tolstoy. Packed dirt, churchgoing, a dying cat, a traded car / John Updike --
The flowers / Alice Walker --
No place for you, my love / Eudora Welty --
Paper garden / Jerome Wilson

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Writing, Essays, Collections, Books About Books

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Ron Hansen is the author of two story collections, two volumes of essays, and nine novels, including most recently The Kid, as well as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film. His novel Atticus was a finalist for the National Book Award. He teaches at Santa Clara University.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories are the three minute singles of the literary world and anyone who has been pasted to the wall by the furious power of 19th Nervous Breakdown or the limpid beauty of Waterloo Sunset and yet hasn't managed to keep awake during an entire Stones or Kinks album will know what I mean. A great short story has a pungency and a pure serendipity. Alas, though, for every Paint It Black there are a couple of Angies (ouch) and for every Lola there's a few Plasticmen (ecch).

So it is with every short story collection, even ones like this which announce that every story in it has tore down somebody's life and rebuilt it from the basement up. There are some of my favourites here like Borges' The Aleph (oh who could not love that one) and Molly Giles' Pie Dance and Lars Gustafsson's Greatness Strikes Where it Pleases (what a title) and there are a whole lot where you have to think that you don't get them, I mean, they're okay and all, but not THAT great.

Having grown up with science fiction, which is essentially a short story genre no matter what the bookshops heaving with three-volume series may imply, I remained a low-level short story addict, but it's a lonely obsession since while you can chat about novels with your pals, short stories fly under most readers' radar. So it's little use me complaining about something like Angela Carter's Reflections - what kind of shit is that? You got to be kidding me! or Mary Caponegro's The Star Cafe - what kind of shit is that? Now I KNOW you're kidding me! Us short story readers learn to shrug, spit in the dust, move our haversack of expectations to our other shoulder, and walk on.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

just received this from Paul Bryant - thanks. It's massive (600 big p) - I can see this taking up most of February. Looks tasty, but the Biblical style of the book (Awe), the weight, puts me off reading it in public.

a bunch of fantastic stories on the whole. Will do a proper review soon. (Tomorrow I hope).

Where to start? This review will be a work in progress as it'll take me a couple of days (United are on tonight). Firstly I'd read half-ish of the stories (17), but thought I'd re-read all but in the end I couldn't be fucked to re-read Dickens (A Christmas Carol), Joyce (The Dead), Kafka (Penal colony) and Tolstoy (Master and Man): felt like too many stairs to climb. We can all agree they're great but not in the right head space for 'em, man. Two things to say about the Dickens though: the only Englishman, and isn't CC a novella (Don't really want to get into that though?). Secondly I didn't read all the introductions, the bits where they explain why these stories made their knees go weak, cuz they too often gave the plot away. I did afterwards, in post-coital bliss sometimes share a cigarette with them.

I'll just go through them one by one:

James Agee- A Mother's Tale.
weird, a tale from within the cattle community, their myths of the 'final journay', very well sustained piece, takes the logic to is own ends and done well, but wasn't that enamoured. The one that comes back from slaughterhouse, his hide flung backward from his naked muscles by the wind of his moving reminds me of that Annie Proulx story the half something steer. (Wyoming Tales?). It didn't flag but allegory isn't my bag.

Isaac Babel - Guy de Maupassant (already read (r))
I love Babel, his Red Cavalry is one of my touchstones (whatever they are), to me (I probably heard this somewhere) he is the Goya of literature, full of sharp detail, visceral when need be, brutal, but full of hints and subtlety too. A beautiful writer (in translation, probably even more so in Russian). Not sure if this is his best, but it's certainly brilliant and mysterious.

James Baldwin - Sonny's Blues (r)
Baldwin is someone I only started reading recently. Don't know why it took me so long, but this one is great, properly earns its celebrated last line the image of the drink of Scotch and milk on top of the piano: it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling.

Donald Barthelme - The School
a 'list' story, funny and surreal (a little glib?). Not my sort of thing but has the virtue of brevity.

Jorge Luis Borges - The Aleph (r)
I appreciate its acuity and sensitivity, its rigour, its perfection. The small thing (two or three centimeters) containing everything I saw the heavy laden sea; I saw the dawn and the dusk; I saw the multitudes of America; I saw a silver plated cobweb at the centre of a black pyramid; I saw a tattered labyrinth (it was London). For some reason though I haven't felt like reading Borges for years and still don't.

