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The Best American Short Stories 2022
A collection of the year’s best short stories, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer and series editor Heidi Pitlor.
Andrew Sean Greer, “an exceptionally lovely writer, capable of mingling humor with sharp poignancy” ( Washington Post), selects twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.
Andrew Sean Greer, “an exceptionally lovely writer, capable of mingling humor with sharp poignancy” ( Washington Post), selects twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2022
611 people are currently reading
4041 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Sean Greer
33 books3,161 followersAndrew Sean Greer (born 1970) is an American novelist and short story writer.
He is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage, which The New York Times has called an “inspired, lyrical novel,” and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named one of the best books of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and received a California Book Award.
The child of two scientists, Greer studied writing with Robert Coover and Edmund White at Brown University, where he was the commencement speaker at his own graduation, where his unrehearsed remarks, critiquing Brown's admissions policies, caused a semi-riot. After years in New York working as a chauffeur, theater tech, television extra and unsuccessful writer, he moved to Missoula, Montana, where he received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Montana, from where he soon moved to Seattle and two years later to San Francisco where he now lives. He is currently a fellow at the New York Public Library Cullman Center. He is an identical twin.
While in San Francisco, he began to publish in magazines before releasing a collection of his stories, How It Was for Me. His stories have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and other national publications, and have been anthologized most recently in The Book of Other People, and The PEN/ O. Henry Prize Stories 2009. His first novel, The Path of Minor Planets, was published in 2001.
He is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage, which The New York Times has called an “inspired, lyrical novel,” and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named one of the best books of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and received a California Book Award.
The child of two scientists, Greer studied writing with Robert Coover and Edmund White at Brown University, where he was the commencement speaker at his own graduation, where his unrehearsed remarks, critiquing Brown's admissions policies, caused a semi-riot. After years in New York working as a chauffeur, theater tech, television extra and unsuccessful writer, he moved to Missoula, Montana, where he received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Montana, from where he soon moved to Seattle and two years later to San Francisco where he now lives. He is currently a fellow at the New York Public Library Cullman Center. He is an identical twin.
While in San Francisco, he began to publish in magazines before releasing a collection of his stories, How It Was for Me. His stories have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and other national publications, and have been anthologized most recently in The Book of Other People, and The PEN/ O. Henry Prize Stories 2009. His first novel, The Path of Minor Planets, was published in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 183 reviews
January 6, 2023
Best American Short stories 2022 -- The math says the aggregate is 3.775.
A Ravishing Sun by Leslie Blanco – 2.5 stars
From New Letters
Student work – checks all the boxes for 2022 short stories: a whiff of autofiction; extreme white privilege viewed from the perspective of a Latinx partner (points for the ironic juxtaposition of having a BF with Peter Pan syndrome and also a father scared by his escape from Cuba in Operation Pedro Pan); a narrator whose clear mental illness makes her unreliable. In fact she careens between going off on white BFs "irresponsibility" (the evidence of this is that he is able to enjoy his life) and letting us know that BF is actually taking care of everything while she huddles in corners dealing with her trauma (a trauma he also suffered.) Basically, the narrator is a mess and I felt bad for everyone she came into contact with. If she had redeeming characteristics, it would have made for a stronger story. I like plenty of autofiction, but the form is better deployed by writers like Claire Vaye Watkins, Karl Ove Knausgard, and Rachel Cusk, all of whom Blanco has clearly read.
The Little Widow from the Capital
Yohanca Delgado – 5-stars
From The Paris Review
Utterly charming while also being a little scary. Loved the character development in this one. Delgado provides exactly the right details so you are there.
Man of the House
Kim Coleman Foote - 3.5 stars
From Ecotone
I liked about ¾ of this story a great deal. Foote uses a subtle hand in imbuing the story of Jeb, a New Jersey garbage man, abusive to his wife, children, and partners and generally a spectacular asshole, with the legacies of the Great Migration. I had some issues with the structure – I am not sure why so much time was spent at the beginning on the junk Jeb left at his mother’s house, his detritus/folk art garbage salvages, and his difficult relationship with his sister. The later part of the story, Jeb's time in the South and the exploration of Jeb’s relationships with the women and children in his life all worked, but I felt like the beginning belonged to another story. Still totally worthwhile reading
The Wind by Lauren Groff - 5-stars
From The New Yorker
I have had mixed feelings about a lot of Groff’s work. On the one hand her writing is beautiful. On the other hand she is cold as ice, recognizing and analyzing the things that make people human, but doing so at a distance so great it can feel like you are in another galaxy. On the one hand she has interesting insights. On the other hand she seems to sort of hate people. She finds the most negative interpretation of every situation and every person. That lack of dimension, that distance, the rejection of the possibility of even a shred of goodness, often makes for really unsatisfying reading in the end. But! Boy did I like this story. Don’t get me wrong. It is bleak. This story of a girl trying to hold her family together while jettisoning her violent father whose presence is a daily threat to her mother’s life. I won’t say more about the events, but it is a heartbreaking story that also has a propulsive storyline in a style more often found in thrillers than in examination of the costs of domestic violence. The whole is engrossing and affecting and unlike any Groff I have read before, it does not maintain too much distance and it maybe even has a (very tiny) shred of hope.
The Hollow by Greg Jackson - 3-stars
From The New Yorker
For the most part I enjoyed reading this story of two men who had known each other as boys and who reconnect briefly as adults. That said, I am not quite sure I know why I was reading it, what was the point? Different versions of failed performative masculinity?, Jack went for very conventional indicia of success, but was too big a jerk to make it work, and Valente walked away from the role of popular jock to become a surfer/hipster mashup. Valente seemed generally curious about the world but was ridiculous, and seemed to have no sense of how the world works. He idolizes Van Gogh, who shared those traits and so his future is clearly not bright. Jack was totally self-involved and so he dealt better with the world and was able to get what he wanted. Maybe that was the point? That the worst of us are the ones able to live in this world. The story had lots of intriguing elements that did not seem to gel. Also, I sort of hated the ending.
Detective Dog by Gish Jen - 5-stars
From The New Yorker
I hardcore loved this story about racism and cultural norms and the dissonance between keeping our families safe and doing what is right. The story is touching and wise and funny and terrifying. I have never read Gish Jen, though I have had 2 of her books on my tbr for some time, but now I will absolutely read more. This story was just great.
Sugar Island by Claire Luchette - 2-stars
From Ploughshares
Why? There were elements of humor and pathos in the story set forth well and effectively. “Joan’s love language was gift-giving. Maggie’s was gift-receiving.” Super pithy but in service of what? For me the whole story was a big nothing.
The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken - 5-stars
From Harper's
Bloody lovely. Filled with wonder and grief and longing, and a gentle but realistic portrait of what it means to be a parent, a daughter a girlfriend and a wife. Also, it is funnier than I can recall McCracken ever being before. Not comic, but wryly and observantly funny.
Post by Alice McDermott - 1.5-star
From One Story
Alice McDermott is one of those writers everyone but I seem to love. I am missing something, but I swear I go into every book/story with goodwill. I sort of hated this story. I don’t know, maybe in 20 years this will constitute an interesting chronicle of Covid times. At this moment though, it basically seems like an uninflected diary of a pretty boring New Yorker in late 2020. It has only been two years since I was a pretty boring New Yorker in 2020 so that offers me nothing. There is literally not one insightful moment here. One sec, it implies Covid makes weed smell bad and I have not heard anyone else mention that. Does that count as insightful? There are passages of beautiful prose but it is just not enough.
Bears Among the Living by Kevin Moffett - 5 stars
From McSweeney's
I loved this disjointed and funny look at how losing a father when young changes a boy forever, making him perhaps a different man that he should have been. Does it make that man build a life that looks like others tell him it should even though he only feels trapped? The story comes together from what appears at first to be a series of jokes of the observational deadpan variety but has surprising, bracing, depth and real pathos. It has the writing that makes me gasp in awe, and yet it is totally relatable, and uncomfortably touching.
