The Best American Short Stories 2021

by Jesmyn Ward (Editor / Introduction), Heidi Pitlor (Editor)

A collection of the year's best stories selected by celebrated two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

In her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2021, guest editor JesmynWard says that the best fiction offers the reader a sense of repair.The stories in this year's collection accomplish just that, immersing the reader in powerfully imagined worlds and allowing them to bring some of that power into their own lives. From a stirring portrait of Rodney King's final days to a surreal video game set in the Middle East, with real consequences, to an indigenous boy's gripping escape from his captors, this collection renders profoundly empathetic depictions of the variety of human experience. These stories are poignant reminders of the possibilities of as you sink into world after world, become character after character, as Ward writes, youforget yourself, and then, upon surfacing, know yourself and others anew.

The Best American Short Stories 2021 includes GABRIEL BUMP - BRANDON HOBSON - DAVID MEANS- JANE PEK - TRACEY ROSE PEYTON - GEORGE SAUNDERS - BRYAN WASHINGTON - KEVIN WILSON - C PAM ZHANG and others

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Read For School, School

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 2021

About the author

Jesmyn Ward is the author of Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, and Men We Reaped. She is a former Stegner Fellow (Stanford University) and Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. She is an associate professor of Creative Writing at Tulane University.

Her work has appeared in BOMB, A Public Space and The Oxford American.

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.78 "varied, inclusive, dark" stars !!

The Pleasant Surprise Award of 2021

Thanks so much to Netgalley, Houghton Miffin Harcourt, the editors and all the authors for an advanced e-copy. I am providing an honest review. This will be released October 2021.

This is my first time reading this collection of annual stories that are chosen by an accomplished author. This year it was Ms. Jesmyn Ward and she wrote a very thoughtful and beautiful introduction.

For me these stories were about chaos, search for safety and love and dealing with the intersectionality of all our lives. In fact, all of us are other, and until we begin to acknowledge this the polarization, hatred and vitriol will not end. There are degrees of oppression (both internal and external) in all our lives but through compassion, wisdom and a genuine attunement to the other in others but also in ourselves along with social justice that is honest and keeping with a good life for all of us regardless of race, socio-economic status, gender expression, sexual orientation and/or health status. I am not sure this is possible but in order for us to survive we need to keep trying and include all of nature as well.

I was very pleasantly surprised that in 20 stories that there were five 5-stars, two 4.5 -stars and three 4-stars stories. Very high quality indeed.

There were no duds here but there a few stories that were 2.5 star average reads for me that I would not have included in a collection of bests (but that's just me ! and they may end up being favorites of yours)

In my usual fashion I will list the author, title, rating and a few impressions that I jotted down as I was reading.


1. Gabriel Bump (To Buffalo Eastward)- 2.5 stars....a young man hooks up with some strangers on his way to Buffalo and takes some psychedelics....not feeling it...sorry not sorry.

2.Rita Chang-Eppig (The Miracle Girl)-4 stars....a funny and interesting story of two sisters' experiences of missionary school in Taiwan...stigmata and all...terrific and an interesting commentary on race relations and colonialism within the context of Catholicism

3. Vanessa Cuti..... (Our Children)-2.5 stars... a mediocre story about the constraints of suburban womanhood

4. Jenzo DuQue(The Rest of Us)-5 stars.... a glorious story of Latin life in Chicago's south side...the writing is absolutely lush and bright and poignant !! (Bronze Award of the bunch)

5. Brandon Hobson (Escape from the Dysphesiac People)-3.5 stars....an Indigenous man of the plains reflects on his nation's history and his own ....sad and poignant

6. Jamil Jan Kochai (Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain) -4 stars...A brilliant story of traumatic memory and gaming addiction and the confusion of a young Afghani American man.

7. Nicole Krauss (Switzerland)-3 stars....a young Jewish girl learns about the ways of sensuality through the sexual antics of an older Iranian girl....good but nothing new or terribly original here

8. David Means (Clementine, Carmelita, Dog)-5 stars.... a gloriously beautiful story about living life as a Daschund....compelling and poignant (Silver Award of the bunch)

9. Yxta Maya Murray (Paradise)-3.5 stars...a mixed race woman escape the fires of northern california with her baby daughter and white father in law.....interesting reflections on race relations

10. Eloghosa Osunde (Good Boy).-5 stars...a story of queer Africa that blew my mind....the writing is fresh vivid and sharp...fuck this was riveting !

11. Jane Pek (Portrait of Two Young Ladies in Green and White Robes)-5 stars...one of the most beatiful and ethereal lesbian love stories that I have ever read...I could not stop quivering with tears as I read this one...never-ending and spanning centuries (Gold award of the bunch)

12. Tracey Rose Peyton (The Last Days of Rodney)-3.5 stars...a look at the last day of Rodney King dealing with long term PTSD after police brutality and the heavy prices he paid for being Black and male....very good !

13. Christa Romanosky (In this sort of world, the asshole wins)-4 stars...a terribly sad story of a dope addict mama...her rage, her traumas, her excuses....

14. George Saunders (Love Letter)-2.5 stars...a somewhat interesting political letter from a loving grandfather to his grandson...just not feeling it...kind of contrived and over stylized.

