هم‌سرایان خیابان کینگزلی: مجموعه داستان برگزیدگان جایزه اُ. هنری ۲۰۱۵

by Laura Furman (Editor), Lydia Davis, Manuel Muñoz

مجموعه داستان «هم‌سرایان خیابان کینگزلی» تازه‌ترین اثر منتشر شده از مجموعه داستان‌های برگزیده جایزه ادبی اُ. هنری است که شامل داستان‌های برگزیده سال ۲۰۱۵ از این مجموعه است که با ترجمه شیما الهی منتشر شده است.

این کتاب شامل ۱۰ داستان کوتاه از تازه‌ترین تألیفات نویسندگانی انگلیسی زبان در آمریکای شمالی است که از نظر هیئت داوران این جایزه به عنوان برترین داستان‌های سال میلادی گذشته شناخته شده و به رسم هر ساله در قالب یک کتاب گردآوری و منتشر شده است.

تنهایی ناشی از سستی ساختار خانواده و طلاق دستمایه برخی از داستان‌های این مجموعه است که طی آن به شکلی تحسین‌برانگیز دردها و فضای وهم‌آلود زندگی در بستر طلاق به تصویر کشیده شده است.

داستان‌های این مجموعه را با توجه به زمان نوشته شدنشان باید به شکلی عجیب دارای محوریتی کما بیش یکسان با موضوع انسان در بستر اجتماع و خانواده دانست. انسان‌هایی که گاه از تنهایی خود قصه می‌گویند و گاه از چهره‌ای که اجتماع از آنها ساخته و البته چهره‌ای که آنها به اجتماع می‌دهند حرف می‌زنند و نیز انسان‌هایی که سعی دارند فریاد بزنند برای زندگی راه‌های دیگری جز ساختار فعلی زیستی تعریف شده در جوامع صنعتی شده غرب نیز موجود است.

این مجموعه از حیث زبانی نمایشی است از تازه‌ترین سبک و سیاق‌های مورد پسند نویسندگان آمریکای شمالی برای بازی‌ با کلمات، موقعیت‌ها و حرکت‌ در بستر داستان و نیز نمایشی از دل‌مشغولی‌‌های انسان در کلانشهر دهکده جهانی.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Literary Fiction, Writing, Family

236 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2015

About the author

Laura J. Furman (born 1945) is an American author best known for her role as series editor for the O. Henry Awards prize story collection. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Mirabella, Ploughshares, Southwest Review.

She has written three collections of stories (The Glass House, Watch Time Fly, and Drinking with the Cook), two novels (The Shadow Line and Tuxedo Park), and a memoir (Ordinary Paradise).

She founded American Short Fiction, which was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award. She is currently Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in writing. Most recently, she has announced that she has submitted a collection of short stories to her agent, and the subsequent collection will be her first new work to follow the release of 2001's Drinking with the Cook.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are ALL amazing... An extraordinary collection!!! There is not one boring
Story...not one! Even if you think you might want to rush a story ... to get to the next,
you 'can't ....because they each have something that will hook you in, be it....mysterious, or tender, complicated, or fragile, unexpected, funny, magical, or heartbreaking, ....
They all have strong narratives with characters that are fully imagined.
So thoroughly enjoyable.....these stories feel like mini novels.

I read a few of these stories while peddling the stationary bike at the gym: ( no, I still can't walk yet, for my friends who are wondering...but I can hobble on crutches to the bike, change from the walking cast to a fat shoe)
I read a few other stories while soaking in our warm pool outside.
If I were waiting for a movie to begin in the theater.., I'd pull out one of the short stories to enjoy. I'm sure I will read some of these stories again: they're satisfying. I wait for doctors appointments often these days... Starting and finishing a good short story leaves a punch to my day.
Seriously, I can't recommend this collection strongly enough!!! I'll pick 3 stories to mentioned ...
and I'm struggling which ones to talk about... they were all THAT - worthy- good- worth chatting
about!!!!


"FINDING BILLY WHITE FEATHER", by Perival Everett..... Had such a surprise ending...that at first I was like... "What the F#%^K"?.... I starting laughing sooo hard... I read the story again to my husband. ( he was sweating on his bike next to me... I didn't have a drop of sweat from handicap riding). At the end of the story, Paul said, .., "Who do you think the joke is on"? Hm??? :)

A PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE FAMILY, by Russell Banks
During the 70's - the practice of joint custody was progressive thinking ...doling out
parental responsibilities in divorce. Joint custody wasn't going to work with the arthritic,
half blind, partially deaf dog - SARGE, and the cat SCOOTER.
Three daughters was one thing...
but the bid was up for who got SARGE And who got SCOOTER. This story may have
have been set in the 70's ... (fiction to boot), but this feels like such a realistic
contemporary story of today. I know people for whom this story is true.
Choose your battles... Divorce is not smooth sailing!

"SNOW BLIND", by Elizabeth Strout
Annie was a chatterbox kid...( like me...I could relate), from the time she was very little.
At age 5 she was already constantly chattering ....
She loves the woods .... she actually experiences that feeling of ecstasy being in the woods -
in nature as a child ... "GOD SPEAKS TO ME", she says.
This is such a heartfelt story .... Annie grows up ... Travel all over the world...
When she returns home - middle age ... Her grandmother wants to know about her travels....
(Where she had been and what she has seen).
Annie tells her grandmother. What she 'doesn't' tell her is about the men she loved,
and her heart broken.... currents of treachery and deceit.
I was reminded of when I came back home .... having been out of the country for two years..
knowing there were some things I just could never share with my family.
I was also reminded that it's those quiet times..., alone in the woods... the forest... Or my own garden pool ...when I am most in touch with love.