Soon the Light by Gina Ochsner - 1-star
From Ploughshares
This was, um, atmospheric. I hated it. A colorless social horror Twilight Zone/Anne of Green Gables mashup that is the world’s dullest examination of good and evil. Step away from the symbolism, Gina. I get that the boy is whiter than white (perhaps albino) so that the one indigenous person can announce that white is the color of evil, but it took a lot of work for Gina to get to what I am sure she saw as an excellent zinger.
Mbiu Dash by Okwiri Oduor - 5-stars
From Granta
I can’t really talk about this story without spoiling things, but what I can say is that it is about need and longing for connection and structure, and what happens to a person (Mbiu. her mother, and Mr. Man) when structure collapses and community goes down with it. The story speaks to how shifts around us, shifts we have no power to affect, utterly change our lives in ways that drive us mad. Oduor captures the dissonance that comes from following the rules, and then having the rules change. It is that dissonance that drives and perpetuates rape, theft, murder and homelessness. This is set in Kenya, where that happened in dramatic fashion – shifts in government allegiance from USSR to US changed the structure of life in Kenya. The story is, like Kenya, fractured and I thought that really enhanced this story.
The Meeting by Alix Ohlin - 4.5 stars
From Virginia Quarterly Review
I work in a field where I am sunk into the startup economy every day. This story reflects well a couple of the most common founder types, and reinforces that the good ones, the ones who are trying to do the right thing, are doomed. I think Ohlin did a good job of showing the costs to everyone in that ecosystem of the ecosystem itself and how even the best version of capitalism fails people
The Beyoglu Municipality Waste-Management Orchestra by Kenan Orhan - 4.5 stars
From The Paris Review
This was the story of a Turk I have never met or read about, a civil servant whose main goal appears to be remaining unseen. Fatima is a garbage collector who winds the alleyways of Istanbul keeping her head down and following the rules. That is until she sees in the garbage at the home of a composer on her route, a succession of instruments of every sort. Against all the rules Fatima begins taking these items from the trash (strictly forbidden because it shows a desire for things, which is apparently a bad thing.) Searching for a place to hide this collection she finds a heretofore unseen attic. And where there is space and materials there will be artists. The rest follows from there. Art and hope as resistance. Its pretty lovely until the state finds a way to crush it and then it is not lovely at all. This feels real and both personal and political.
The Ghost Birds by Karen Russell - 2 stars
From The New Yorker
I loved Swamplandia, but I have not loved anything of Karen Russell’s I have read since, and with this that streak continues. Dystopian yadda yadda that reads like hundreds of other novels and stories with a backwash of parenting angst. One other thing that bugged me, Russell crafts lovely sentences, but there was SO MUCH exposition in the story. I am not a hater of exposition, I cringe when people recite that freshman comp maxim, show don’t tell, as if it some universal truth. Some of my favorite books are almost entirely exposition. But here there was so much unnecessary exposition about the place and time where this is set that it brought down the whole.
Mr. Ashok's Monument by Sanjena Sathian - 5 stars
From Conjunctions
Well I love me some satire done well, and this qualifies. The utter ridiculousness of the cooptation of the concept of “values” by both government and the 24-hour news cycle is thrown into relief. There are competing goals and actual ethics go out the window. This India set story could not be more universal. Pitch black comedy wrapped in very good storytelling.
Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers - 5-stars
From Joyland
Too say this story of simmering passion and escape from the quotidian is relatable for me is a ridiculous understatement. It is just perfect.
The Sins of Others by Héctor Tobar - 3-stars
From Zyzzyva
It has long been accepted in China that rich people can hire poor people as “body doubles” to serve their sentences. (I wrote my Senior Thesis on comparative corrections policies between the US and China and though this was not strictly relevant it came up in my research and I was obsessed and read all I could.) So why am I relating this? Well this story is about a man who mows down his wife in a fit of rage. Though he feels bad about that, jail does not fit with his plans so he hires a mechanic to do his time. The actual assailant, Karl, appears to be a White American guy, and the man he hires, Juan, is undocumented and Hispanic. In this book's United States such deals are permissible. More things happen to Juan and Karl and their families I am assuming this is a metaphor for Americans hiring undocumented workers to do the shit work no one wants to do and how that breaks down both the oppressed and the oppressors. Honestly, I don’t think I fully understood this story, but it was nonetheless generally engrossing and enjoyable to read so I am going with a 3.
Elephant Seals by Meghan Louise Wagner - 3-stars
From Agni
To be fair this is not my type of story. Two people, Paul and Diana, are leading totally different lives in various parallel universes. Essentially this is a futuristic sliding doors setup. In every universe their lives intersect, sometimes happily sometimes less so. What I do not understand is how we know these people are the same people in each universe. The static defining characteristic in each universe are a traumatic childhood event, though certain other events exist in more than one period. Who said one Paul or one Diana is the same as the others? The thing that distinguishes each from the elephant seal is the lack of destiny. I think I understood the story, I think it was lovely to read, but I perhaps don’t wonder about the things the ideal reader for this story wonders about.
Foster by Bryan Washington - 5-stars
From The New Yorker
This is all about how we keep ourselves safe by keeping others at a distance. Not a surprising choice for someone whose investment in people has not been rewarded in the past. Here it is the MC’s lover and brother who are being kept at a distance mostly though entropy. He and his brother don’t fight, they just “don’t talk.” His lover suggests moving in together, and MC just grunts noncommittally staving off a discussion that would likely flow from saying yes or no. Then the MC ends up fostering a cat for his brother and things begin to change. Pets don’t let you say no to commitment, and once one brick falls others follow.
A Ravishing Sun by Leslie Blanco – 2.5 stars
From New Letters
Student work – checks all the boxes for 2022 short stories: a whiff of autofiction; extreme white privilege viewed from the perspective of a Latinx partner (points for the ironic juxtaposition of having a BF with Peter Pan syndrome and also a father scared by his escape from Cuba in Operation Pedro Pan); a narrator whose clear mental illness makes her unreliable. In fact she careens between going off on white BFs "irresponsibility" (the evidence of this is that he is able to enjoy his life) and letting us know that BF is actually taking care of everything while she huddles in corners dealing with her trauma (a trauma he also suffered.) Basically, the narrator is a mess and I felt bad for everyone she came into contact with. If she had redeeming characteristics, it would have made for a stronger story. I like plenty of autofiction, but the form is better deployed by writers like Claire Vaye Watkins, Karl Ove Knausgard, and Rachel Cusk, all of whom Blanco has clearly read.
The Little Widow from the Capital
Yohanca Delgado – 5-stars
From The Paris Review
Utterly charming while also being a little scary. Loved the character development in this one. Delgado provides exactly the right details so you are there.
Man of the House
Kim Coleman Foote - 3.5 stars
From Ecotone
I liked about ¾ of this story a great deal. Foote uses a subtle hand in imbuing the story of Jeb, a New Jersey garbage man, abusive to his wife, children, and partners and generally a spectacular asshole, with the legacies of the Great Migration. I had some issues with the structure – I am not sure why so much time was spent at the beginning on the junk Jeb left at his mother’s house, his detritus/folk art garbage salvages, and his difficult relationship with his sister. The later part of the story, Jeb's time in the South and the exploration of Jeb’s relationships with the women and children in his life all worked, but I felt like the beginning belonged to another story. Still totally worthwhile reading
The Wind by Lauren Groff - 5-stars
From The New Yorker
I have had mixed feelings about a lot of Groff’s work. On the one hand her writing is beautiful. On the other hand she is cold as ice, recognizing and analyzing the things that make people human, but doing so at a distance so great it can feel like you are in another galaxy. On the one hand she has interesting insights. On the other hand she seems to sort of hate people. She finds the most negative interpretation of every situation and every person. That lack of dimension, that distance, the rejection of the possibility of even a shred of goodness, often makes for really unsatisfying reading in the end. But! Boy did I like this story. Don’t get me wrong. It is bleak. This story of a girl trying to hold her family together while jettisoning her violent father whose presence is a daily threat to her mother’s life. I won’t say more about the events, but it is a heartbreaking story that also has a propulsive storyline in a style more often found in thrillers than in examination of the costs of domestic violence. The whole is engrossing and affecting and unlike any Groff I have read before, it does not maintain too much distance and it maybe even has a (very tiny) shred of hope.