15. Shanteka Sigers (A Way with Bea)-3 stars...A Chicago teacher from rural Alabama struggles with classism, internalized racism and her husband as she yearns to make a difference...at least for Bea...

16. Stephanie Soileau (Haguillory)-3.5 stars...A hateful Louisiana man and his angry wife go fishing....fun, authentic, bizarre

17. Madhuri Vijay (You are my Dear Friend)-4.5 stars...A complex multi-faceted piece of noir that left me shocked, perplexed, a bit terrified...an understanding of South Asian sociology will help you with this one

18. Bryan Washington (Palaver)-3 stars...Interactions between a young gay Black man and his mother in Japan who is visiting him from Texas...clever and interesting

19. Kevin Wilson (Biology)-4 stars....A young gay eighth grader (possibly on the autistic spectrum) finds compassion and understanding in his biology teacher...poignant, uplifting but ever so sad...ps why do the mean girls play basketball?

20. C. Pam Zhang (Little Beast)-4. 5 stars...a terrifying story about the darkness that can lurk inside teenage girls and why that might be...the writing is stellar and claustrophobic

[el · Rating 2 out of 5]

short story anthologies will be like here's a phenomenal piece of literature, the likes of which you will never encounter again, and then 10 pages later serve you wattpad-level writing.

of the 20 selected short stories, these were the few i felt genuinely deserved acknowledgment and would like to revisit in the future:

• "the rest of us" by jenzo duque (from one story)
• "good boy" by eloghosa osunde (from the paris review)
• "haguillory" by stephanie soileau (from zoetrope: all-story)

honorable mention for "portrait of two young ladies in white and green robes (unidentified artist, circa sixteenth century)" by jane pek (from conjunctions) because it told a better immortality story than v.e. schwab's addie larue.

[RH Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big bag of broken glass and diamonds, all holding light, some of it painful. Some stories were unforgettable for their cruelty, others for their incredible love. I’ll definitely be watching for more from my favorites.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Best American Short Stories 2021.

I have a love/hate relationship with anthologies.

I know I won't like or connect with most of the stories but a few of them will stand out for me and make reading the collection worth it.

The only story I really liked and connected with was "Biology."

"Paradise" wasn't bad though I didn't like the characters like I did in "Biology."

Good writing and a diverse collection of stories but didn't like the majority of them but I usually feel this way so it's not the fault of the editor or the authors.

[Brad Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collection of stories so unoffensive and polite that they border on the bland. The "mfa" style of contemporary writing boiled down to its least adventurous form, albeit still engaging, well-written, and generally thoughtful. That's my issue - there's nothing wrong with it, but there's nothing that makes my jaw drop either. I can't blame the editorial team though, it's hard to shy away from a safe collection that will appease most people, and what can I say? I will probably purchase next year's as well to act as a taster of contemporary fiction authors (but check out the Pushcart prizes collection for a better spread! Support small presses!). I preferred last year's selection though - no Emma Cline the MFA darling in this one despite a pretty good story she wrote about Wim Hof in the New Yorker a few months back.

Favorites included Switzerland - Nicole Krauss (New Yorker), Palaver - Bryan Washington (McSweeny's), and the Miracle Girl -Rita Chang-Eppig (Virginia Quarterly Review).

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the stories here are terrific, and some are even better than that. They would have to be when you consider who the editor (Jesmyn Ward) left out: Richard Bausch, Lorrie Moore, Lydia Davis, T C Boyle to name a few from the 'Other Distinguished Stories' list.

Perhaps because I read it in bed with a COVID fever I could not get one particular story out of my head - Christa Romanosky's 'In This Sort of World, the Asshole Wins' - I would wake up and treat myself to a paragraph from it and read the whole thing again. And again.

I also really enjoyed the contributions of Gabriel Bump, Jenzo Duque, Nicole Krauss, Eloghosa Osunde, Madhuri Vijay, Bryan Washington and Kevin Wilson.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.85 is the official average of these 20 stories. My favorite was Kevin Wilson’s Biology. I do think the early stories are not as strong as the middle/later ones, which is completely random because these are in alphabetical order by author.

[Sonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

I thought these were the best stories overall:

Our Children; Vanessa Cuti
Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain; Jamil Jan Kochai
Clementine, Carmelita, Dog; David Means
Paradise, Yxta Maya Murray
The Last Days of Rodney; Tracey Rose Peyton
In This Sort of World, the Asshole Wins; Christa Romanosky
Love Letter, George Saunders
Biology, Kevin Wilson

These stories represent what I responded to in the collection, mostly realist, observational, formal structure, family/relationship centered. If I can look at a title and the first paragraph and remember what the story was like (if not all the detail) then I consider it a success. There are some tough subjects and themes here. But no matter how much is thrown their way, the characters are key to making me feel something.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my collection of short story anthologies, I mark the stories I would read again. In this one there were four - by Nicole Krauss, David Means, Yxta Maya Murray, and Kevin Wilson.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another year, another volume from BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES! I had a little trouble adding this one to my digital collection. For a short amount of time, it simply wasn’t available as an ebook in the ibook store. Strange!