So many more stories were terrific: "Cabins", by Christopher Merkner, "My Grandmother
Tells Me This Story", by Molly Antopol, "Kilifi Creek". by Lionel Shriver. "A Ride Out of Rhrao,
by Dina Nayeri, etc.

Exquisitely written stories that attempts to have us more fully understand each other!

Thank You to Knopf Doublday publishing, Netgalley, and the editors: Tessa Hadley,
Kristen Iskandrian, and Michael Parker

[E8RaH!M · Rating 3 out of 5]

خوشحالم اولین نفر هستم برای این کتاب ریویو مینویسم.
همسرایان خیابان کینگزلی ترجمه ای است از کتاب The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015. البته با این تفاوت که در متن اصلی 20 داستان برگزیده جایزه او.هنری در کتاب وجود دارد که مترجم به دلایلی تنها 10 داستان را برای ترجمه انتخاب کرده.
شاید یک دلیلش عدم گرایش به داستان کوتاه در بین فارسی زبانان باشد.
در هر حال داستانهای کتاب نسبت به عناوین کسب شده چنگی به دل نمیزنند. از بین داستان ها من اینها را دوست تر داشتم:
1- عضو ثابت خانواده از راسل بنکس: داستان جدایی یک مرد از همسرش بعد از چهارده سال و سه دختر، یک گربه و یک سگ نیمه کور و پیر. سگ پیر با اینکه بی دفاع و بی مصرف به نظر میرسد ولی گویا حلقه ای اصلی اتصال خانواده به هم (مخصوصا به راوی که پدر خانواده است) است.

2-قاعده طلایی از لین شارون شوآرتز: داستان یک ساختمان با یک مستاجر قدیمی است که تنها به یکی از همسایه های قدیمی تر اعتماد میکند. داستان پیری، تنهایی، انزوا و تاثیر مهربانی ست.

3- درباره عمه ام از جوان سیلبر: این داستان را قبلا در مجموعه بهترین داستان کوتاه های آمریکایی سال 2015 خوانده بودم. داستانی درباره عمه ای که در جوانی به ترکیه سفر میکند و مجذوب فرهنگ آنجا میشود و حتا با پسری ترک زندگی مشترک تشکیل میدهد و حالا برگشته به آمریکا و به تنهایی زندگی میکند.

مجموعا از خواندن این کتاب راضی نیستم. تعداد زیادی داستان گنگ و صقیل وجود داشت که خواندن را سخت میکرد(ترجمه ی عجولانه هم بی تاثیر نیست). این کتاب را به صورت الکترونیک تهیه کردم و قصدم مطالعه در ایام تعطیل عید بود که الان میفهمم انتخاب خوبی نبوده.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC copy of this short story collection from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

O’Henry to me represents an American archetype in literature and it is interesting to note how that archetype has changed, or one can argue, no longer exists. When I think of classic American style in short stories a few authors come to mind: O’Henry, London, Irving, Fitzgerald, Poe and O’Connor. Each represents a particular time, region or style. London the pioneering spirit, Fitzgerald the jazz age, Irving the colonial period and along with Poe the supernatural, O’Connor the South. O’Henry is quintessentially American in locale as well as representative of a style of story. These stories are O’Henry award winners because they have a particular style that evokes his spirit. Interestingly, I found these stories to be quintessentially American. I sit here drinking coffee from Mexico, wearing a shirt made in India, typing on a computer made in China. These stories are like that too. Some take place in the United States but they involve immigrants and their own personal integration to this country; others involve Americans living or travelling abroad (and behaving badly) or naturalized Americans dealing with feelings of being an outsider to their culture of birth. They are who we are now and they all, like Paul Simon says, sing an American tune.

I think it is important to not provide too much detail on the stories because many of them pack a surprise or some other twist (in the O’Henry tradition) that would be spoiled by too much information. Here are my favorites. The very first story, the comical yet vaguely sinister “Finding Billy White Feather—which leaves the reader reeling and in no better position than the confused story teller starts this collection off on a very high note. “A Permanent Member of the Family,” “The Seals,” “Cabins,” “Word of Mouth,” and “The Golden Rule” deal with the types of events that are defining moments in a family history and are all deeply moving in their own way. The collection contains notes from the authors and I was not surprised to read that another favorite “A Permanent Member of the Family” happened pretty much as described in the story. As I was reading it I couldn’t help but think that it, or something just like it, happened to the author. Many of the above stories have a strong sense of autobiography about them.

I also enjoyed the stories that took place in other countries and the internal cultural commentary within them. Another favorite was “A Ride Out of Phrao” in which a naturalized American woman of middle eastern descent has moved to a small village in rural China. She never felt completely at home in America, yet it has become her home. She is very much an outsider in China but is adapting. Finally, she is culturally separated from her successful daughter. I found the story fascinating and quite moving.

Other stories that I enjoyed:

“About My Aunt”—fascinating story about two women and how one’s primary value is independence and the other is completely dependent on others, yet both appear content, set in the back drop of Hurricane Sandy.

“My Grandmother Tells Me A Story”—I couldn’t help thinking that I was very glad my grandmother never told me a story like that—a story that would change the way you look at her forever.