The Hollow by Greg Jackson - 3-stars
From The New Yorker
For the most part I enjoyed reading this story of two men who had known each other as boys and who reconnect briefly as adults. That said, I am not quite sure I know why I was reading it, what was the point? Different versions of failed performative masculinity?, Jack went for very conventional indicia of success, but was too big a jerk to make it work, and Valente walked away from the role of popular jock to become a surfer/hipster mashup. Valente seemed generally curious about the world but was ridiculous, and seemed to have no sense of how the world works. He idolizes Van Gogh, who shared those traits and so his future is clearly not bright. Jack was totally self-involved and so he dealt better with the world and was able to get what he wanted. Maybe that was the point? That the worst of us are the ones able to live in this world. The story had lots of intriguing elements that did not seem to gel. Also, I sort of hated the ending.
Detective Dog by Gish Jen - 5-stars
From The New Yorker
I hardcore loved this story about racism and cultural norms and the dissonance between keeping our families safe and doing what is right. The story is touching and wise and funny and terrifying. I have never read Gish Jen, though I have had 2 of her books on my tbr for some time, but now I will absolutely read more. This story was just great.
Sugar Island by Claire Luchette - 2-stars
From Ploughshares
Why? There were elements of humor and pathos in the story set forth well and effectively. “Joan’s love language was gift-giving. Maggie’s was gift-receiving.” Super pithy but in service of what? For me the whole story was a big nothing.
The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken - 5-stars
From Harper's
Bloody lovely. Filled with wonder and grief and longing, and a gentle but realistic portrait of what it means to be a parent, a daughter a girlfriend and a wife. Also, it is funnier than I can recall McCracken ever being before. Not comic, but wryly and observantly funny.
Post by Alice McDermott - 1.5-star
From One Story
Alice McDermott is one of those writers everyone but I seem to love. I am missing something, but I swear I go into every book/story with goodwill. I sort of hated this story. I don’t know, maybe in 20 years this will constitute an interesting chronicle of Covid times. At this moment though, it basically seems like an uninflected diary of a pretty boring New Yorker in late 2020. It has only been two years since I was a pretty boring New Yorker in 2020 so that offers me nothing. There is literally not one insightful moment here. One sec, it implies Covid makes weed smell bad and I have not heard anyone else mention that. Does that count as insightful? There are passages of beautiful prose but it is just not enough.
Bears Among the Living by Kevin Moffett - 5 stars
From McSweeney's
I loved this disjointed and funny look at how losing a father when young changes a boy forever, making him perhaps a different man that he should have been. Does it make that man build a life that looks like others tell him it should even though he only feels trapped? The story comes together from what appears at first to be a series of jokes of the observational deadpan variety but has surprising, bracing, depth and real pathos. It has the writing that makes me gasp in awe, and yet it is totally relatable, and uncomfortably touching.
Soon the Light by Gina Ochsner - 1-star
From Ploughshares
This was, um, atmospheric. I hated it. A colorless social horror Twilight Zone/Anne of Green Gables mashup that is the world’s dullest examination of good and evil. Step away from the symbolism, Gina. I get that the boy is whiter than white (perhaps albino) so that the one indigenous person can announce that white is the color of evil, but it took a lot of work for Gina to get to what I am sure she saw as an excellent zinger.
Mbiu Dash by Okwiri Oduor - 5-stars
From Granta
I can’t really talk about this story without spoiling things, but what I can say is that it is about need and longing for connection and structure, and what happens to a person (Mbiu. her mother, and Mr. Man) when structure collapses and community goes down with it. The story speaks to how shifts around us, shifts we have no power to affect, utterly change our lives in ways that drive us mad. Oduor captures the dissonance that comes from following the rules, and then having the rules change. It is that dissonance that drives and perpetuates rape, theft, murder and homelessness. This is set in Kenya, where that happened in dramatic fashion – shifts in government allegiance from USSR to US changed the structure of life in Kenya. The story is, like Kenya, fractured and I thought that really enhanced this story.
The Meeting by Alix Ohlin - 4.5 stars
From Virginia Quarterly Review
I work in a field where I am sunk into the startup economy every day. This story reflects well a couple of the most common founder types, and reinforces that the good ones, the ones who are trying to do the right thing, are doomed. I think Ohlin did a good job of showing the costs to everyone in that ecosystem of the ecosystem itself and how even the best version of capitalism fails people
The Beyoglu Municipality Waste-Management Orchestra by Kenan Orhan - 4.5 stars
From The Paris Review
This was the story of a Turk I have never met or read about, a civil servant whose main goal appears to be remaining unseen. Fatima is a garbage collector who winds the alleyways of Istanbul keeping her head down and following the rules. That is until she sees in the garbage at the home of a composer on her route, a succession of instruments of every sort. Against all the rules Fatima begins taking these items from the trash (strictly forbidden because it shows a desire for things, which is apparently a bad thing.) Searching for a place to hide this collection she finds a heretofore unseen attic. And where there is space and materials there will be artists. The rest follows from there. Art and hope as resistance. Its pretty lovely until the state finds a way to crush it and then it is not lovely at all. This feels real and both personal and political.
The Ghost Birds by Karen Russell - 2 stars
From The New Yorker
I loved Swamplandia, but I have not loved anything of Karen Russell’s I have read since, and with this that streak continues. Dystopian yadda yadda that reads like hundreds of other novels and stories with a backwash of parenting angst. One other thing that bugged me, Russell crafts lovely sentences, but there was SO MUCH exposition in the story. I am not a hater of exposition, I cringe when people recite that freshman comp maxim, show don’t tell, as if it some universal truth. Some of my favorite books are almost entirely exposition. But here there was so much unnecessary exposition about the place and time where this is set that it brought down the whole.
Mr. Ashok's Monument by Sanjena Sathian - 5 stars
From Conjunctions
Well I love me some satire done well, and this qualifies. The utter ridiculousness of the cooptation of the concept of “values” by both government and the 24-hour news cycle is thrown into relief. There are competing goals and actual ethics go out the window. This India set story could not be more universal. Pitch black comedy wrapped in very good storytelling.
Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers - 5-stars
From Joyland
Too say this story of simmering passion and escape from the quotidian is relatable for me is a ridiculous understatement. It is just perfect.
The Sins of Others by Héctor Tobar - 3-stars
From Zyzzyva
It has long been accepted in China that rich people can hire poor people as “body doubles” to serve their sentences. (I wrote my Senior Thesis on comparative corrections policies between the US and China and though this was not strictly relevant it came up in my research and I was obsessed and read all I could.) So why am I relating this? Well this story is about a man who mows down his wife in a fit of rage. Though he feels bad about that, jail does not fit with his plans so he hires a mechanic to do his time. The actual assailant, Karl, appears to be a White American guy, and the man he hires, Juan, is undocumented and Hispanic. In this book's United States such deals are permissible. More things happen to Juan and Karl and their families I am assuming this is a metaphor for Americans hiring undocumented workers to do the shit work no one wants to do and how that breaks down both the oppressed and the oppressors. Honestly, I don’t think I fully understood this story, but it was nonetheless generally engrossing and enjoyable to read so I am going with a 3.