Anywho, this is the first volume of stories largely written (or at least published) in the era of covid. But covid didn’t feature directly in any of them. I guess that is in keeping with the general feeling I get from the literary community that the pandemic is still too raw. We can deal with our usual subjects: poverty, depression, prejudice, etc. :P

Though perhaps I’m being glib about the connection between covid and these other societal ills. “For a story to resonate with me, it had to feel urgent during a time when even going to the post office held real danger,” Heidi Pitlor wrote. “A story had to ring loudly with some kind of deeply necessary truth or humor or wisdom.” Almost feels like Pitlor is admitting to a bias that might make her look past certain stories. But isn’t this self-seriousness the direction literary fiction has been moving in for a long time? Maybe more to the point I prefer it as well, so maybe I’ve found my wheelhouse. :P

Jesmyn Ward spoke of focusing on younger protagonists in the stories she chose; that’s how covid (and other social turbulence in the wider world) worked on her. “This year, in many ways, made me feel unmoored in a way I hadn’t since I was a teenager,” she wrote. “As I came of age, half aware of the pressure of society and culture around me but fully cognizant of their weight, I found myself wandering, aghast. The young people in these stories are compelling and unruly and imperfect, and perfecting heartbreaking.” Something more utilitarian to add: the stories, perhaps by dint of their young protagonists or covid fatigue in the writers room (speculation,) were also shorter than the norm. On ebook, most stories were 20-ish pages or less, whereas in previous years several were at least 40.

But anywho. An enjoyable collection overall, with the usual mix of stories I liked and stories I didn’t so much. Here’s a list of my favorites.

“The Miracle Girl” by Rita Chang-Epping (Virginia Quarterly Review): There’s a lot going on here---Chinese refugees in Taiwan, racism amongst missionary teachings, religious fervor and the realities of poverty. But I most appreciated the universal message of the main character’s desire for acceptance.

“The Rest of Us” by Jenzo Duque (One Story): Lushly detailed story of a Chicago Latinx community, particularly a group of friends, as told through the perspective of a drug dealer who grew up there. Seems to be addressing new people—gentrifiers? And a past that can’t be taken away.

“Clementine, Carmelita, Dog” by David Means (Granta): The narrator theoretically felt like a cheat, and yet somehow all of these characters—human and dog—felt alive to me. Opened up an entirely new perspective on a story about pretty normal relationships and desires.

“Paradise” by Yxta Maya Murray (The Southern Review): A timely piece on wild fires and white supremacy as experienced by a Native woman, her racist father-in-law, her dog and her kid. Also did well with backstory and describing the impending doom of the present day.

“The Last Days of Rodney” by Tracey Rose Peyton (American Short Fiction): The fictionalized life of a real person; there’s something untoward about this. And yet the character the author creates is so real, in deftly realized surroundings, and contemplating life’s issues from trauma and family relations. Plus the continuance of police violence into the modern day.

“In This Sort of World, the Asshole Wins” by Christa Romanosky (The Cincinnati Review): This character is “unlikeable” to a T. She’s both a victim and one of the assholes who wins, or survives, in her own way. There’s a master handling of past abuse and trauma, with current day mental patterns and external concerns. A dizzying read.

“Biology” by Kevin Wilson (The Southern Review): Oh wow. Not the best written, but probably my favorite. A rumination on depression, the confusion of growing up and facing your life, burgeoning queer identity, adolescent cruelty and strange relationships that can only be defined in hindsight.

“Little Beast” by C. Pam Zhang (BOMB): About the alienation of middle school, particularly with a wealth disparity between the protagonist and most others. More universally about girlhood in the age of obsession over sexualized victim stories and anorexic body types. Descriptive writing to lay out the scene without over-exposition.

And some honorable mentions…

“Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” by Jamil Jan Kochai (The New Yorker): The vignette style and abrupt ending make this story feel a little incomplete. But I can’t get over the creativity and geo-political commentary about these video games that turn ethnic groups into full-scale villains.

“Switzerland” by Nicole Krauss (The New Yorker): I wish this story was less passive and removed. But I have a keen interest in the backstory of the protagonist’s Jewish heritage.

“Haguillory” by Stephanie Soileau (Zoetrope: All-Story): Well written story about implicit racism, lack of empathy and outsized grievances. Interesting progression of cruelty to animals, from the societally accepted crabbing, to the less-so fish mutilation, to the more taboo housecat cat abuse. MC was one-dimensional though.

[Meghana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this one for its promise of offering the best short stories created during the pandemic period. I haven't tried Jesmyn Ward's work till now, but the introduction that she has provided for this collection made me sit up and take notice of it. I absolutely adored the introduction and found it one of the best parts of this collection.
Coming to the stories, all of them have deep sadness etched all over them and I can see how they would have been born during the pandemic. They perfectly complement the mood that you are in when you are isolated and you want to process the emotions that you go through in such times. This anthology is a great reflection of what the world was reeling from during the pandemic. Loneliness, sadness, ennui, the feeling of not belonging anywhere, these ugly demons were popping up in all parts of the world and they form the foundation of this collection too.