Even though I have highlighted a few stories, I have to say that the entire collection is first rate and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys well-crafted literary fiction.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gems, mostly, especially Silber's and Strout's. I could have done without the scholarly essays and intro.

[Margaret Adams]

A great collection of stories. Collections like the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Stories and Pushcart winning stories are sometimes criticized as being limited to a certain "type" of story, following a certain style or particular themes du jour, but I've never heard them accused of being anything less than excellent, and this collection was no exception. One of the features of this sort of collection that I particularly love are the notes at the end. In The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015, the last 10% of the book are a series of notes, first from jurors on their favorites in the collection, and then--most gratifying of all--notes from the writers themselves on their stories. I know work should stand on it's own without any commentary at all, etc., etc., but I love getting the chance to see the curtain drawn back a bit, especially when I finish an amazing story and just want more. My favorite stories in this collection were Finding Billy White Feather by Percival Everett, The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA by Manuel Muñoz, and Owl by Emily Ruskovich.

[Caroline Bock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been reading a lot of work this past month by Elizabeth Strout, known most famously for her novel-in-stories Olive Kitteridge.

The three works I’ve read seem to blend into one book. In the last that I read, My Name Is Lucy Barton, her new novel, one of the characters, a writing teacher tells her, “We all only have one story to tell,” and she goes on to say that we tell it, in many different, over and over and that’s okay. I felt this way with her recent work. It was all one story.

I began this journey without a plan; picking up the O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 collection and discovering her short story, “Snow Blind.” A rural, small town. A tightly knit family, the Applebys, and a terrible family secret. One of the children, Annie, ultimately does leave the small town, almost miraculously, becomes a star of screen and stage, but even she cannot totally leave behind her small town family and her history. I found a link to the story here: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/p...

I learned soon after reading this masterful short story that her novel, The Burgess Boys, was being made into a HBO mini-series, and realized I hadn’t read this book. It’s the story of two brothers, both lawyers, one more successful than the other in New York City. Along with their sister, who never left their small town in Maine, they harbor a deeply-held family secret. When the nephew does something stupid and terrible in the hometown, all breaks loose between the siblings. However, ultimately, (no spoilers here), the ties of the siblings to one another and to their history in that Maine village bind them to one another more than to anyone or anything else.

I then thought: I must read her new novel. In My Name Is Lucy Barton, the main character, nicknamed ‘Wizzle’ by her mother is very ill. She’s in a New York City Hospital (what I take to be Cornell Presbyterian, though it’s never named. There is a view of the famously art deco Chrysler Building and having spent a lot of time there in recent years, I can imagine the view of the building, glistening, in my mind’s eye). Her mother on her first visit to New York City, and the first visit between them in years. Staying at her sick bed for several days, the mother tells story after story, of people from their Illinois farm town and their impoverished life together. In many ways, My Name is Lucy Barton is a story about how stories heal us.

But at the end of my reading I thought: Can we never move far away enough to leave our family, our hometown, our dark family secrets, no matter how we try to re-make ourselves? The answer for the characters in these Strout stories is: no. We are bound to our family, our siblings, our towns. This is the essential story that gets told again and again in these works by Strout.

Have you ever spent time with an author and felt you knew their story?

[Drew McCutchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pretty fantastic collection of stories, and I was very glad to see that the jury selection sampled a relatively wide section of content and voice. Below is just a sample of some of the stories, but I would like to say that every single story in this collection had obvious merit. Each story was clearly written by talented, hard working artists.

"Cabins" by Christopher Merkner was a hilarious depiction of the fears and anxiety of middle age partnership told with an incredibly original voice and had me laughing out loud on the bus.

I loved the enthralling oddity of Percival Everett's "Finding Billy White Feather". I still don't think I know what this story was about, and I don't care. It was beautiful, and it moved me.

Thomas Pierce's "Ba Baboon" starts with siblings locked in a pantry hiding from guard dogs and only gets better as it goes on.

Vahuni Vara's "I, Buffalo" painted a beautiful picture of a character tumbling down a self destructive path.

And of course, Emma Torzs as always, wrote something very special with "Word of Mouth". I continued to fall in love with her work. I think what I like most about her stories is that you rarely ever see her, the author, lurking in the shadows of the narrative, turning on smoke machines and lowering dimmer switches. Instead, you're lost in the story and her heartbreaking language, until it's over and you remember you're a human, alive and breathing, with a body, and a life you have to return to.

A great thing about reading this collection if you're a writer is the quick discussions by the authors at the end of the book. They discuss where they had the idea, how it developed, and what struggles they had writing it. It is a very useful window into the work of highly successful authors, and I recommend it to anyone writing short stories.

[Quinn Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved about half the stories, which seems to be my norm when I read yearly collections. Others are solid, but according to my tastes, nothing special. And, still, others don't seem to deserve inclusion: laden with too much exposition, and bland exposition at that, without one fully rendered scene, some stories resemble imbalanced, long-winded sketches more than fully formed short stories.

But here are the ones that kicked my butt:
Molly Antopol's "My Grandmother Tells Me This Story"; Russell Banks' "A Permanent Member of the Family"; Elizabeth McCracken's "Birdsong from the Radio"; Christopher Merkner's "Cabin"; Manuel Munoz's "The Happiest Girl in the World"; Dina Nayeri's "A Ride Out of Phrao"; Thomas Pierce's "Ba Baboon"; Emily Ruskovitch's "Owl"; Emma Torzs' "Word of Mouth"; and Vauhini Vara's "I, Buffalo."