Jane Bowles - A Day in the Open
Don't know, I felt little after reading it.

Paul Bowles - A Distant Episode
A 'descent' story. I love em. The linguistics professor in North Africa (I assume) who falls into the hands of the communities he tries to survey and record and ends up brutalised and tongueless and another thing altogether, a fool dressed in tincans and dancing to the command of villagers. This may be a comment on colonisation and civilisation but I liked it for the story, its relentless dive into the abyss, done with such calm, assured prose. Frightening.

Mary Caponegro - The Star Cafe
No thanks.

Angela Carter - Reflections
Not a great Carter fan. I was fairly intrigued by the mirror world in this, but bored by the rest of it.

Raymond Carver - Cathedral (r)
A relief to read this again and find it still great. One of his best.

John Cheever - Goodbye, My Brother (r)
Ditto. Also another great last line.

Anton Chekhov - Gooseberries (r)
Ditto. Hard to explain why Chekhov is so good. Is it because he achieves so much, such insight and awareness of character and yet achieves it so quietly, without insistence?

Dickens - couldn't be bothered. (r)

Molly Giles - Pie Dance
I liked this from its intriguing opening: I don't know what to do about my husband's new wife. She won't come in. She sits on the front porch and smokes. to the appearance of said husband. (even though I don't like dogs I might have danced with this one).

Lars Gustafsson - Greatness Strikes Where it Pleases
It strikes this story right in the smacker. At first I couldn't make it out then I realised I was in the position of the vulnerable protagonist whose life we follow from his first school (the woodshed) to his abandoned old age heavy and huge like a boulder in the woods, he sat in his chair, moving it with effort a few inches every hour so that it always remained in the patch of sun.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - The Interview
I loved this story, maybe because the hero is so like me in 'interview' situations. Not sure at first if it was 'great', it is competent, I thought, it is economically described, but then I thought it is also moving and profound and brings real life, flawed and pampered life, into the room, so perhaps it is.

James Joyce - The Dead (r) didn't read

Kafka - In the Penal Colony (r) ditto

Jamaica Kincaid - Girl
a short short, a mother's instructions (thus a 'list' story) and admonishments to a daughter:don't throw stones at blackbirds because it might not be a blackbird at all. Perfect in its way.

Clarice Lispector - The Smallest Woman in the World
The woman the explorer finds is joyous because she was experiencing the ineffable sensation of not having been eaten yet. I was joyous because I found her in this story. A treat.

Katherine Mansfield - Daughters of the Late Colonel (r)
first read this at school 'O' level and although I kind of liked it I didn't know why. Read a lot more Mansfield since, and get her now. This meditation on death and its releases, its freedoms as well as its grief is probably one of her best.

Alice Munro - Labor Day Dinner (r)
A good Munro story (not hard to find), confusing at first, so many people and their spouses, partners and ex partners and children and children's boyfriends, but Munro is able to take you through all the tensions and comedy and underlying grudges and urges and needs in her skilled, unobtrusive manner. I have a writer friend (one - the only one) who thinks that Munro is contrived and sometimes I agree with her. Not here though.

more later...
later..

Vladimir Nabokov - Spring in Fialta (r)
I read a lot of Nabokov in the late 70s at college, and of course he was one of my heroes. Haven't read him much since, so interesting to read again. You marvel straight away at his ability to describe, to apprehend: A pantless infant of the male sex, with a taut mud-gray little belly..waddled off bow legged, trying to carry three oranges at once, but continuously dropping the variable thrid, until he fell himself,. Sometimes I feel the sentences are overstuffed (why not boy instead of infant of the male sex?), but there is usually a reason, an accumulating power in his choice of image and everything knits togther. Glad I re-read him, and I'll re-read more. Nabokov will always be, like this narrator's wife and children an island of happiness always present in the clear north of my being.. (Only my north probably a bit foggy).
Incidentally same end as Munro's but with a different outcome. Both look at fate ticking away in the background of any life and relationship, only in the Munro we only know this at the end, here it is clear from the beginning with chance meetings running the plot.

Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried (r)
Another 'list' story, and one of the most effective and powerful I've ever read.

Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man is Hard to Find (r)
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. My second favourite of the book. Read it once, as a young man (long time ago), reading it again now stopped my heart, not literally, my writing/reading heart. A story that starts out as one thing and evolves perfectly into another, so that the shock is smoothly absorbed but stabs deeper. Everyone who hasn't read it should. Now.