Elephant Seals by Meghan Louise Wagner - 3-stars
From Agni
To be fair this is not my type of story. Two people, Paul and Diana, are leading totally different lives in various parallel universes. Essentially this is a futuristic sliding doors setup. In every universe their lives intersect, sometimes happily sometimes less so. What I do not understand is how we know these people are the same people in each universe. The static defining characteristic in each universe are a traumatic childhood event, though certain other events exist in more than one period. Who said one Paul or one Diana is the same as the others? The thing that distinguishes each from the elephant seal is the lack of destiny. I think I understood the story, I think it was lovely to read, but I perhaps don’t wonder about the things the ideal reader for this story wonders about.
Foster by Bryan Washington - 5-stars
From The New Yorker
This is all about how we keep ourselves safe by keeping others at a distance. Not a surprising choice for someone whose investment in people has not been rewarded in the past. Here it is the MC’s lover and brother who are being kept at a distance mostly though entropy. He and his brother don’t fight, they just “don’t talk.” His lover suggests moving in together, and MC just grunts noncommittally staving off a discussion that would likely flow from saying yes or no. Then the MC ends up fostering a cat for his brother and things begin to change. Pets don’t let you say no to commitment, and once one brick falls others follow.
February 14, 2023
I have not finished reading this book, nor do I think I will probably finish it in the future. It has very firmly cemented my dislike for modern literary fiction. While the stories are all certainly well written, and serve as good examples of craft (for which reason I will keep this on my shelf for occasional reference), almost none of them contain anything good, true, or beautiful. Most also seem to lack an overall message or idea - other than a general sense of malaise and disaffection which is characteristic of the in-vogue melancholy junkies that currently populate the genre. The stories are an excellent illustration of the postmodern mood and I find that they relate quite a bit to what Jamie Smith describes regarding this in "On the Road with St. Augustine." In the end I would describe this collection as being philosophically interesting, morally worthless, simultaneously 'good' and 'awful.'
May 3, 2023
A really solid anthology.
brief reviews of all the stories:
- A Ravishing Sun by Leslie Blanco: wonderful and heartbreaking. a story of a cuban woman who's starting over in so many ways and how the ptsd of an accident affects her. I saw myself in her and I was scared than I was comforted. 5 stars. (apparently the story is inspired by her real life)
- The Little Widow from the Capital by Yohanca Delgado: What a melancholic story. A widow moves into an apartment building in New York coming from the Dominican Republic and her story turns into a folk tale by her neighbours. loved ths sadness in every word. 5 stars (I discoevered that the story is inspired by a latin american nursery rhyme, and I liked that idea)
- Man of the House by Kim Coleman Foote: a sad story about family. from the point of view of an older black man, who deals with the passing of his mother and it prompts him to think of his family and the segregation and slavery and all their history of pain. brief mention of domestic violence that I didn't like. 4.5 stars. (like a lot of black writers, the author writes from experience, also the story is inspired by the author's family and relatives)
- The Wind by Lauren Groff: my god, this was gut-wrenching. a story of escaping an abusive house, and how we choose to tell that story. what version of the truth we choose to retell. absolutely broke my heart in 15 minutes. 5 stars.
- The Hollow by Greg Jackson: It's one of those stories that you're sure there's some deeper meaning behind it, but I couldn't grasp that meaning. a story about two men who were in the same college and their reunion many years later, and their different appraoches to life. 3 stars.
- Detective Dog by Gish Jen: a Chinese mother trying to protect her family from politics and covid. About immigration, rich immigrants, politics and protestors and the regime in China, and a mother who's just trying to protect her kids. 3 stars. (one of the prolific author in the collection, and I'm still hesitant if I want to read something else by her seeing how her writings is wraught with politics I don't fully comprehend, but I'm intrigued)
- Sugar Island by Claire Luchette: a couple and their relationship on the frings and their trip to buy a couch while one of them contemplates leaving the other. you know how it ends but it still surprises you. 3 stars (seems like another story taken directly from the author's life)
- The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken: a story of divorce and motherhood and hidden feelings and sadness. I liked the setting, in Denmark, but I was confused about the timeline and who's who. 3 stars (another prolific author in this collection, and it's interesting to know her insight to writing this story and choosing the setting to be someplace familiar to her)
- Post by Alice McDermott: This was depressing. because it's never really over. The story of two people and their lives before, during, and post Covid. Covid changed people's relationships to themselves and others, and we see that through the eyes of a couple here who were both changed by the sickness. 4 stars. (I always thought this author wrote depressing books though having never tried her and now I'm scared to try a full-length novel by her though she's another prolific author. taking inspiration from an older story with the same concept: two people falling in love during 1918 flu pandemic but setting it in our covid life is great. )
- Bears Among the Living by Kevin Moffett: didn't get on with this one. felt like random snippets of a guy's life focused on his dead father and his own son and family. some lines were profound, but the story didn't stick. 2 stars.
- Soon the Light by Gina Ochsner: really atmospheric. a bit religious in themes, and uses the trope of possessed/demon child, but the main focus of the story: the relationship of a brother and sister and their relationship to their mother was lost a bit. It's truly an all vibes story. 3 stars. (O'm always intrigued about stories of europeans in the us, and the clash of cultures)
- Mbiu Dash by Okwiri Oduor: The writing style is just magical in this one. one of those rare cases where I actually liked the story being narrated by a child. It's very unique. A little girl losing her mom in an african town, with some politics and touching on the lives of orphans in villages like this. It felt very real. 5 stars. (I think the reader of this story would benefit from reading the author's debut novel since it seems like she uses the same protagonist here. )
- The Meeting by Alix Ohlin: Am I imagining things or is the character "James Halliday" based on that millionaire in Ready Player One minus the sci-fi? wsn't he also named James Halliday? anuway, stories like this one about corporate life and being at the mercy of your work really depress me. the end took a darker and grim turn. 3 stars. (a prolific author, for some reason since I didn't read much by these authors I thought they hadn't much published but seems like I was wrong. )
- The Beyoglu Municipality Waste Managment Orchestra by Kenan Orhan: a different look to the "big brother is watching" idea. set in Istanbul and follows a garbage woman who hoardes things banned by the country. has this feel of magical realism mixed with light dystopia. 4.5 stars. (It's always scary when a story that seems really dystopic turn out to be really rooted in reality)
- The Ghost Birds by Karen Russell: the elements of sci-fi/fantasy are rare in this collection, but this one just has my heart. a story of a father and daughter in a post apocalyptic world, focusing on all the disasters we brought to our planet and the extinction of birds. taking place in 2080 I think. I loved the emotions and the sadness and even the horror of this future. 5 stars. (a great climate change warning story)
- Mr. Ashok's Monument by Sanjena Sathian: liked the setting and the touch of magical realism. I love when a story introduces interesting departments and ministries. an interesting look at myths and the history of India. 5 stars. (this really prompted me to read more into indian mythology, it's really interesting and I haven't read enough of it at all. it also deals with many interesting ideas about history and who gets to write it)
- Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers: uh, ma'am, are you okay? first of all, the idea of emotional cheating is still cheating, and any story based on cheating isn't my cup of tea. I was intrigued by the way this woman always had two lives going, one real and the other imaginary. 1.5 stars.
- The Sins of Others by Hector Tobar: interesting concept and not too far-fetched sadly, in which there's a "replacement law", and white people can commit crimes and have any of the immigrants replace them in detention and jail. just didn't really get the ending, but it was chilling and frustrating. 4 stars. (when the author mentions Kafka in his notes, everything clicks together. this story is very kafka-esque in its bizarreness and surrealism.