[Bjorn Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brenda Peynado's "The History of Happiness" and Molly Antopol's "My Grandmother Tells Me This Story" are super strong pieces here, and the last story packs a punch. These pieces are all solidly themed, have logical constructions, and, unlike the tone sometimes with "The Best American Short Stories..." series, convey more often that not all hope is lost. And a very internationally located collection that gives our common humanity (and, through it, fiction itself) a deep tribute. I have not yet found a short story collection of pieces where the stories were more complete, where the plot came full circle more often. I love atmospheric, thematic and slice-of-life stories like these, but I don't think definite, non-tragic endings should be shied away from so often. No matter how strong (or not strong) the ending, though, it's still up to each reader to get out of it what they will.

[Justin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite stories: "I, Buffalo" Vauhini Vara, "The Seals" Lydia Davis, "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" Manuel Munoz

[Alor Deng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some really, really good stories. But when they were bad, wow, they were bad. 'A simple composition' was my favorite.

[HaleyK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gained a new appreciation for the short story through reading this collection. The advantage of reading a collection of work by multiple authors is the diversity of style, perspective, and setting.

A special feast of a feature is “The Writers on Their Work” section at the end, in which the authors tell how their tale came to life.

Favorites, in order:
1. Snow Blind: Simply because I love Elizabeth Strout’s writing. Yet again she proves she’s a master at capturing all of the tiny details that give people (and life) color and richness and weaving them into a compelling story. “Potato country” of Maine
2. Birdsong from the Radio: Unique in this collection, because of its overtones of whimsy. Reminds me a bit of Roald Dahl. Interesting to learn that the radio really did used to play birdsong—although this fact doesn’t really come into play in the story. Indeterminate city setting—adds to the fairy tale feel.
3. The Kingsley Drive Chorus: Compelling story of the relationship between mothers and sons who go astray. Learned about “Greek Tragedy” style from reading this. Little Armenia in Los Angeles.
4. Word of Mouth: A simple, yet powerful, story of growth and learning and living through times of change. Rural Montana
5. Finding Billy White Feather: I love all of the zany, different descriptions of the same man. Rural Wyoming ranch town
6. Kilifi Creek: Thought-provoking, to consider all of the times you’ve almost died….it will be long before I forget this one. Kenya, NYC
7. The Way Things are Going: This story struck me because I see myself in the narrator, both in her relationship with her sister and her consideration for others that often ends up making her a victim to some degree. South Africa, CA
8. My Grandmother Tells Me This Story: Extremely interesting, a side of the Halocaust I’d never considered. “….scratching at ugly things that have nothing to do with you”. Belarus, NYC
9. About My Aunt: What struck me about this one was Silber’s ability to create a relatable, “rough around the edges” character without judgment. Apparently this has become the first chapter of a book! Looking forward to it. NYC
10. The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA: A tale of someone going out of their way to help a stranger who’s in a similar position to the one she once was. Overall tone is wistful, “I wish things had turned out differently, but making the best of it”. Los Angeles
11. Owl: Extremely creative, with overtones of “mystery” and a twist ending. Idaho
12. A Ride Out of Phrao: Beautifully written, but Shirin and her daughter don’t really reach resolution, and no growth or change, really. Still at an impasse. I admire Shirin’s resilience in being able to remake her life in a new place, twice over. Thailand
13. I, Buffalo: Touching to see the comfort the main character derives from her niece, in the aftermath of her world falling apart through her own doing. I like the confessional tone, and Sheila is lovable despite her best efforts not to be. San Francisco.
14. The Golden Rule: Relatable, and interesting to see how apartment buildings are, as the author puts it, “a microcosm of society at large”. NYC
15. Ba Baboon: I liked the close, kooky relationship between the siblings, and interesting that personality may be less permanent than we’d like to think. The funniest of the stories in the collection. Suburbs of North Carolina
16. Cabins: Also funny, to a point. A tale of a man looking for reassurance that his marriage is solid, even as those around him are shaking/broken. Indeterminate suburbs
17. The Seals: I like the stream of consciousness narration style. No action, just a person thinking on a train. Slow-paced. East coast
18. A Permanent Member of the Family: I didn’t enjoy this one, because I feel as if he’s blaming the dog’s death for his distancing from his daughters. Self-pitying, “not my fault” in tone. New Hampshire
19. The Upside-Down World: Just made me uneasy, Elodie’s broken life and Gertrude’s madness. Some character growth, but not enough. Americans in Nice, France
20. The History of Happiness: Another tale of pickpocketing abroad. The main character sees the world as something she can just take from, without offering anything in return. The whole point of the story is her growth, but I don’t think enough happens to justify growth. Singapore

[Kelesea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015

Editor: Laura Furman

Age Group: Adult

Genre: Short Story Collection

Series: N/A

Star Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars


This book was given to me by the publisher, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review--thank you so much!


Lately, though I love novels as much as the next girl, I've been craving collections of short stories. There's just something so lovely to me, about an author that can create a tiny world in the span of only a few pages. It's been a talent I've always craved and wanted, and it never fails to enthrall me entirely. Another bonus with short story collections such as this one? There's always an opportunity to find new authors, to read new work later. In short, this short story collection was absolutely fantastic, in fact, so much so that it deserves a gif of Jack Frost:







Overall, this collection is worth all five stars, but the OCD tendencies in me demand that I review and rate each story at a time, so here goes:



Finding Billy Whitefeather by Percival Everett: 3.5 out of 5 stars. The first story in the collection, this story was slightly confusing; the main character finds a mysterious note about a pair of horses for sale from the mysterious and elusive Billy Whitefeather. A serious musing about the threat of not knowing one's neighbors, I liked the story, even though it was slightly hard to follow.