Tillie Olsen - I Stand Here Ironing
Strong stuff about a mother admitting to bad feelings towards one of her children. I admired it rather than loved.

Grace Paley - Wants (r)
another favourite writer of mine. Like the introducer (Janet Kauffman) I learnt from her that 'fiction doesn't need, even if it wants, large events or epiphanies or dramatic turns.'

Delmore Schwartz - In Dreams Begin Responsibilities
Don't know, quite intrigued by this, a man watching the history of his parents as a film in a dream, but don't think I got it. Will read again.

Leslie Marmon Silko - The Man to Send Rain Clouds
umm, another one to re-read I think.

Robert Stone - Helping (r)
fascinating story of a veteran who counsels, but it turns out he needs the help, as an alcoholic about to fall off the wagon in front of his long suffering wife Grace. Exhilerating sequences, especially out in the snow at the end with his neighbour who skis up to him, unbearably sober and in control (the neighbour that is).

Leo Tolstoy - Master and Man (r) - skipped

John Updike - Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, a Dying Cat, a Traded Car (r)
An early Updike, I like his early stories, stuffed with acute observation and aching with love. This is a lovely piece about how wear and tear are signs of care and beauty, our marks upon the world.

Alice Walker - Flowers
First time I've read her, although I've seen the Colour Purple and know a lot about her. This is one of those that starts about one thing and becomes somethng else, a tiny piece that truly does expand in your mind and bring history, oppression and horror in from a summer day of birdsong and flowers. A minor miracle of compression and economy.

Eudora Welty - No Place for You, My Love (r)
I adore this story. I worship it. That's because I am over forty, according to the introduction (Russell Banks). I first read it in 1997ish when I was 42, just old enough to appreciate, and it inspired me to write a story, a manky mangled homage to this one that I abandoned but recently took out again to try and salvage it. This one, a thing of beauty and grace has two strangers meet at a party in New Orleans and drive off together in the Louisiana heat to the edge of the continent. Mine has two strangers meet and drive from Birmingham (UK) to Mid-Wales in the drizzle. Not quite the same. Anyway the re-reading confirmed its place as number one.

Jerome Wilson - Paper Garden
One of those with one defining image to carry it in your mind, in this case the titular garden. It was a good story, lively and reminded me of the impact a new teacher can make on a pupil (see my review on Professor Branestawm).
I thought how proud Wilson must be to be in such exalted company with his first published story, at the age of 24 (when this book came out).

So, I did enjoy this on the whole, introduced me to 8 great new stories and re-affirmed my pleasure in many others. One or two I wouldn't have included, but personal taste plays a part in taht. Scores just under The Penguin Book of International Short Stories, 1945-85 in which I first read the Welty story. It's got an even higher hit rate than this one. I think in the States it's known as 'Art of the Tale.' (The Penguin Book I mean, not 'You've Got to read This').

[Mikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anthology perfectly titled. If you love short stories then, yes, you've got to read this. Thirty-five American contemporary authors (many familiar to me and some not) were asked to choose one short story that "left them breathless, held them in awe, or otherwise enthralled them when they first read it." Writers' writers. How can you go wrong?

It's a BIG book (615 pages) so Jenny and I chose to take it on as a team--we decided to read one story per night and then discuss the merits, favorite lines, characters, plot, etc. We didn't love them all, but in a collection of so many stories we were surprised to find that practically all of them were compelling and engaged us in some way. Even the ones we didn't care as much for, we apparently cared enough about -- characters made us angry, sickened us at their lack of morals and basic humanity, we felt sorry for their children, spouses and all those around them. We hated them and all they did and therefore we got mad at the entire story. But, hmmm, isn't that what good writing is supposed to do?

In Ron Hansen's introduction of Tolstoy's Master and Man, he stated that after first reading, "it annihilated a great deal of fiction for me." I can understand that because for me, there was one particular story that did the same: "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen. A mother thinks back on all she failed to give and do in bringing up her daughter -- "We were poor and could not afford for her the soil of easy growth." Painfully honest writing with an ending line that caused me to immediately reread from the beginning . When finished, I emailed every short story lover I knew and said, Omigosh, you've got to read this! It's true.