However, I found that I was not able to get into all the stories and I was struggling to keep my focus in quite a few of them. I tried to come back to them repeatedly after a few days to see if it was just my mood that was hindering me. But they still did not work for me. They were creative but something about them felt bland and lacklustre. There were a few that I loved and I kept going back to them for a re-read.
I found myself fascinated with the deep dive into a pet dog's mind in 'Clementine, Carmelita, Dog' by David Means and I was unable to shake this story from my mind. The subtle emotions that a dog may go through on being abandoned, the subsequent attachments that it forms with the family that rescues it, its nagging loyalty that makes it forgive its old family and still love them enough to run back to them on catching a whiff of their scent have been brought out exceptionally well.
Nuances of a young boy's trauma that have morphed into an unhealthy addiction to a video game in 'Playing Metal Gear Solid V' by Jamil Jan kochai was vivid in imagery and rich in emotions.
Similarly, a queer young boy's coming of age and his journey of accepting himself with the help of his teacher was beautifully captured through a snapshot of his memories in 'Biology' by Kevin Wilson.

'Paradise' by Yxta Maya Murray won my heart and senses with its vivid descriptions of the fire and evacuation process during a hurricane in a small town. It was mesmerising and filled with complex emotions and relevant social issues such as racism and classism.
Despite a few stories that were very hard to get into, I found that this entire collection was bound by vivid imagery and some gorgeous writing. I have mixed feelings about this anthology as a whole, but it did give me some beautiful stories to cherish.

Thank you, Netgalley and the publishers for sending me an e-Arc.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading the BASS anthologies over the last few years with the goal of catching up to the current year’s edition. I almost made it this year but not quite. The 2022 edition was recently published just before I finished 2021.

As with all of the BASS anthologies I've read, I found the selections to be a mixed bag, some years lots of good stories, and some years about a 50/50 mix. As I read the first two I was a bit apprehensive because they did not sit well with me. Then Our Children by Vanessa Cuti gave me hope until it got too weird. Finally, The Rest of Us by Jenzo Duque gave me a story that stirred emotions. All was not lost.

Other favorites were:
Switzerland by Nicole Krauss
Clementine, Carmelita, Dog by David Means
Good Boy by Eloghosa Osunde
The Last Days of Rodney by Tracey Rose Peyton
Haguillory by Stephanie Soileau
Palaver by Bryan Washington
Biology by Kevin Wilson

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading this annual publication of short stories because it's such a grab bag! In addition to each story being written by a different author—so by definition every one is wildly different from all the others—the guest editor who selects the stories makes a personal imprint on which ones are chosen from dozens and dozens of short stories published that year.

Guest editor Jesmyn Ward (disclosure: She is one of my favorite writers) did a masterful job choosing the stories. I suspect there is something for everyone in this collection. The problem with that is that I also suspect no one will like all (or even most) of the 20 stories. They are that eclectic!

The stories in this edition were all published between January 2020 and January 2021, and while none of them mention the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a distinct undercurrent of melancholy, disillusionment, and even desolation in many of the stories. This isn't an upbeat collection, so much so that I could read only a few stories at a time. They were just so sad!

My favorites:
• "The Miracle Girl," by Rita Chang-Eppig: Xio Chun, a pretty and smart Chinese girl whose family fled from the mainland to Taiwan and then were forced to join the Roman Catholic Church if they wanted enough food, experiences a stigmata that results in worldwide attention. But lost in all this is the younger sister, Xiao Xue, who suffers so much when she is treated as a mere afterthought.

• "Our Children," by Vanessa Cuti: This is the story of a couple who divorced their spouses to marry each other. They share custody of the two children they each had in their previous marriages. During a family trip with all the kids to a remote cabin in the woods, the new wife has horrifying fantasies that she acts on—or does she?

• "Switzerland," by Nicole Krauss: A middle-aged American woman recalls a year she spent in a Swiss school and the two other students with whom she shared a boarding house. One of them, an Iranian named Soraya, lashed out at her family and religion's restrictions by dating men—lots of them. And then one day, the unthinkable happens…

• "Clementine, Carmelita, Dog," by David Means: The premise of this short story is simple: Clementine, a middle-aged dachshund, is abandoned by her owner, adopted by a new family, and then finds her original human in the end. What makes this so special is that it is told from the point of view of the dog. I loved this! (And I don't even like dogs all that much.)

• "Palaver," by Bryan Washington: A young black gay man moves to a suburb of Tokyo to escape his Texas family and their disdain for who he is. His mother visits, and he makes her a deal: For every story he tells, she must give him one of her own.

• "Biology," by Kevin Wilson: A man sees in the newspaper an obituary for his favorite teacher, Mr. Reynolds, who taught him 8th grade biology, and that prompts a flood of memories.

This is a collection of highly creative, literary short stories by both popular and relatively unknown authors. Almost all of them are brilliant, but they are also deeply sad. While not a single one is uplifting, there are glimpses of hope and redemption for a future that won't be as conflicted as the past.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorites:

- Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Jamil Jan Kochai
- Switzerland, Nicole Krauss
- Portrait of Two Young Ladies in White and Green Robes (Unidentified Artist, circa Sixteenth Century), Jane Pek
- Biology, Kevin Wilson

[Stephanie ~~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful. From beginning to end, such a gorgeous buffet of short stories taken from the authors we appreciate for their brilliant word craft. Short story collections from top tier authors remind me of a pastry tasting of a bite here, a nibble there, only the best of the best and we're allowed to sample each author at their finest.