The Seals by Lydia Davis: 5 out of 5 stars. A musing and thoughtful story on the impact of grief, from the point of view of a sister, mourning the loss of her sister, who more or less raised her, and remembering their sometimes tumultuous relationship. I really enjoyed this story--it was wistful, sad, and sweet, gentle and wonderful, as the narrator ponders if she ever really knew her sister at all.



Kilifi Creek by Lionel Shriver: 4 out of 5 stars. For the most part, I enjoyed this story. The writing was beautiful, if a little heavy-headed. There were a lot of big words that I didn't quite understand, but what made this story for me was the character, someone in her early twenties who makes a habit of flirting with disaster, and takes it too far. (I'd already been planning to look into We Need to Talk About Kevin, and this just spurs me further.)



The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA by Manuel Munoz: 5 out of 5 stars. This story was wonderful, both a rumination on the consequences and lives of being an immigrant in this country, even in this day and age. Two women, one old, one young, one weary with the routine and the other just coming in to the ways of this crazy life, in the middle of bustling Los Angeles. I really liked this story, but what really made it shine, for me, was the relationship between the two women central to the story.



A Permanent Member of the Family by Russell Banks: 5 out of 5 stars. This story, among others, vies for my favorite of the whole collection. A sad tale of a divorce, (well, actually, multiple divorces) the shattering of a family, and a loss that is nearly insurmountable. God, this story. It was brutal, beautiful, and tender, told with a gentle hand despite the heavy subject matter. Will be looking into this author's work immediately.



A Ride out of Phrao by Dina Nayeri: 4 out of 5 stars. This is one of the few authors that was familiar to me, and this tale, of travel, Thailand, the often tempestuous relationship between a mother and her daughter, was, at times, almost painful to read. Regardless, despite the narrative being slightly confusing at times, I really enjoyed it. Wonderful!



Owl by Emily Ruskovich: 5 out of 5 stars. Yet another contender for my favorite story of the collection, this tale of shapeshifters, infidelity, a husband's suspicion, and thieving young men, with gorgeous prose and flesh and blood characters, this story of secrets and darkness completely captured my imagination. As with Banks, I will be looking into more of this author's work as soon as possible.



The Upside Down World by Becky Hagenston: 2 out of 5 stars. This story was confusing and hard to follow, and the plot and the moral of the story wasn't very clear. It was just 'meh'.



The Way Things are Going by Lynn Freed: 4 out of 5 stars. A thoughtful story on the power of change, as well as apathy. The two characters in this lovely, well-thought out story were ones that were flawed and I really related to them a lot.



The History of Happiness by Brenda Peynado: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Kind of confusing and odd, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.



The Kingsley Drive Chorus by Naira Kuzmich: 5 out of 5 stars. This story, yet another contender for my favorite story of the collection, was an unabashed, glaringly honest portrait of the relationship between mothers and sons. This story took my heart and stomped on it. It was painful, beautiful, and real--a triumph of short fiction. Amazing!



Word of Mouth by Emma Torzs: 4 out of 5 stars. An entertaining, slightly scary romp about a barbeque restaurant doomed for failure, and a man who seeks out facts, despite the characters of the story being frightened of him. Beautiful prose, odd plot, but wonderful.



Cabins by Christopher Merkner: 5 out of 5 stars. A wonderfully entertaining and gentle story about the trials of marriage, and wanting to be a separate person from your spouse. The main character dreams of solitude and peace in a cabin in the woods, and, though thinking of them, discovers they are empty. A worthy musing of marriage, identity, and what peace and fulfillment really is. Wonderful!



My Grandmother Tells Me This Story by Molly Antopol: 5 out of 5 stars. This story was definitely one of my favorites, if not the favorite of the whole bunch. A granddaughter sits with her grandmother on a hot, sunny day, and learns of the other woman's sacrifices, as well as the beginning of her relationship with her grandfather, in war torn Poland. One of my very favorite pieces of fiction, of all time!



The Golden Rule by Lynne Sharon Schwartz: 4.5 out of 5 stars. A tale of neighbors, and what it really means to have respect, and love, for another person, even in times of trouble. I really enjoyed this story, not just because of its theme, the reverence with which we are expected to show to the older generation. But what happens when that person, who you counted on, disappears? Wonderful.



About My Aunt by Joan Silber: 5 out of 5 stars. The narrator's relationship with her aunt, at times rocky and fraught with problems, at others, full of love and understanding, takes the stage in this story of family bonds. It was at turns, funny and scary and deep, and I enjoyed it--really wonderful. I loved the characters!



Ba Baboon by Thomas Pierce: 4.5 out of 5 stars. This was really the most humorous piece of fiction in the collection. A pair of siblings break into an ex's home to retrieve a taboo sex tape, and the ex's fierce guard dogs collide with them: hilarity ensues, and in doing so, their familial bond deepens. I loved that the author took somewhat heavy subject matter and made it humorous.



Snow Blind by Elizabeth Strout: 5 out of 5 stars. God, this story was heavy. But it was also beautiful, and terrifying. A young girl finds peace and solitude in the forest, and ends up inadvertently revealing a secret that tears her entire family apart. I loved this story, and I honestly cannot wait until I can look into more of Strout's work!