Other standouts that led to frantic emailing were, "The Interview" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and "The Things They Carried" by Tim O' Brien. And if you're still requiring an extra push to get you reading this practically perfect anthology then just ask Jenny, whose review is
HERE 4.5

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this throughout the months with my reading buddy Mikki, and for a more detailed discussion you can read our comments on both our reviews (see below). It is SO HARD to talk about this anthology. For the most part, these stories were fantastic, some because of the visuals and beautiful writing, some because of the completely disturbing twists or ends, some because of the well-written raw characters.

My absolutely favorite story has to be "Reflection" by Angela Carter. The concept of a mirrored world with a knitter in between, constantly joining the opposite parts to keep the universe running smoothly - genius. The language is what elevates it - "the odor of her violence," "vegetable slowness," and my favorite - "the proud, sad air of the king of a rainy country." I can't wait to dig into the volume I have at home with her collected stories.

My favorite line comes from Labor Day Dinner, by Alice Munro.
"I think maybe we're destroyed already,' Ruth says dreamily."

Other favorite stories - "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, "The Star Cafe" by Mary Caponegro (a bizarre story for sure but very thought-provoking), and "Goodbye My Brother" by John Cheever because I became so emotionally invested in it, I woke up angry the next day. Ha!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all collections of stories, this one had some great pieces and some not great ones. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite collection of short stories. The choices range from classic to contemporary and each story is introduced by the writer who chose it. The introductions lend an extra layer of enjoyment to most of them. We used this as the anthology for our short story discussions in the constant reader group until we'd read them all and it was a perfect fit for us. However, I would also recommend it simply as a good read for anyone who loves the short story form.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim Shepard and Ron Hansen had a great idea for an anthology in 1994- rather than selecting the stories themselves, they asked contemporary writers to pick one story that "you've got to read." The results are, of course, uneven - some authors felt compelled to pick weird, showy stories, and after a few too many of these, I started losing patience. But fully a third of the authors picked "the story that made me want to become a writer," and I found their introductory essays fascinating. There are certainly many stories here I would never have read otherwise, so I am grateful to Kenneth McClane for picking a James Baldwin story, and very grateful to Louise Erdrich for choosing a Robert Stone story, which to me was the most breathtaking part of the collection. Hey Jim and Ron, maybe it's time for another volume!

[Lanea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best anthologies of short stories I've ever found. The editors sought out many talented writers to ask which stories had inspired them over the years, and each story is accompanied by an explanation by its recommender about why they love it so much. So the book combines wonderful fiction and insight into the reading tastes of several important authors. It's a good concept with a great result.

[Celeste Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories themselves are great, but the passages that introduce each are what sets this anthology apart--each contemporary writer explains why he or she chose this particular story, providing insights you don't find anywhere else.

[Gay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in Kerry Madden's class and I owe her for Tillie Olson. Don't always agree with what the writers who picked the stories say about them, but it's clear that we gather our muses and inspirations from very personal places.

[Erich C · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection, with introductions that mainly summarize the stories without analysis. The introductions should be read after the stories since they are basically all spoilers.

There were several stories I'd read along with several I hadn't. Standouts for me (19/35) were:

Agee "A Mother's Tale"
Baldwin "Sonny's Blues"
Barthelme "The School"
Bowles "A Distant Episode"
Carver "Cathedral"
Cheever "Goodbye, My Brother"
Dickens "A Christmas Carol"
Joyce "The Dead"
Mansfield "The Daughters of the Late Colonel"
Munro "Labor Day Dinner"
Nabokov "Spring in Fialta"
O'Brien "The Things They Carried"
O'Connor "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
Paley "Wants"
Stone "Helping"
Tolstoy "Master and Man"
Updike "Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, a Dying Cat, a Traded Car"
Walker "The Flowers"
Welty "No Place for You, My Love"

[Sarah Pascarella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started this early in the pandemic and it kept me company for several months as I worked my way through. (At 630 pages, it's a real doorstop.) I appreciated the structure of this anthology, with famous authors introducing the short stories that moved/influenced them, and if I wasn't familiar with the story (most I had never read before), I saved the intro for after I was done, which felt like a mini-book club or lecture series. I discovered a few authors I'd like to read more of, which is always appreciated. It also included some authors who failed to impress - making the title a bit of a misnomer, but quality is truly in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?