Brutally brilliant. Each and every single short story. ~ (thank you for sharing J, I loved it).

[Kit Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great:
Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Jamil Jan Kochai. Excellent. Sudden terror at recognizing his father in a video game, about the desparate wish to change the past, and the immutability of the present. Uses the second person well, which is hard to do.

The Rest of Us, Jenzo Duque. Excellent .A story about the projects that doesn’t feel like exploitation and doesn’t have false optimism, with a lived-in language of spanglish.

Biology, Kevin Wilson. Seizes on an oft-overlooked milestone; the first time an adult treats someone as a future adult and future peer. The moments that make life less alone and more unique. Done beautifully and with care and with a lot of unexpected bends in the road.

Palaver, Bryan Washington. Thoughtful and quiet and fragile. A love that isn’t expressed is still there and still makes a difference.

Escape from the Dysphesiac People, Brandon Hobson. Excellent. The experiences of marginalized communities lend themselves to becoming horror narratives, and this lets the horror of residence schools and the policies of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” breathe.

Love Letter, George Saunders. Full of love and fear and an understanding of how the two can feed another during times of trouble. This is a Saunders who is too afraid to make jokes, which means it’s not him at peak performance.

Switzerland, Nicole Krauss. Dangerous girl at a Swiss boarding school is an aspiration, then a cautionary tale. Firm prose and illustrative of how people we meet stay with us even if we lose contact with them

Good:

The Miracle Girl, Rita Chang-Eppig. Very good. Takes a very recognizable dynamic (overachieving older sister vs. underachieving younger syister) and adds one confounding element: mysticism. What are you to do when older sister isn’t just mom’s favorite or teacher’s favorite but g-d’s? exposes the racism of missionary schools but doesn’t linger or stop the momentum of the story

You Are My Dear Friend, Madhuri Vijay. Unpredictable and taut like a rubber band, when it snaps you barely hear it.

Paradise, Yxta Maya Murray. Unafraid, daring, full of action spots and social discomfort with a sudden ending that provokes.

A Way With Bea, Shanteka Sigers. A very interesting form, taking advantage of negative space, trusting you to fill the gaps through close observation the same way the teacher reaches out to a student through that same observation.

Little Beast, C Pam Zhang. Horrifying tale of wanting to impress and assert yourself having shocking results.

In This Sort of World, The Asshole Wins, Christa Romanosky. Destruction and rage dominate this and pulse through it, and then almost as suddenly moments of love and tenderness poke through like a beak from an egg.

Alright:

Good Boy, Eloghosa Osunde Lively, and ultimately triumphant, story of a Lagos boy who has achieved personal freedom.

Our Children, Vanessa Cuti. Playful in the way its repressed narrator indulges a weird harmful fantasy that she ultimately doesn’t act on.

Minorly flawed:

The Last Days of Rodney, Tracey Rose Peyton. Decent, but the use of Rodney King’s name and history for a completely fictional day in the life vignette feels like a shortcut.

Haguillory, Stephanie Soileau. Has the same mechanism and structure as a vulgar joke. Good as far as jokes go, but there is a ceiling on these things.

Portrait of Two Young Ladies in White and Green Robes (Unidentified Artist, circa Sixteenth Century), Jane Pek. Disappointed with how aimless this felt, when the same author with the same concept spun marvels last year. Then again, it’s a little troubling that this was so similar to The Nine-Tailed Fox Explains. This reads like a failed draft of the former.

Majorly flawed:
Clementine, Carmelita, Dog, David Means. Attempts to translate for a dog’s point of view, but is full of clunky fourth wall apologies. The dog in question isn’t terribly observant or curious about its two human owners, and the result is a story that is basically purposefully hiding from the world at large.

To Buffalo Eastward, Gabriel Bump. Plug And Chug MFA story. Narrator is a cypher, so any choice he makes count as growth. Hallucinogens are introduced to give non-sequiturs cheap profundity. Flippant allusions to classics to prove he did the reading and isn’t impressed. All sheen, no substance, just a ball of saran wrap.

[Kate Laws · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love the Best American series but I think this year was particularly good. There are some really exceptional stories in this collection.

[Trish Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection. In her introduction, Editor Jesmyn Ward writes: “I hope that as you sink into world after world, become character after character in these stellar stories, you can forget yourself, and then, upon surfacing, know yourself and others anew.” These stories deliver on this promise, introducing readers to places and people and circumstances far and wide. My personal favorites were Miracle Girl and Switzerland. But excellence abounds and I enjoyed this collection immensely. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars is supposed to mean "It was okay." That's not what I found here. Mostly, these were pretty grim stories. I was relieved to read Kevin Wilson's "Biology" because it was a wonderful story and I am not generally all that impressed with that author, so a pleasant surprise. I liked three other stories. Some I found myself skimming and one, a fictionalization of Rodney King's life post-beating, was exploitative in precisely the way the story attempts to dramatize. I did not need to read that story to appreciate how the man became a myth and was used and abused.