I, Buffalo by Vauhini Vara: 4.5 out of 5 stars. I really liked this story, where the narrator is fascinated with the buffalo that frolic around the land on which she lives through college. I really liked this story because it was central to the narrator connecting with nature.



Birdsong from the Radio by Elizabeth McCracken: 5 out of 5 stars. Yet another contender for my favorite of the volume. This story tells the tale of a mother, Leonora, who wants nothing more than to gobble up her children. I really enjoyed this story, for its fairy tale elements, the ending, and the way monsters were handled. Amazing!



This story collection is a must-have for those of you who love words and stories--a triumph in the fickle art of fiction writing! I loved almost every single one of these stories, meant to be savored and enjoyed bit by wonderful bit! Next on deck: Unteachable by Leah Raeder!

literatureobsessed.blogspot.com

[Paul Manytravels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewing anthologies is tough. Different authors have contributed different things. Some will appeal to some readers and others will not. The best a reader can hope for is a high quality anthologist/editor, a person who has selected a good variety while also including enough to appeal to your particular tastes.
When selecting an anthology, I tend toward those where the entries have been selected based on criteria of excellence, rather than taste or genre, and have been selected by a jury of editors, not just a single one. The O'Henry Prize anthologies include stories that had won the O'Henry Prize, a test of their quality. But they hasd also been previously published elsewhere. Thus, the original publication and the prize selection committee have both considered that the work is high uality and worthwhile.
Every year, I get the "Best American Short Stories of----" and "The Best Non-Required Reading of ----" for the same reasons that I selected the O'Henry Prize collection. Their contents have been selected for their high quality, both when they were originally published and when they were anthologized. The additional benefit of these anthologies is thet the stories selected fall into a variety of genre: short mysteries, historical fiction, surprise endings, sci-fi, etc.
Thie 2015 collection was a satisfying read, I did not like not fully read all the stories, but that is as it should be with a collection. Overall, the collection was interesting enough to make me want to read it all the way through, much as I would a novel, before I moved on to my next book.

[Pearse Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really think these tales are the year's best? These are good and its clear their authors are talented, but for me they didn't stay. Stories like The Seals or The Kingsley Drive Chorus chugged along (Glimmer Train pun unintentional) but when they had finished their chug and left to sit like a cake for a few days, I couldn't find them in my brain again. I think a Great short story can be defined be staying power, by impact, and I only got that from a handful. Oh bother.

[Stephen Dorneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closer to 3 1/2 stars than four, this version of this perennial classic collection of short stories was even more depressing than literary fiction usually is. Story after story of bad things happening to depressed people, or depressing things happening to bad people, left me cold -- the writing is still top notch, hence the four star rating, but with little reason to engage with the stories, I can't say I'd recommend this edition. Try another year instead.

[Mitsuru · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think all stories are excellent, and can't say which one was the best.
I like "Owl" by Emily Ruskovich, and "The Golden Rule" by Lynne Sharon Schwartz.

[Ace Boggess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good stuff, but definitely not the best volume in this series.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of beautifully written stories.

[Birdie Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of the stories in this collection are great reads.

[laristas · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Bonus Baby" - "I'm being crushed under a pile of bodies. ... Why would they do this? Why would they do this for me?"

[Nickole · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for Kilifi Creek by Lionel Shriver,
Zero for the rest of the stories, no idea why someone thought they were qualitatively equal and bound them together in one book.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best ones: The Owl
Kilifi Creek
The Seals
Kingsley Drive Chorus

[John Nasaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of the stories

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

My rating: 5 misjudged assumptions

Publisher: Anchor

Received from: Netgalley

The O. Henry Prize is awarded to the best 20 English-language short stories of the previous year, chosen from thousands submitted by the American and Canadian publications in which they have appeared. They are read ‘blind’ by the jury, as anonymous texts, until the winners become clear. Featuring short notes on the stories by the jurors, the writers and the editor, Laura Furman, the stories showcase upcoming talent. The memorial is intended to “strengthen the art of the short story and to stimulate younger authors,” (Blanche Colton Williams, 1879-1944). With those credentials, I expected a lot of the collection, and was somewhat disappointed at its weak start. However, it exceeded my expectations by the end.

What is great prose to one person is wallpaper to another. As readers we are all subjective, and that is one of the pleasures of being a reader.

The stories are thematically connected by a sense of global connectedness, diversity and the love we have for family and strangers. While some were quite funny, overall they were a bit gloomy, as most of the characters die or deal with death, and families are (for the most part) torn apart. However, with each story, I became more invested in each tale, and the varied styles of writing carried me through. From the mother who wants so desperately to eat her children, to the wandering hipster who has a few too many near-death experiences and learns nothing from them, to the holocaust survivors and the grandchildren who are obsessed with hearing their most painful stories, to a woman whose grief turns her into an owl, the stories touched my heart.

“Details,” V. S. Pritchett tells us, “make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.”

Although the stories may only be submitted by American and Canadian publications, the diversity that appears within them gives a pleasantly different picture of a multicultural perspective than previous O. Henry prize collections. Featuring writers from South Africa, Iran, Armenia, Belarus and locations from the Riviera to a Native American reservation in Wyoming, the stories have rich descriptive flavor and a keen sense of observation of human behavior. Although the characters are different in their origins, their quirks and their wide-ranging mental issues, they are united by their humanity. The characters often assume things about each other, to be proven wrong in the best and worst possible ways. Their imperfections make them real, vivid characters and it is a pleasure to get to know them.