[Robert Morgan Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me a LONG time to read this book which is an indicator of how rich it is with short story treasures. It's several decades old now but the choices still hold up. Lots of diversity every selection feels like a left turn.

Some familiar, some obscure. The rationales for choice are as interesting as the stories selected. Many I've read before but now saw with new eyes. if you're a short story whore like me? This is a MUST read and MUST have for your personal library.

[Courtney Golden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories and I enjoyed that other authors chose them, with each introducing their choice with why. I liked that they varied in subject, tone, style, etc. Some I loved, some not, but even those not I could appreciate.
Read a couple and come back, don’t try to read straight through. It’s a big book.
Not part of the review but someone left this in the lobby of my building and I’m so glad I picked it up, best free thing all year.

[Audrey Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1994, the selections in this work can feel dated, but it is an expansive sampling of undeniable greats. If you’re interested in shorts or literary fiction, there will be multiple brilliant discoveries in here for you, no matter your taste. I’m glad I read it.

[Poetreehugger · Rating 1 out of 5]

A weird and dissatisfying collection of mostly depressing stories, or worse. A few gems.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this book for many months. It's huge, but short stories are perfect during busy times.

I liked all these stories -- all chosen by other writers, who do introductions to each story; some of the writers both chose someone else's and a story of theirs is also chosen and introduced by another author -- but a few just knocked my socks off. I was surprised in a few instances: I absolutely loved Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," which I thought would've too familiar for me to really enjoy (thanks to John Updike for not needing to choose something less known, more esoteric, etc.) and didn't particularly enjoy James Joyce's >The Dead (which may simply mean it bears rereading).

Which captured me more than the others (besides "A Christmas Carol")?

The one I really want to reread soon is Eudora Welty's, "No Place for You, My Love," which just wowed me all the way through. Every bit of it flows perfectly and naturally, while at the same time I felt that each paragraph, each sentence, each word had a place and there was a place for each of them. In this case, Russell Banks's introduction was very helpful. At least, it pointed to one crucial sentence that might have passed me by: "He guessed her age, as he could not guess theirs: thirty-two. He himself was further along."

In this story of a married man and a somehow-attached younger woman who spontaneously go for a long drive together just after meeting, there's definitely a sense of life passing by. This sense becomes even more pronounced when they go for a drive and end up in a cemetery: "The track was the width of the car with a few inches to spare. He passed between the tombs slowly but in the manner of a feat. Names took their places on the walls slowly at a level with the eye, names as near as the eyes of a person stopping in conversation, and as far away in origin, and in all their music and dead longing, as Spain. At intervals were set packed bouquets of zinnias, oleanders, and some kind of purple flowers, all quite fresh, in fruit jars, like nice welcomes on bureaus." Wow. As a liturgical color, purple is the color of mourning and repentance, anticipation of the pain and suffering of Christ, but ultimately of resurrection.

And, late in the day, this: "Her eyes overcome with brightness and size, she felt a panic rise, as sudden as nausea. Just how far below questions and answers, concealment and revelation, they were running now--that was still a new question, with a power of its own, waiting. How dear--how costly--could this ride be?"

The others that really grabbed me, and grabbed me good, were the very short story by Grace Paley called "Wants," and Alice Munro's "Labor Day Dinner," an amazing, amazing story that reveals a novel's worth of depth in the characters.

there's also a story by John Cheever early in the collection (which is rather substantial; around 630 pages), "Goodbye, My Brother," which sort of stuck with me and I may want to read it again as well.

I definitely recommend this collection; I haven't read tons of short stories but an anthology like this gives the sense of an art form very unlike novels; more compact, usually more opaque than novels -- some of these felt closer to poetry than to reading long fiction.