In other stories I did not love, I found characters of color in stories that might have been written more expertly by Raymond Chandler. There were so very many pseudo-Chandler stories I suffered through in the 1990s. These are better than most, but since I'm not a great Chandler fan, this is not exactly a recommendation.

The result was that I dreaded reading this book, put it down, picked it up, suffered through a depressing hard-boiled, down-and-out story designed to appeal to affluent others. And then put it down again. I have BASS anthologies back to 1980. Once in a while, the stories are completely wrong for me as a reader. (And some are perfection—Raymond Chandler's 1986 was great, providing marvelous stories from a range of sources. The entire decade of the 1990s was great. As another example, Mosely introduced a rich shift away from The New Yorker in 2003, which I much appreciated. Kingsolver focused on wealthy expats in 2001, which I enjoyed less.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this three stars, but with how that very last story made me feel I don't think I can. There are 20 short stories in this book, and they vary greatly in genre and quality. When I first started reading I thought it was alright, but then it got to be a slog to get through. I think the second to last story, Biology, is my favorite, but then the very last story, Little Beast, just made me angry.

There are a few gems in here, but there are also stories that I absolutely do not understand the point of. Several stories seem to be people acting evil for no rhyme or reason, no consequences, and I cannot figure out what the message is supposed to be.

For me this title was just very misleading. Claiming that these stories are the best of the year is high praise, but unfortunately it just could not live up to it.

[Laureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short stories are not my thing. Part of the problem is that I did these on my Kindle, which I usually read at night in bed. As a result, I did not read all of them straight through and starting and stopping on a short story is tough. You are never far enough in to remember everything that is going on and it makes for a more disjointed read. Some of the ones I read straight through and those were definitely easier to stay with. In addition, some stories I liked more than others. One I gave up on.

[Jeatherhane Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I knew in advance that a book would be dark and depressing before I start reading it. Life itself is dark and depressing enough, I don't need a reminder from fiction.
These stories seem to all be about drugs, poverty, abuse and neglect. I did not read them all, and I probably won't. I want fiction that creates the illusion that life is good.
I will say that the Foreword and Introduction were excellent. I received a free advance copy of this book from NetGalley.

[Sydney · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is no way that these are the best short stories that America has to offer. All of them were depressing. The characters were needlessly, and unrealistically, cruel. Would it kill the judges to allow at least one happy story? Bitter sweet, even? If your mental health is already on the decline, don’t bother picking up this book. It will just make you feel worse.

[Jason]

There’s one in here where a middle school teacher/war veteran challenges a teenage girl to a game of basketball in front of the whole school and it is THE BEST ONE

It’s all really wonderful though.

[Allan Beatty · Rating 1 out of 5]

You would think, if you read a couple of dozen stories, a couple would leave an impression. I couldn’t tell you the plot of any of them. Usually when done I just thought “what’s the point?”.

[Terri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't care much for these. No wonder they got picked for the book...I didn't understand or like many of them. Not my cup of tea, I guess.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not yet finished but as I am reading these stories intermittently I want to post on them when they are fresh in my mind.

To Buffalo Eastward by Gabriel Bump follows a young man on a road trip. A young woman he had been with is marrying another and he is searching for…something. Stopping overnight in Cleveland he falls in with a few strangers at a bar that leads to a night of silliness, drugs, and light breaking and entering.

The Miracle Girl by Rita Chang-Eppig seems very familiar. But having been published in a small literary magazine I do not know how that could be so. It tells the story of two young girls in Taiwan after the communist revolution in China. The girls go to a Catholic charity school and the older has been blessed /afflicted with a stigmata that is bringing a great deal of exposure to the community and jealousy from her younger sister.

Our Children by Vanessa Cuti is unsettling to say the least. Narrated by a woman who admits she left her first husband because she did not know what marriage was supposed to be. Now with another husband she feels no happier. Each with two children every other weekend becomes a circus of young people. On a weekend when they take the kids, aged 7, 7, 6, and 5 camping she wakes up in a contagious fever dream. She wants to leave the children in the wild and escape with her husband back to civilization with no responsibility. They do so, leaving the kids sleeping and driving home to a night of drinking and mobile sex. Fortunately she wakes up before dawn and races back to the campground to find the children still sleeping,
no worse for ware or imbibed with the knowledge of what she almost did

The Rest of Us by Jenzo Duque follows four young Hispanic boys in the Chicago projects who grow up together. This is such a foreign experience for someone like me it is hard to read it as enjoyable fiction. It is crazy that the place described is normal for so many people.