- Elephant Seals by Meghan Louise Wagner: this has no right being this beautiful and making me cry. the different life scenarios of 3 people and it's just so beautiful. 5 stars! (I like how this story seems like a recovery story for the author as well)
- Foster by Bryan Washington: any story with a cat has my heart, this story was just sad, the brothers' relationship made me really sad. 4 stars. (I don't know much about this author but I'm guessing he used some of these themes before, I heard about his novel memorial and I remember that it had to with Japan, and Japan plays a big role here.
brief reviews of all the stories:
- A Ravishing Sun by Leslie Blanco: wonderful and heartbreaking. a story of a cuban woman who's starting over in so many ways and how the ptsd of an accident affects her. I saw myself in her and I was scared than I was comforted. 5 stars. (apparently the story is inspired by her real life)
- The Little Widow from the Capital by Yohanca Delgado: What a melancholic story. A widow moves into an apartment building in New York coming from the Dominican Republic and her story turns into a folk tale by her neighbours. loved ths sadness in every word. 5 stars (I discoevered that the story is inspired by a latin american nursery rhyme, and I liked that idea)
- Man of the House by Kim Coleman Foote: a sad story about family. from the point of view of an older black man, who deals with the passing of his mother and it prompts him to think of his family and the segregation and slavery and all their history of pain. brief mention of domestic violence that I didn't like. 4.5 stars. (like a lot of black writers, the author writes from experience, also the story is inspired by the author's family and relatives)
- The Wind by Lauren Groff: my god, this was gut-wrenching. a story of escaping an abusive house, and how we choose to tell that story. what version of the truth we choose to retell. absolutely broke my heart in 15 minutes. 5 stars.
- The Hollow by Greg Jackson: It's one of those stories that you're sure there's some deeper meaning behind it, but I couldn't grasp that meaning. a story about two men who were in the same college and their reunion many years later, and their different appraoches to life. 3 stars.
- Detective Dog by Gish Jen: a Chinese mother trying to protect her family from politics and covid. About immigration, rich immigrants, politics and protestors and the regime in China, and a mother who's just trying to protect her kids. 3 stars. (one of the prolific author in the collection, and I'm still hesitant if I want to read something else by her seeing how her writings is wraught with politics I don't fully comprehend, but I'm intrigued)
- Sugar Island by Claire Luchette: a couple and their relationship on the frings and their trip to buy a couch while one of them contemplates leaving the other. you know how it ends but it still surprises you. 3 stars (seems like another story taken directly from the author's life)
- The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken: a story of divorce and motherhood and hidden feelings and sadness. I liked the setting, in Denmark, but I was confused about the timeline and who's who. 3 stars (another prolific author in this collection, and it's interesting to know her insight to writing this story and choosing the setting to be someplace familiar to her)
- Post by Alice McDermott: This was depressing. because it's never really over. The story of two people and their lives before, during, and post Covid. Covid changed people's relationships to themselves and others, and we see that through the eyes of a couple here who were both changed by the sickness. 4 stars. (I always thought this author wrote depressing books though having never tried her and now I'm scared to try a full-length novel by her though she's another prolific author. taking inspiration from an older story with the same concept: two people falling in love during 1918 flu pandemic but setting it in our covid life is great. )
- Bears Among the Living by Kevin Moffett: didn't get on with this one. felt like random snippets of a guy's life focused on his dead father and his own son and family. some lines were profound, but the story didn't stick. 2 stars.
- Soon the Light by Gina Ochsner: really atmospheric. a bit religious in themes, and uses the trope of possessed/demon child, but the main focus of the story: the relationship of a brother and sister and their relationship to their mother was lost a bit. It's truly an all vibes story. 3 stars. (O'm always intrigued about stories of europeans in the us, and the clash of cultures)
- Mbiu Dash by Okwiri Oduor: The writing style is just magical in this one. one of those rare cases where I actually liked the story being narrated by a child. It's very unique. A little girl losing her mom in an african town, with some politics and touching on the lives of orphans in villages like this. It felt very real. 5 stars. (I think the reader of this story would benefit from reading the author's debut novel since it seems like she uses the same protagonist here. )
- The Meeting by Alix Ohlin: Am I imagining things or is the character "James Halliday" based on that millionaire in Ready Player One minus the sci-fi? wsn't he also named James Halliday? anuway, stories like this one about corporate life and being at the mercy of your work really depress me. the end took a darker and grim turn. 3 stars. (a prolific author, for some reason since I didn't read much by these authors I thought they hadn't much published but seems like I was wrong. )
- The Beyoglu Municipality Waste Managment Orchestra by Kenan Orhan: a different look to the "big brother is watching" idea. set in Istanbul and follows a garbage woman who hoardes things banned by the country. has this feel of magical realism mixed with light dystopia. 4.5 stars. (It's always scary when a story that seems really dystopic turn out to be really rooted in reality)
- The Ghost Birds by Karen Russell: the elements of sci-fi/fantasy are rare in this collection, but this one just has my heart. a story of a father and daughter in a post apocalyptic world, focusing on all the disasters we brought to our planet and the extinction of birds. taking place in 2080 I think. I loved the emotions and the sadness and even the horror of this future. 5 stars. (a great climate change warning story)
- Mr. Ashok's Monument by Sanjena Sathian: liked the setting and the touch of magical realism. I love when a story introduces interesting departments and ministries. an interesting look at myths and the history of India. 5 stars. (this really prompted me to read more into indian mythology, it's really interesting and I haven't read enough of it at all. it also deals with many interesting ideas about history and who gets to write it)
- Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers: uh, ma'am, are you okay? first of all, the idea of emotional cheating is still cheating, and any story based on cheating isn't my cup of tea. I was intrigued by the way this woman always had two lives going, one real and the other imaginary. 1.5 stars.
- The Sins of Others by Hector Tobar: interesting concept and not too far-fetched sadly, in which there's a "replacement law", and white people can commit crimes and have any of the immigrants replace them in detention and jail. just didn't really get the ending, but it was chilling and frustrating. 4 stars. (when the author mentions Kafka in his notes, everything clicks together. this story is very kafka-esque in its bizarreness and surrealism.
- Elephant Seals by Meghan Louise Wagner: this has no right being this beautiful and making me cry. the different life scenarios of 3 people and it's just so beautiful. 5 stars! (I like how this story seems like a recovery story for the author as well)
- Foster by Bryan Washington: any story with a cat has my heart, this story was just sad, the brothers' relationship made me really sad. 4 stars. (I don't know much about this author but I'm guessing he used some of these themes before, I heard about his novel memorial and I remember that it had to with Japan, and Japan plays a big role here.
October 6, 2022
Whoever picked the stories for this year‘s anthology did a great job! My favorite story however was The Sins of Others, and it wasn’t lost on me that Carl despite running his wife down with his truck got in it while immigration drove poor Jaun away. I also enjoyed Dr. Dog and Bears Among The Living these are definitely my top three favorites, but I won’t say it was easy to pick because so many of these stories is so great. I love reading short stories and sometimes even novels say important commentary on society in these short story anthology certainly do that and I love them and cannot get enough. They should do a book every month that would be great lol! Love the stories. I received this book from NetGalleyShelf and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.
May 7, 2023
Do you also love it when suddenly the book starts speaking to you and you find the characters in a similar frame of mind as yours, facing the same dilemmas as you, and just then you come across a quote that somehow addresses your questions and inner battles, and then you aggressively keep underlining it and highlighting it as if it was a solution to all your life problems?! 🙈
Well, that is exactly what I did while reading most of the short stories in this anthology.😃
I believe I highlighted the most in the very first story itself, The Ravishing Sun. Somehow I was able to relate to the inner dilemmas of the protagonist. I too have struggled with the thought of spending years building a castle from scratch, but never getting actually to live in it. In fact, going so far away from it, the way back to it is no longer visible. I realized that I had started to perceive the very world around me just like Lucy. And her thoughts resonated quite a lot with mine to the extent that I desperately started to turn pages just to see if she ended up okay.🙈 And she does and I hope I'll too. :)
"But I was right to know it- the seeping soul, the shift of the lens-that my life would never be the same....That nameless panic in my chest hasn't so much faded, as brought things into focus. "
" Pleasure is letting the tidal wave hurl me into rocks. Pain is floating gently into the face of a ravishing sun."