The stories are put in alphabetical order by author, so they aren't grouped by era or theme or anything else. I thought it was a great way to do it, as it results in very different stories next to one another.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite collections of short stories and contains several stories that I read over and over. Each story in the collection is recommended by a famous fiction writer as a story that overwhelmed them with its impact and accomplishment. I'll identify some of the stories that I go back and reread because they affected me so much. Donald Barthelme's "The School" is a mere two and a half pages but they are perfection. A school teacher explains to us in an escalating and evolutionary way how every living thing brought into the classroom as a project for the children proceeds to die; he finds an explanation of sorts for each occurrence but it develops into a truly tragic lesson of loss for these youngsters who's poignant question of where did they go is haunting but the slightly ridiculous premise keeps us from getting too depressed. Perhaps, my favorite story in the collection is John Updike's early work "Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, A Dying Cat, a Traded Car." This is atypical Updike with the main character, David Kern, contemplating his father's death and perhaps this has made his senses more attuned to everything around him. He thinks about how dirt would get packed down in patches when he played outside as a child. "The earth is our playmate then. . ." or he is thankful for the practice of churchgoing where "resplendently robed man strives to console us with scraps of ancient epistles. . ." It is beautifully written. He seems to be saying there is comfort in simple things, in everything when someone dies and we remain alive. He found a dying cat hit by a car and stayed with it while it died, perhaps because he was not with his father at the end. There are lengthy reflections in the car rides back and forth between NY and PA to see his dying father to say goodbye. The reflections throughout the story are so genuine, comforting and perceptive that this is just a lovely story to read and reread. And finally John Cheever's "Goodbye, My Brother" the main character's brother, Lawrence, had been unable to reject his habits of guilt, self-denial, etc. and brought much discord and joylessness to the rest of the family. "He endeavored to spoil every pleasure." He imposed his Puritan standards on his entire family with criticism over anything they said or did. He continually rejects and leaves one family member after another, and also his friends, his colleges, his jobs, etc. Finally the main character, Lawrence's brother, says, "Come out of it. . .come out of this gloominess." But Lawrence refused and iterated all the things wrong about everyone; this was his reality. So the main character strikes him and in so doing makes a break forever with his brother Lawrence who had been such a drain on his soul. The character of Lawrence in Cheever's story is almost the exact opposite of the sympathetic character of David Kern in Updike's story. But they are both fascinating portrayals and both stories must be read. Many other gems are included in this 600 page book. It's worth having in your personal library for all time.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I'm having a difficult time finishing this collection. I keep reading it on and off — usually off. I like anthologies and short fiction, but something about this one makes me want to put it down after a story or two. Many of the selections I've read (I was halfway through) have been good to great. I'll continue this when I feel the urge to do so.

(Updated to May 20, 2009)

Many of the stories in this anthology reward a close but quick reading. Oftentimes, English students and would-be writers are advised to reread a story, to take careful draughts, in order to feel the author's full effect. As I noted, this method didn't seem to work for me so I read and finished each of the remaining stories as quickly as possible, usually within a day or two. Such breakneck speed worked in that many of the stories didn't seem to drag. Instead they unfolded themselves like a flower blooming in double time. There are the usual suspects of influences on contemporary authors — Nabokov, Updike, Tolstoy, Carver, Cheever — and they are all well represented in this collection. What's more interesting than the stories themselves are their introductions from contemporary authors, who, given the 15 years that have passed since publication, are now influences themselves or, in some cases, have become more influential.

Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Reading Carver's "Cathedral" was a great experience that raises questions as to how much Gordon Lish's editorial hand had altered the story.
- The recent news of Updike's death somehow made the ideas of death and birth in life and the act of writing in his short story seem all the stronger.
- I really like Nabokov, a feeling reinforced by his short story, "Spring in Fialta," which, according to co-editor Jim Shepherd, was one of his favorite stories. It'll probably become one of my favorites as well — until I read more of his stories.
- I've been wanting to read more contemporary fiction, but haven't done so due to the growing armies of authors appearing at a time when print publishing is dying. Now I have a good road map.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just too heavy. Sad, but true. I did read the three shortest stories so I could feel better about returning it after making it sit on my nightstand for 4 months.

Favorite Quotes:

One day, we had a discussion in class. They asked me, where did they go? The trees, the salamander, the tropical fish, Edgar, the poppas and mommas, Matthew and Tony, where did they go? And I said, I don't know, I don't know. And they said, who knows? and I said, nobody knows. And they said, is death that which gives meaning to life? And I said, no, life is that which gives meaning to life...They said, we don't like it. I sad, that's sound...They said, will you make love now with Helen (our teaching assistant) so that we will see how it is done?
-from The School by David Barthelme

The librarian said $32 even and you've owed it for eighteen years. I didn't deny anything. Because I don't understand how time passes. I have had those books. I have often thought of them. The library is only two blocks away.
-from Wants by Grace Paley

[David Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

YOU'VE GOT TO READ THIS

If you love, I mean love, you some short stories, then you've got to read this! It's a collection of short stories selected by established writers at the time of this book's printing. It first caught my attention when I learned it was being used as an ad hoc textbook for the undergraduate creative writing students at Iowa University. My thinking was, "Hey, good enough for the Iowa Workshop, good enough for me."