Escape From The Dysphesiac People by Brandon Hobson : Definitely harder story to connect with. Our narrator is an Indian boy who has been removed from his home and family and placed on a work camp of sorts with other Indigenous people. The white men who run it seem to speak a different language, English but broken with lots of guttural exclamations. One wonders if what we are reading is not so much what they say but what our young man hears from their accents. As he sleeps he is visited by ghosts of those Indians who walked the Trail of Tears long ago. They tell him to escape which he does. Odd, interesting, but tough to connect with

Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain by Jamil Jan Kachai : A teenage boy is excited to get the newest version of his favorite video game. His parents, Afghani refugees now in the states do not approve but he cannot help himself. When he begins playing the game he realizes the world of the game is in Afghanistan. Using free play mode he travels to his fathers village and in face sees a younger version of his Father, and his deceased Uncle ( whom he never met). He attempts to save them from the Russian invaders.

Switzerland by Nicole Krauss : A woman recalls her time spent in a Swiss boarding school. Arriving late that year she ended up staying in a house with two older girls and the house’s matron. The girls eighteen were both very kind but she observed things, the way the older girls acted. Soraya was a girl who already had bad habits with men. She exerted her control by giving it up. A fairly dark story.

Clementine, Carmelita, Dog by David Means : One can find thousands, countless books and stories with anamorphic animals. That is why this story of a dog, narrated by a human in what he calls his best translation of what a dog feels is so special. Clementine is a Daschound that lives with Norman. Through her memory of smells we learn that Norman is a widower and is very sad. When Clementine gets lost in the park one day after chasing a rabbit she is adopted by another family. Eventually he finds her way back to Norman. Told in a delightfully descriptive way.

Paradise by Yxta Maya Murray : Excellent narrative about a middle aged Native American woman escaping from the Paradise fire with her racist 80 year old father in law and her young daughter. Fast moving and compelling

Eloghosa Osunda writes “ Good Boy. I found it to be just about unreadable.

Portrait of Two Young Ladies in White and Green Robes by Jane Pek : Interesting story narrated by a an immortal spirit. Back in the sixteenth century two spirits were painted. Now centuries later our narrator, the one spirit, remembers the choice her friend made, to give up her immortal life to marry a human and have a child. She died and her friend has missed and regretted that for centuries though she has tracked the descendant of that human child.

The Last Days of Rodney by Tracey Rose Peyton : Excellent take on the days before the end of Rodney King’s life. A fictionalized account certainly but one that feels like it could well be true.

In This Sort of World, the Asshole Wins by Christa Romansky : This is another story that, while it’s perspective inevitably has merit, did not work for me. Telling the tale of a young woman widowed by drugs she herself is still using and not being a great mother. Fortunately her parents have her and her toddler son living with them but they are at the end of their rope with her.

Love Letter by George Saunders : I had read this when it originally published and it’s impact has not lessened one bit. Simply marvellously done. At a point sometime in the future a grandfather is writing to his grandson. He is offering advice on a moral decision the grandson is having to consider regarding friends of his. Moreover though, he is answering the grandsons rebuke of how his grandparents ( and their generation) allowed America to sink into the fascist system it exists in at the time of the story’s unfolding. Clearly a rebuke to both the Trump administration and, perhaps even more, those on the left who could not be bothered to act to stop it. Prescient then. Even more prescient now.

A Way With Bea by Shanteka Sigers : Excellent story of a high school teacher haunted by one of her children. The girl Bea comes from a very tough home. The sort where the school knows there is no use in sending communication home to parents. Our teacher is just glad when she shows up, whatever her state. Her attempts to reach her are so relatable

Haguillory by Stephanie Soileau: Strong story that is all about the vibe and environment of New Orleans. A bit dark.

You Are My Dear Friend by Madhuri Vijay : Geeta is a 29 year old au pair working for an English couple in India. They treat her very well. After her parents were killed in an accident she had been raised by nuns in an orphanage. At a party her employers have an older Indian man takes note of her. A relationship develops. It becomes unhappy. She discovers
she cannot have children. They adopt. That does not work out well either

Palaver by Bryan Washington has a black man, a gay man, has his Mother visiting in Japan. The man tells her pieces of his history, some of it shocking to her. She does not reciprocate as he would like but we, as the reader
, are told what she is thinking in the vein of “ she didn’t tell him that ….”

Biology by Kevin Wilson : A very strong story. A man sees on Facebook one night that his favorite teacher, his eighth grade biology teacher, has passed away. Seeing this man as he appeared twenty some odd years ago to him brings a profound sadness. He thinks of who he himself was at that time. An unhappy, confused, unpopular boy. And the kindness of the teacher made a difference even though, as even he as a boy observed, the teachers life was not all that he might have wanted. Now, older, happy, he realizes that he cannot make his partner understand his feelings about that teacher. As a reader I also feel his feelings with the teacher also bring sadness remembering the pain of his life then. As he writes “ And eventually I stopped thinking so much about Mr. Reynolds, because thinking about him meant thinking about that time in my life. And he just sat there, in this little tiny piece of my heart. And he never changed either. And now he was dead.”

Little Beast by C Pam Zhang : A dark story. A young teen girl is a scholarship student at a progressive school. Her father is the night janitor and at times he mortified her. Her Mother died giving birth to her and it has always been just them, her Father always attempting to do his best by her. At this school most of the students are extremely privileged and while they are not unkind to her their solicitousness feels unkind to her. She gravitates to a ground of troubled students. To be accepted there however she has to have issues that fit. Cutting herself, is not enough. Eventually she tells untrue stories a out her father. This leads to a bad, if unfinished as to the story ending.