Because I was so young, there was much I was unwilling to ask these women and much they were unwilling to tell me. I was forced, then, to wonder. Now I still wonder, but also imagine. Now I write and try to empathize. Only now have I begun to understand.

I won’t review each story, because they will touch different people in different ways. How a story affects you depends on what you read into it based on your own experiences. For example, as an expat living in Asia I was attracted to the stories of people who wander the world, lost, trying to find their place or a sense of happiness. As such, I thoroughly enjoyed “Kilifi Creek”, “A Ride Out Of Phrao”, “The Upside-Down World” and “The History of Happiness.” My nostalgia for South Africa ironically drew me to “The Way Things Are Going.” However, the fairy-tale like quality of “Birdsong From The Radio,” and the underlying menace of “Snow Blind,” show that stories that are entirely unfamiliar can still be just as emotionally affecting.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” I said. I hoped the tone of my voice, and the fact I could not face her, conveyed to my dear wife that her quiet admission was not lost on me, that this was, of all the moments in my life, the main one.

These stories give a window into the world and minds of so many thoroughly different people, but there is something familiar in all of them, positive or negative, with which we can connect. The writing is exquisite and it is worth reading this collection if only to find a new favorite writer or author to follow, as some stories, like “About My Aunt” will see further development into novels. This collection is a good one to dip into.

Like my review? Read more at Literogo.com.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I haven't even managed to read my O. Henry Prize Stories 2014 and already 2015 has come out. I'm never going to catch up.)

I like short stories. They're my potato chips or candy, snacking for my brain (even the serious short stories that should be more like a lump in my stomach). I pick up short story books or request them as ARCs because I like reading them. That's why I asked for The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015, okay Introduction? I don't need twenty pages of an English professor rah-rah-brigading me about short stories, then summarizing each story, then explaining to me why each story merits inclusion in the collection. Just let me at the stories! I hate introductions.

So let's get to the stories. Hooray! Stories! But they are American. I always struggle to articulate my feelings towards American fiction. The best I've ever come up with is insular. There's a self-importance too, but no one that is mean-spirited. It's not bragging or even humble-bragging. But it's whatever comes with the knowledge that due to population and money and global positioning and power: that being American can mean forcing an influence on the rest of the English speaking world that say me, as a Canadian, cannot force. The stories here vary between US-born to those who have chosen (or are in the process of choosing, as in Manuel Muñoz's "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA") to locate themselves in the States, and this tone of American-ness washes the stories out. Even the ones that are stylistically different (the first person plural of Naira Kuzmich's "The Kingsley Drive Chorus", the fairy tale world of Elizabeth McCracken's "Birdsong from the Radio", the East Africa of Lionel Shriver's "Kilifi Creek") are still similar. One might believe that these were all written by the same author, each story investigating the subtle. It's like there was a memo in 2015: Forget what they told you in high school about short stories. No changes, epiphanies, or surprises. I can't say there are a lot of surprises here. There are a lot of abrupt endings in surprise's place. Many of these stories simply stop in another shared stylistic quirk. I can't be satisfied with a story that simply stops. I feel ripped off.

I should also crown my favourite, simply because the three person jury each wrote a little paragraph at the end regarding their favourite and I guess that's the thing one is supposed to do in collections like this. I'll pick the fairy tale monstrousness of Elizabeth McCracken's "Birdsong from the Radio". That one didn't need to be an American story, in the way some of the other stories needed to be set in the States or inhabited by US-ians. It chose to be an American story. That made me like it best.

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 edited by Laura Furman went on sale September 15, 2015.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Rjj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some were good, some were okay, a couple were terrible (in my opinion). If you like the fiction in The New Yorker, you will probably like this.

[Arja Salafranca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 gathers twenty of the best short stories of the year, selected from many published in US literary magazines. It awards a first, second and third rating to the stories by jurors, the writers Tessa Hadley, Kristen Iskandrian and Michael Parker. As a lover and writer of short stories, I’ve been this series for some years now and it never disappoints. This volume, filled with long stories which allow the stories to breathe and gather weight, was superb too. There are many excellent stories here. A sampling of the highlights include:
Kilifi Creek by Lionel Shriver. A haunting, meditative piece set in Kenya, in which a young twentysomething woman, Liana, unthinkingly blunders into the lives of a couple who live outside Nairobi. Redolent in the feel of Africa, this story shows what happens when you cast aside youth and move into adulthood: “Had she concentration to spare, she might have worked out that this whole emotional package was one of her first true tastes of adulthood: what happens when you realise that a great deal, or even everything is at stake, and that no one is going to help you.”
The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA by Manuel Munoz – going to rescue her boyfriend who has been deported back to Mexico, again, the narrator meets another young woman on the bus. A touching story of connections and the inevitability of the lives being led, deportation and rescue. “Nothing new is ever in his stories of how he got back – the coming back is always stressful, always tense – and his reliance on me to be there outweighs his doubt. If this is love, then it’s as simple as it gets.”
A Ride out of Phrao by Dina Nayeri. A hauntingly memorable story of a 45-year-old Shirin, originally from Iran, now in the US, who, fired from her job, joins the Peace Corps, moving to northern Thailand to teach in a school there. The story of her life in this new strange place is haunted by thoughts of her daughter, studying in the US, but it’s a troubled relationship, and Shirin’s emotional myopia only makes things worse. An achingly beautiful story of longing, missed connections and the strange alchemy of foreign places. “Yes, there are demons here. There are crafty lizards and Buddha shelves, and everything is a lie. You are told every day to smile, even if you have no joy in your heart.”
My Grandmother Tells Me This Story by Molly Antopol. A grown granddaughter aches to hear the story of her grandparents in this story in which the woman recalls escaping from the Holocaust, but it’s a story reluctantly remembered in this excellent piece. The grandmother concludes: “Why don’t you go out in the sun and enjoy yourself for once, rather than sitting inside, scratching ugly things that have nothing to do with you?”
Ba Baboon by Thomas Pierce is a witty and penetrating story in which a young woman breaks into her former lover’s house with her brother who was injured in an accident and hasn’t been quite right since. Cornered by her lover’s two dogs, they are trapped in the pantry as she cannot remember the password that will call the dogs off. Sad, yet, achingly haunting, the damage inflicted that lasts a lifetime and hope that will never quite add up.