And it was! This collection really speaks to what the short story form is capable of. Perhaps you've read a short story in a recent popular magazine and thought...mmmeeeh, okay, I guess. These aren't those kinds of short stories. You read these and then you put your socks back on. But keep in mind, they're, at times, challenging in theme, structure and vocabulary.

My favorite is Guy de Maupassant by Isaac Babel. This short story epitomizes the absolute frenzy and awkwardness of the libido of a male intellecutal better and in fewer pages than anything I've read. The Aleph is a close second and In the Penal Colony...oh, don't get me started.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that I have been reading before I go to bed, for a month or so, and I am very glad to have read this book, as all the stories are good, and some are even great.

Among the stories in this collection that I had read before are “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien (arguably the best Vietnam War story ever written) and “No Place for You, My Love” by Eudora Welty. I loved some of the stories I read here for the first time, such as “A Mother’s Tale” by James Agee, “The School” by Donald Barthelme, “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” by Katherine Mansfield, “Master and Man” by Leo Tolstoy, and “The Flowers” by Alice Walker. Each of the stories in this collection is introduced by a writer; I found that it was best to read the introduction after reading each story, especially for stories that were not already familiar to me.

I loved reading this collection of short stories, and I am very glad that I have this book to keep on my own book shelves.

[Sara Q]

Found on WorldCat while searching for Borges' short story The Aleph.

Checked out a library copy and had it just long enough to read the Aleph story - which was amazing. The whole book seems like a really clever idea for an anthology -- well-known contemporary writers select and introduce a short story that influenced them. Oscar Hijuelos introduced The Aleph as the story that made him want to be a writer. There are many other great writers represented in the collection as both selected and selectors. I hope to get my hands on a copy of this book again someday and read many more of the stories.

[Hung]

A very good, even excellent, anthology that has pretty strong selections, some classics and some less well-known.

The element that sets it above many similar anthologies are the prefaces to each story, written by a leading contemporary author. The preface to John Cheever's "Goodbye, My Brother" by Allan Gurganus is a marvelous piece of writing in its own right, and as good of a preface/encomium as I've found.

One important note: read the story before you read the preface. Most of them have spoilers, which I suppose would make them more appropriate as afterwords.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title pretty much explains itself. The way that worked best for me was to read the story, then read the introduction by the author who selected it, then read the story again. This anthology brought me to several stories I now read annually or biennially. In ascending order of amazement.

A Distant Episode - Paul Bowles
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
The School - Donald Barthelme

and always

I Stand Here Ironing - Tillie Olsen

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the introduction I think it's mentioned that the stories in this collection are supposed to be stories not often anthologized, often overlooked. Additionally, a reference was made to the fact that some preferred stories couldn't be put in, for whatever copyright, etc, reasons. Because of these factors, I think this anthology isn't as strong as many others I've read. Sadly, most of the stories here I will forget I ever read.

These were the few that stood out:

"Pie Dance" by Molly Giles
"The Smallest Woman in the World" by Clarice Lispector
"Spring in Fialta" by Vladimir Nabokov

[Sherry (sethurner) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with two other online book friends, and really enjoyed the collection. What was really nice for me was the short introduction to the writer by the author who chose the story. One that made a big impact on me was the very brief story by Alice Walker called "The Flowers." The combination of familiar and unfamiliar writers (to me) was a real plus. Thumbs up.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll admit - I read this a long time ago, but it made a huge impression. I loved the idea of peeking into the minds of contemporary authors and learning what inspired them, and maybe shaped some stories that I loved to read... Many of them liked stories that I had also read, but often for different reasons. I learned a lot abou tthe authors, and about the stories themselves.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thirty-five short stories in this collection were chosen and introduced by thirty-five writers of great distinction. Many of the stories collected in this volume are often anthologized, while others are less known. This collection represents a literary community with a diverse range of voices, time periods, experiences and styles, but all with a common devotion to story.

[Lavinia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great anthology that doesn't follow a specific theme but rather goes into all tiny corners of short fiction. I loved some of the stories and dreaded others but each one taught me something new. Worth noting: don't read more than one / day, the styles are very different (since we're talking about different authors too).