For me, without a doubt, the stories by David Means, George Saunders, and Kevin Wilson are far and away superior to anything else in the collection.

[HB · Rating 3 out of 5]

TL;DR:

1. George Saunders's "Love Letter" is the best piece.
2. Admittedly, I skipped nine of the 20 stories here; either the first paragraph completely turned me off, or the first page didn't grab me, and a quick skim and glance at the last page didn't convince me to give those nine a shot.

Why I Read This
I always think I'll like most of the pieces in The Best American Short Stories collections. It's usually a toss-up.

Five-Star Stories
"Clementine, Carmelita, Dog"
Solid plot and interesting perspective. I'm still curious who the human narrator is.

"Love Letter"
I do love George Saunders. This is a haunting piece, clearly written either during, or in memory of the mindset of, the autumn of 2020 in America. The letter itself is sweet and thoughtful, rambling believably, offering little nuggets of time-won wisdom, sometimes sentimental, sometimes funny. There are hints of the presence of a sharper mind than Gramps is letting on; maybe the written letter is old-fashioned or simply a bit paranoid, but maybe it's sagely pragmatic. Even the early bit about geese and blue mugs turns into a point later. But that ending!

"Biology"
I skipped around, and this was the last story I read, so by mere chance I got to end with one of my favorites of this collection. This is the epitome of a great short story: in less than 20 pages, we have well-defined characters who are easy to identify with and care about; things happen that make sense, with clear catalysts, complete arcs, and sensible conclusions; and the story itself doesn't require the kind of world-building that a short story doesn't have time for. Patrick's "Death Cards" game reminds me of a much darker, far more plausible version of the little tiles you pull in The Game of Life.


Four-Star Stories
"The Rest of Us"
Just gritty enough to feel authentic without being ostentatiously graphic. What happened to Ricky?

"Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain"
This feels like a longer story that was edited into a short one, in the best way.

Three-Star Stories
"Our Children"
Reconfirming that I never want kids, not that I was looking to reconfirm that.

"Switzerland"
Bildungsromans as short stories rarely work for me. This one fell predictably flat.

"Paradise"
Neil Gaiman's collection Trigger Warning includes a story called "A Calendar of Tales: August Tale", which could have been the inspiration for this one, except this is more a tale of deep, simmering grievances than sudden engulfing flames. Honestly, I was annoyed by the end of it; lots of set-up but no action. It felt like the excerpt from a longer story that might actually be worth reading.

Two-Star Stories
"To Buffalo Eastward"
Feels like a semi-autobiographical retelling of a random road trip encounter, except so hyperbolized that it's pretty implausible, but also just banal enough that really, at least make an effort if you're going to lie about the random hookers you maybe-did-maybe-didn't meet.

"The Miracle Girl"
This feels like a longer, better story that got the life and moral edited out of it.

One-Star Stories
"You Are My Dear Friend"
Nothing happens. Geeta sucks; Geeta's husband is an asshole; Geeta's sort-of daughter is a calculating bitch; Geeta's "dear friend" is a chick she barely knows, whose sad-sack existence ultimately got Geeta shived in her own house. Is there a point? I was sort of reminded of The Bad Seed, like maybe this was going that way, but then nothing happened and a condo building went up. The end.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

General Thoughts:
This is an eclectic (and strong) mix of stories. From stories about family grief and imperialism through the lens of a video game, to stories about individuals who struggle to define their worth outside of how they can be of use to others, all roads lead to the interior in this collection (which feels emblematic of the world at large and lockdown tbh)

My personal Top Five from the anthology (in no particular order):
-Jamal Jan Kochai’s “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain”
-Eloghosa Osunde’s “Good Boy”
-Shantra Sigers’, “A Way With Bea”
-Rita Chang-Eppig’s “The Miracle Girl”
-Yxta Maya Murray’s “Paradise”
-Jane Pek’s “Portrait of Two Young Ladies in White and Green Robes (Unidentified Artist, circa Sixteenth Century)”

Petty Grievance:
George Saunders' "Love Letter" was a bit of a letdown for me. There's a clear reaching towards interacting with civil unrest and responses to recent protests, but because the story remains intentionally vague, it feels untethered and loses some of its resonance. Ironically, the refusal to provide any specificity prevented this story from feeling broadly applicable.

[Camille24 (camilleisreading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I look forward to these collections every year! It's always a great opportunity to discover new authors and I find that each guest editor has a different taste/flair in picking stories. Perhaps fitting for the year defined by a global pandemic and a contentious election that was defined as a battle for the soul of the nation, many of these stories are dark. I found it difficult to read some of the stories, since 2020 left me wanting to feel hopeful. Standouts in the collection are "The Miracle Girl" by Rita Chang-Eppig, "Escape from the Dysphesiac People" by Brandon Hobson, and "Love Letter" by George Saunders. My absolute favorite story was "Switzerland" by Nicole Krauss. I love stories told by someone looking back on their childhood understanding of the world and people in it with the added wisdom of adulthood. If you typically enjoy the best American short story collections, you should pick this one up.