I absolutely loved this story and I loved how well most of the stories have addressed longing, grief, and trauma.
Well, that is exactly what I did while reading most of the short stories in this anthology.😃
I believe I highlighted the most in the very first story itself, The Ravishing Sun. Somehow I was able to relate to the inner dilemmas of the protagonist. I too have struggled with the thought of spending years building a castle from scratch, but never getting actually to live in it. In fact, going so far away from it, the way back to it is no longer visible. I realized that I had started to perceive the very world around me just like Lucy. And her thoughts resonated quite a lot with mine to the extent that I desperately started to turn pages just to see if she ended up okay.🙈 And she does and I hope I'll too. :)
"But I was right to know it- the seeping soul, the shift of the lens-that my life would never be the same....That nameless panic in my chest hasn't so much faded, as brought things into focus. "
" Pleasure is letting the tidal wave hurl me into rocks. Pain is floating gently into the face of a ravishing sun."
I absolutely loved this story and I loved how well most of the stories have addressed longing, grief, and trauma.
September 19, 2023
My personal challenge has been and continues to be to read each year’s edition of this anthology. I began in 1998 when I bought the book at a used book sale and decided that I am a fan of short stories.
The 2022 edition has Andrew Sean Greer as guest editor and Heidi Pitlor in her 16th year as series editor. Pitlor gives credit to the various literary magazines that have launched the careers of many recognized authors. With so many books on my TBR list I rely on this anthology to satisfy my short story fix and at times add more books to the list when I enjoy an author’s story. Greer as guest editor collaborates with Pitlor on the final selections. His goal was to find the unusual, the capture of what is happening in the moment which he admits he does not attempt. Specifically, he meant the pandemic. A few of the authors make mention of their dealings with the virus and Alice McDermott’s great story Post about a couple living in NYC during the height of the lockdown was a five-star read.
I use the GR star rating for each story and depending on the average that is how I rate the entire book. This edition was unusual because out of the twenty stories I rated ten of them five stars. There were two that didn’t agree with me but all the rest were four stars. Kudos to Greer for his good eye. It was not easy to pick a favorite.
Bears Among the Living by Kevin Moffett was my favorite.
This was great!! It was like a collection of vignettes. Each paragraph its own little story. A guy lives in a little town with his wife and son. He describes the layout of the town, and his interactions with people. He recalls being a boy when his father died and he wonders about his son being so different than he was as a boy.
The Wind by Lauren Groff was one of those pulse pounding stories to the very end. A mother and her kids attempt to escape their abusive husband/father. It was told from the point of view of one of the kids as an adult.
Post by Alice McDermott brings back recent memories of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those where were you when experiences. A woman living in a NYC apartment contracts the virus. Out of the blue a former boyfriend shows up and cares for her. When he comes down with the virus his symptoms are much worse than hers. She panics and calls 911. The EMTs leave it up to them whether he should go to the hospital. The woman realizes that as nice as it had been to reconnect, they are not meant to be together. She tells him it is his decision. Does she owe him anything because he was there for her?
The Sins of Others by Hector Tobar is an alternate reality story that is very close to true reality. The privatization of the prison industry, especially companies housing incarcerated immigrants in motels. In this story, people who commit crimes can choose an immigrant to serve their sentence in their place. Juan has lived his quiet life raising his kids into adulthood and working as a mechanic. Out of the blue, someone he vaguely knew charged with trying to kill his wife tags Juan to serve his sentence. With the crazy things that have been happening in this country, this concept does not seem too far of a stretch.
Elephant Seals by Meghan Louise Wagner gave us alternate scenarios of a relationship between a couple and also a couple of siblings. Each scenario revealed more and more about the siblings and the couple’s relationship. It was intriguing and kept me thinking.
Foster by Bryan Washington was heartwarmingly sad. It also was one of those stories that didn’t give away too much all at once. It took its time until the ending.
My other five star picks were:
The Little Widow from the Capital by Yohanca Delgado
The Man of the House by Kim Coleman Foote
Meeting by Alix Ohlin
The Beyğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra by Kenan Orhan
The 2022 edition has Andrew Sean Greer as guest editor and Heidi Pitlor in her 16th year as series editor. Pitlor gives credit to the various literary magazines that have launched the careers of many recognized authors. With so many books on my TBR list I rely on this anthology to satisfy my short story fix and at times add more books to the list when I enjoy an author’s story. Greer as guest editor collaborates with Pitlor on the final selections. His goal was to find the unusual, the capture of what is happening in the moment which he admits he does not attempt. Specifically, he meant the pandemic. A few of the authors make mention of their dealings with the virus and Alice McDermott’s great story Post about a couple living in NYC during the height of the lockdown was a five-star read.
I use the GR star rating for each story and depending on the average that is how I rate the entire book. This edition was unusual because out of the twenty stories I rated ten of them five stars. There were two that didn’t agree with me but all the rest were four stars. Kudos to Greer for his good eye. It was not easy to pick a favorite.
Bears Among the Living by Kevin Moffett was my favorite.
This was great!! It was like a collection of vignettes. Each paragraph its own little story. A guy lives in a little town with his wife and son. He describes the layout of the town, and his interactions with people. He recalls being a boy when his father died and he wonders about his son being so different than he was as a boy.
The Wind by Lauren Groff was one of those pulse pounding stories to the very end. A mother and her kids attempt to escape their abusive husband/father. It was told from the point of view of one of the kids as an adult.
Post by Alice McDermott brings back recent memories of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those where were you when experiences. A woman living in a NYC apartment contracts the virus. Out of the blue a former boyfriend shows up and cares for her. When he comes down with the virus his symptoms are much worse than hers. She panics and calls 911. The EMTs leave it up to them whether he should go to the hospital. The woman realizes that as nice as it had been to reconnect, they are not meant to be together. She tells him it is his decision. Does she owe him anything because he was there for her?
The Sins of Others by Hector Tobar is an alternate reality story that is very close to true reality. The privatization of the prison industry, especially companies housing incarcerated immigrants in motels. In this story, people who commit crimes can choose an immigrant to serve their sentence in their place. Juan has lived his quiet life raising his kids into adulthood and working as a mechanic. Out of the blue, someone he vaguely knew charged with trying to kill his wife tags Juan to serve his sentence. With the crazy things that have been happening in this country, this concept does not seem too far of a stretch.
Elephant Seals by Meghan Louise Wagner gave us alternate scenarios of a relationship between a couple and also a couple of siblings. Each scenario revealed more and more about the siblings and the couple’s relationship. It was intriguing and kept me thinking.
Foster by Bryan Washington was heartwarmingly sad. It also was one of those stories that didn’t give away too much all at once. It took its time until the ending.
My other five star picks were:
The Little Widow from the Capital by Yohanca Delgado
The Man of the House by Kim Coleman Foote
Meeting by Alix Ohlin
The Beyğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra by Kenan Orhan
November 22, 2023
I would, by & large, agree that these are the best stories. Several of these will stick with me for years.
March 18, 2023
I found this collection a little more uneven than the other BASS collections I have read, but good overall (as it should be, given the title). There were two stories out of the twenty I did not finish, which I won’t identify for fear of prejudicing others against them. They simply didn’t engage me; it’s totally subjective. Most of the others I liked.