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well of course it’s a five-star book; these stories are the winners! And having just read them, and changed my mind over and over as to which was my real favorite, rather like being at a banquet and being served all of one’s favorite foods, I was at something of a loss to find one that rose above the others…until the very end, and if I had to choose one of them, that would be it. That one, or Russell Banks’s “A Permanent Member of the Family”, a poignant, terrible, magnificent story that I had actually already read and reviewed about a year ago in a collection by that author. So, it goes without saying that Banks is a giant, and I just sort of set him aside with the knowledge that he was untouchable, and then read and compared the rest. But why take my word for it? Don’t just listen to me! Look here at how I’ve rambled on forever without mentioning that I got this book scot free (lucky me) from Net Galley and Knopf Doubleday Publishers in exchange for an honest review. This outstanding collection will be available for purchase September 15. I don’t know how you can bear to wait that long!

Okay, let’s try this again. See, it’s almost impossible to compare them, but here are some things I can say about the collection as a whole: first, that it is a multicultural collection, but it doesn’t appear to me as if anybody laid out special rules that said anyone had to vote for this, that, the other culture. They’re all really strong. There was never a moment where something went thud and I wondered how the hell that story got in here. I obsessively made notes on my kindle whenever I came to something that was funny, interesting, or—oh especially this!—when I found incredibly effective, purposeful figurative language. If I still taught (well okay, if I still taught, I wouldn’t have time to read galleys), but if I still taught, I would get a good hard copy of this book to slide under the projector in order to illuminate what the various types of figurative language look like when they’ve been used well. If I still taught and had an actual book buying budget, I would get an entire class set so that students could go through and find the passages for themselves, which is actually a much more powerful way to teach, and then I’d have them write their own stories and be gob-smacked by how much they had improved over the course of a week or so, just from reading a few choice, selected stories.

But I don’t teach anymore, and I do read a lot of books and write a lot of reviews, and I am telling you, this is better than what I generally read, and I’ve been reading good stuff, too. The last story in the collection, “Birdsong from the Radio”, by Elizabeth McCracken, is not only outstanding, but it’s chilling, horrifying, and absolutely fabulous read-aloud material for the month of October.

But if, like me, you no longer have anyone except other adults surrounding you now, you should get this collection for yourself. Read it on the beach; in a chilly, air-conditioned motel room; or snug by the fire this fall. Because this is what excellence looks like. It’s gluttony for the voracious reader, and extremely tempting, I should think, for the reluctant one.

[Gila Gila · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a sort of A.A. Milne's good bear-bad bear behavioural turn, 2015's Best American Short Stories is a stellar, very often brilliant collection, and the O'Henry Prize stories, consistently the better of the two annual publications, holds little of lasting impact. When the bad little bear is suddenly virtuous, so the good bear must turn into the rotten sibling. Or forget bears - really, the problem is me, and all the Milne poems tapping at my brain, James James - if the two sets of stories were stones, The BASS would hop and skip over a sunlit lake before landing; the O'Henry a thudding paperweight, literally, a weight of pages that just sits there. The selection of stories awarded as not the best of a single country, but the best in the world over! remains maddeningly puzzling.

The opening piece, "Finding Billy Whitefeather" with its' fluctuation of identity dependent on the eyes of the beholder is written in a voice as scant and false as the story's title character. Such a weak first story begs for the next to fly, entertain, hurt, be something one wants to catch and keep. Instead there is the staid Lydia Davis's "Seals", a tale of elderly sister resentment that should have been placed further into the book, if included at all. It's a perfectly fine story, recalling inner monologue Alice Munro narratives, but why it was chosen for the Prize is a mystery.

And on (ironically, my least favourite of the 2015 BASS, "About My Aunt", a look at a bohemian aunt and her grown but still frustratingly adolescent niece, also appears here). Whether read in linear order, or picked at random, this is for the most part a O'Henry Prize collection without any gleaming prizes; one or two of them do glimmer - the best of the lot is Christopher Merkner's "Cabins", a keenly felt, itemized journey in and out and cautiously back into marriage; there's also "The Way Things Are Going", set in Lynn Freed's customary landscape of a violent, racially split South Africa, a story as unsettling as it is brief. Freed is such an excellent writer of this form that even this, not one of her finest short stories, allows one to enter an experience central to the country of its origin, without stopping to think, oh, this is "the South African story". With too many of the other pieces, there's the discomforting moment of sensing "the Mexican story", "the Thai story", even a story that could be labled "the Americans-in-France". Cliches and neatly framed coincidences are many; truths of lives beyond are own lie somewhere else, in the shadows of the tepid, disappointing 2015 O'Henry stories.