My favorites, which were very good indeed, in order of preference (roughly):
“Ghost Birds” by Karen Russell
“The Meeting” by Alix Ohlin
“The Sins of Others” by Hector Tobar
“Post” by Alice McDermott
“The Wind” by Lauren Groff
And I absolutely love the feature in the back called "Contributors’ Notes" where the author of each story says something about their story’s origin or the creative process involved. There’s also a potentially useful 3-1/2 page list of "Other Distinguished Stories of 2021," indexed by author name, which includes the publication in which they appeared.
My favorites, which were very good indeed, in order of preference (roughly):
“Ghost Birds” by Karen Russell
“The Meeting” by Alix Ohlin
“The Sins of Others” by Hector Tobar
“Post” by Alice McDermott
“The Wind” by Lauren Groff
And I absolutely love the feature in the back called "Contributors’ Notes" where the author of each story says something about their story’s origin or the creative process involved. There’s also a potentially useful 3-1/2 page list of "Other Distinguished Stories of 2021," indexed by author name, which includes the publication in which they appeared.
March 28, 2023
I hadn't read short stories for years. At least not regularly. This book didn't do much to change that. A few flashes of "something" here and there. Hard to pinpoint what exactly. Interspersed with long sections of "wha....?" and "huh."
We can do better.
We can do better.
June 14, 2023
I picked this up cheap for Kindle thinking I'd read a short story in between other things. I got through about half of these. Mostly two and three stars for me. I'm putting it away for now.
Own on Kindle
Own on Kindle
January 13, 2024
Any compilation of stories is the end product of the person who creates it. An editor may choose to focus on topics and themes that have special meaning to them.
I believe it safe to say that Andrew Sean Greer and I have different affinities in what we would choose to be “ the best “ stories for this collection.
As so few of these stories really moved me I will practice the old adage and only comment on those I can endorse.
“ A Ravishing Sun” by Leslie Blanco is a woman’s narration of her recovery from a car accident. A motorcycle, going three times the speed limit, crashes into the car driven by her boyfriend. Their injuries are not serious, he dies instantly. The panic attacks and PTSD she suffers almost breaks her but she does slowly recover. Her boyfriend is hardly affected, he is the sun while she is the dark. It is an excellent rendition of how similar events can affect different people in spectacularly different ways
“ The Wind” by Lauren Groff is a brutal story of a woman trying to get herself and her children away from an abusive husband. Narrated by one of the children, telling the tale from her adulthood, we see them escape on a very scary getaway. Then we are hauled back to the reality of what really happened and we, like the narrator, will remember
“ Detective Dog” by Gish Jen has a Chinese woman, an immigrant in American with her family and the young son of her sister who has disappeared inside China.
“ Bears Among The Living” by Kevin Moffat is an excellent piece. Meandering through a man’s thoughts about his childhood, his parents, to his own son it is like much of what I have enjoyed about Richard Ford. Filled with relatable sentences and subjects.
“ Either the craftsmanship of zippers has declined or I’m forgetting to zip.” It’s not just me I say as I read.
Waiting with other parents for their children to be dismissed the conversation goes to things they miss from their youths
“ I miss maps. You know the kind that you kept in the glove compartment, that you had to unfold, and when you were done with them, you could never quite figure out how to re-fold them. We all remembered those. Then everyone started sharing, nostalgic artefacts from childhood. I miss thinking Columbus discovered America, someone said. ….
“ I miss feeling loyal to my breakfast cereal. I miss getting all dressed up to have my picture taken.” And on and on it went. The sense of shared nostalgia can be a powerful force.
Then our narrator offers to the group “ I wish when my future was more interesting to me than my past.” That halts the conversation, that’s too real, to in the present. Realizing he had admitted to much he quickly adds “ I also miss scratch and sniff stickers.” This brings “ sighs of relief from the other parents, robust communal nodding.”
He remembers how a family friend came and collected all his father’s clothes after his death and donated them to The Salvation Army and comments “ that years later we would see his golf shirts all over town.”
On his school bus as a boy he sees someone has written “Black Sabbath Rules” in a seat and so he returns to that seat each day to see if they have elaborated what the “ Rules” are.
His eight year old son, noticing all the pregnant women at IKEA wonders if they go their to get pregnant
On his adult memories of his father “ sometimes I still think that I can summon the sound of his voice. A thin,distant, rasp. My childhood is a song I’ve listen to so many times I’ve stopped listening to the words. probably half the things my father said to me he never said to me.”
His father told him “Children are the living messengers we send to a time we will not see.”
This story is a definitive highlight.
“ The Ghost Birds” by Karen Russell was a story I had read earlier in The New Yorker but it still excels. Telling of a time in the future after some kind of apocalyptic event a woman leads her children on a paranormal birding event. Yes, really.
The other stories in this collection are not bad, they all have merit. The editor clearly favours a bit of mystical and fantasy in his stories. That works for Gabriel Garcia Márquez, maybe not as easily for others.
I believe it safe to say that Andrew Sean Greer and I have different affinities in what we would choose to be “ the best “ stories for this collection.
As so few of these stories really moved me I will practice the old adage and only comment on those I can endorse.
“ A Ravishing Sun” by Leslie Blanco is a woman’s narration of her recovery from a car accident. A motorcycle, going three times the speed limit, crashes into the car driven by her boyfriend. Their injuries are not serious, he dies instantly. The panic attacks and PTSD she suffers almost breaks her but she does slowly recover. Her boyfriend is hardly affected, he is the sun while she is the dark. It is an excellent rendition of how similar events can affect different people in spectacularly different ways
“ The Wind” by Lauren Groff is a brutal story of a woman trying to get herself and her children away from an abusive husband. Narrated by one of the children, telling the tale from her adulthood, we see them escape on a very scary getaway. Then we are hauled back to the reality of what really happened and we, like the narrator, will remember
“ Detective Dog” by Gish Jen has a Chinese woman, an immigrant in American with her family and the young son of her sister who has disappeared inside China.
“ Bears Among The Living” by Kevin Moffat is an excellent piece. Meandering through a man’s thoughts about his childhood, his parents, to his own son it is like much of what I have enjoyed about Richard Ford. Filled with relatable sentences and subjects.
“ Either the craftsmanship of zippers has declined or I’m forgetting to zip.” It’s not just me I say as I read.
Waiting with other parents for their children to be dismissed the conversation goes to things they miss from their youths
“ I miss maps. You know the kind that you kept in the glove compartment, that you had to unfold, and when you were done with them, you could never quite figure out how to re-fold them. We all remembered those. Then everyone started sharing, nostalgic artefacts from childhood. I miss thinking Columbus discovered America, someone said. ….
“ I miss feeling loyal to my breakfast cereal. I miss getting all dressed up to have my picture taken.” And on and on it went. The sense of shared nostalgia can be a powerful force.
Then our narrator offers to the group “ I wish when my future was more interesting to me than my past.” That halts the conversation, that’s too real, to in the present. Realizing he had admitted to much he quickly adds “ I also miss scratch and sniff stickers.” This brings “ sighs of relief from the other parents, robust communal nodding.”
He remembers how a family friend came and collected all his father’s clothes after his death and donated them to The Salvation Army and comments “ that years later we would see his golf shirts all over town.”
On his school bus as a boy he sees someone has written “Black Sabbath Rules” in a seat and so he returns to that seat each day to see if they have elaborated what the “ Rules” are.
His eight year old son, noticing all the pregnant women at IKEA wonders if they go their to get pregnant
On his adult memories of his father “ sometimes I still think that I can summon the sound of his voice. A thin,distant, rasp. My childhood is a song I’ve listen to so many times I’ve stopped listening to the words. probably half the things my father said to me he never said to me.”
His father told him “Children are the living messengers we send to a time we will not see.”
This story is a definitive highlight.
“ The Ghost Birds” by Karen Russell was a story I had read earlier in The New Yorker but it still excels. Telling of a time in the future after some kind of apocalyptic event a woman leads her children on a paranormal birding event. Yes, really.
The other stories in this collection are not bad, they all have merit. The editor clearly favours a bit of mystical and fantasy in his stories. That works for Gabriel Garcia Márquez, maybe not as easily for others.
December 3, 2024
someone please tell these editorial homies that quality short fiction does in fact exist outside of the new yorker.
my favs:
“the wind” by lauren groff (tears)
“mbiu dash” by okwiri oduor
“the beyoğlu municipality waste management orchestra” by kenan orhan (also tears)
my favs:
“the wind” by lauren groff (tears)
“mbiu dash” by okwiri oduor
“the beyoğlu municipality waste management orchestra” by kenan orhan (also tears)
July 12, 2024
Best ones
- the wind
- sugar island
- soon the light
- the beyoglu municipality waste management orchestra
Honorary mentions
- Mr Ashoks monument
- ten year affair
- the sins of others
- the wind
- sugar island
- soon the light
- the beyoglu municipality waste management orchestra
Honorary mentions
- Mr Ashoks monument
- ten year affair
- the sins of others
February 1, 2024
Don't make me explain my rating. Please. I will do anything to avoid having to recall the insipidness of the writing. I will do your dishes, walk your dog, or take out your garbage (and with any luck, a copy of this book will be among the detritus.)
March 5, 2023
But Leslie Blanco’s “A Ravishing Sun” was RAAAAAAVISHIIIIING. Also “Detective Dog” by Gish Jen and “Ten Year Affair” by Erin Somers.
January 14, 2024
I have been reading Best American Short Story anthologies for many years. I can’t really tell if the quality of the stories have changed or whether my reading of them has changed. With this anthology I read the first few pages of every story but if I was not engaged in the story telling, I stopped and moved on to the next story. I stopped reading at least half of these stories.
In the half that I did read I found some good storytelling and two great stories. The first great one was The Hollow by Greg Jackson, which is smart, funny, engaging and totally original. I copied amazing paragraphs from this story and sent them to friends so they could appreciate the writing. I immediately ordered a copy of his book of short stories, Prodigals, and read that. It was great.
The second great story was Bears Among The Living by Kevin Moffett. This story has a tone, voice, and characters which are so inviting and real that I felt I was living in the world created by the story. I ordered a copy of Moffett’s stories called Further Interpretations of Real Life events. So far, it is good.
Overall, two gems out of 20 stories is a meager find. Still, the two gems are treasures.
In the half that I did read I found some good storytelling and two great stories. The first great one was The Hollow by Greg Jackson, which is smart, funny, engaging and totally original. I copied amazing paragraphs from this story and sent them to friends so they could appreciate the writing. I immediately ordered a copy of his book of short stories, Prodigals, and read that. It was great.
The second great story was Bears Among The Living by Kevin Moffett. This story has a tone, voice, and characters which are so inviting and real that I felt I was living in the world created by the story. I ordered a copy of Moffett’s stories called Further Interpretations of Real Life events. So far, it is good.
Overall, two gems out of 20 stories is a meager find. Still, the two gems are treasures.
July 8, 2024
Some of these I LOVED. So brilliant so good. Others just fell a little short for me. There wasn’t any I necessarily didn’t like, they just didn’t work for me.
A Ravishing Sun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Little Widow from the Capital ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Man of the House ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Wind ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Hollow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Detective Dog ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sugar Land⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Souvenir Museum ⭐️⭐️
Post ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bears Among the Living ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Soon the Light ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mbiu Dash ⭐️⭐️
The Meeting ⭐️⭐️
The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Ghost Birds ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mr. Ashok’s Monument ⭐️
Ten Year Affair ⭐️⭐️
The Sins of Others ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Elephant Seals ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Foster ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Ravishing Sun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Little Widow from the Capital ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Man of the House ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Wind ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Hollow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Detective Dog ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sugar Land⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Souvenir Museum ⭐️⭐️
Post ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bears Among the Living ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Soon the Light ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mbiu Dash ⭐️⭐️
The Meeting ⭐️⭐️
The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Ghost Birds ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mr. Ashok’s Monument ⭐️
Ten Year Affair ⭐️⭐️
The Sins of Others ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Elephant Seals ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Foster ⭐️⭐️⭐️
March 31, 2023
The strongest stories:
The Little Woman from the Capital, Yohanca Delgado
The Wind, Lauren Groff
Detective Dog, Gish Jen
*Post, Alice McDermott (my favorite)
Bears Among the Living, Kevin Moffett
The Meeting, Alix Ohlin
The Beyoglu Municipality Wast Management Orchestra, Kenan Orhan
Mr. Ashok's Monument, Sanjena Sathian
Elephant Seals, Meghan Louise Wagner
These are the stories I'll remember over time. It was hit or miss for the others.
The Little Woman from the Capital, Yohanca Delgado
The Wind, Lauren Groff
Detective Dog, Gish Jen
*Post, Alice McDermott (my favorite)
Bears Among the Living, Kevin Moffett
The Meeting, Alix Ohlin
The Beyoglu Municipality Wast Management Orchestra, Kenan Orhan
Mr. Ashok's Monument, Sanjena Sathian
Elephant Seals, Meghan Louise Wagner
These are the stories I'll remember over time. It was hit or miss for the others.
Read
October 17, 2023A lot of really excellent stories in here, and it was a blast to teach. Great companion for a workshop course because such a wide array. Favorites: “The Little Widow from the Capital” and “Detective Dog” and “Ten Year Affair.”
Also some misses, but not many! My class particularly lost it re: a Covid story that ended with a masked miss and the literal words “cloth against cloth.”
Also some misses, but not many! My class particularly lost it re: a Covid story that ended with a masked miss and the literal words “cloth against cloth.”
June 25, 2023
If you don’t want to commit to the whole collection, at least try to find The Wind and Detective Dog somewhere else. The Meeting hit too close to home and should have come with a trigger warning for cOrPoRaTe workers.
November 16, 2025
Personal favourites:
- Detective Dog, by Gish Jen
- Post, by Alice McDermott
- The Meeting, by Alix Ohlin
- The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra, by Kenyan Orhan
- Ten Years Affair, by Erin Somers
- Foster, by Bryan Washington
- Detective Dog, by Gish Jen
- Post, by Alice McDermott
- The Meeting, by Alix Ohlin
- The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra, by Kenyan Orhan
- Ten Years Affair, by Erin Somers
- Foster, by Bryan Washington
December 25, 2022
highly recommend for 5 hour airport delays!!
January 2, 2023
Some absolute zingers & some misses
Don’t miss:
Detective Dog
The Wind
Waste Management Orchestra
Ten Year Affair
Don’t miss:
Detective Dog
The Wind
Waste Management Orchestra
Ten Year Affair
January 15, 2023
Good. Like any collection, uneven. Some of the stories made no sense to me. I liked the Groff story the most, also the one by Karen Russell (usually not a fan), the story by Gish Jen, loved Erin Somers. The last few were perplexing.
I enjoy reading these collections but it’s always a crapshoot.
I enjoy reading these collections but it’s always a crapshoot.
July 30, 2023
One or two stories kept my interest but it didn't deliver what I was hoping for.
September 13, 2023
A great amount of different stories that kept me entertained. I’m not sure if I could give a favorite:)
September 23, 2023
you know it's bad when the stories they didn't make the cut were better than the ones that did
favs: man of the house, the wind, foster
favs: man of the house, the wind, foster
November 14, 2023
A few were forgettable, most were alright. My favorites were The Wind by Lauren Groff, Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers, The Sins of Others by Héctor Tobar, and Foster by Bryan Washington.
March 18, 2024
There are some real bangers in this collection!
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