The Decameron Project: 29 New Stories from the Pandemic

by New York Times Magazine

AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SWEPT THE WORLD, WE ASKED 29 AUTHORS TO WRITE NEW SHORT STORIES INSPIRED BY THE MOMENT.Margaret Atwood - Impatient GriseldaEdwidge Danticat - One ThingTommy Orange - The TeamCharles Yu - SystemsKaren Russell - Line 19 Woodstock/​GlisanDavid Mitchell - If Wishes Was HorsesColm Toibin - Tales from the L.A. RiverVictor LaValle - RecognitionMia Couto - An Obliging RobberUzodinma Iweala - SleepLiz Moore - Clinical NotesEtgar Keret - OutsidePaolo Giordano - The Perfect Travel BuddyMona Awad - A Blue Sky Like ThisLeila Slimani - The RockAndrew O’Hagan - KeepsakesRachel Kushner - The Girl with the Big Red SuitcaseKamila Shamsie - The WalkTéa Obreht - The MorningsideAlejandro Zambra - Screen TimeDinaw Mengestu - How We Used to PlayRivers Solomon - Prudent GirlsYiyun Li - Under the MagnoliaDina Nayeri - The CellarEsi Edugyan - To the WallLaila Lalami - That Time at My Brother’s WeddingJulián Fuks - A Time of Death, the Death of TimeJohn Wray - Open CityMatthew Baker - Origin Story

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Contemporary, Audiobook, Adult, Fantasy

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2020

Reviews

[Henk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief stories capturing the quite universal feeling that the pandemic brought about, if capturing these experiences in an uneven manner
Reading stories in difficult times is a way to understand those times, and also a way to persevere through them

Favourites from this bundle where:
Rachel Kushner - The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase
Margaret Atwood - Impatient Griselda
Dina Nayeri - The Cellar
David Mitchell - If Wishes Was Horses (although I was less impressed than I had hoped, it kind of reuses the same story element as the middle tale of Cloud Atlas)

All the stories listed (average 2.69 stars):

Victor LaValle - Recognition
A bit too much in the pandemic times but with a nice paranormal twist at the end that refers back to the start of the story - 3 stars

Mona Awad - A Blue Sky Like This
Like Eternal Sunshine of Spotless mind mixed with a spa day - 2 stars

Kamila Shamsie - The Walk
Oke this feels like someone needed to come up with something 5 minutes before the deadline, totally not rendered in any way - 1 star

Colm Tóibín - Tales from the L.A. River
Homosexual musings on the tensions arising from being constantly in each other’s space. The main character feels rather whiny - 2 stars

Liz Moore - Clinical Notes
The frantic worries of parents of a baby with fever during a pandemic. Quite hilarious in short factual paragraphs - 3.5 stars

Tommy Orange - The Team
Oké this is as subtle and disjointed as it can get, with the pandemic just a disguise to field a polemic - 1 star

Leïla Slimani - The Rock
Solid tale on how a minor, random event propels an otherwise unremarkable author into modern day polarization. Only no link with the topic of the pandemic - 3 stars

Margaret Atwood - Impatient Griselda
Delightful sarcastic storytelling by an alien entertainer who is charged to care for a human quarantine group. Atwood takes the Griselda story from the Decameron and makes it both scifi and an ode to impatience in respect to abuses of power - 4 stars

Yiyun Li- Under The Magnolia
Someone settling a legal transaction in the outside due to COVID-19, how “shocking”... melancholic and brief - 2 stars

Etgar Keret - Outside
Very brief and unlogical, about a curfew being lifted and people’s disorientation - 1 star

Andrew O'Hagan - Keepsake
Disputes with a parent are taken to extremes, slightly sprinkled with COVID-19 and Grindr. Feels superfluous and a bit easy - 2 stars

Rachel Kushner - The Girl with the big red suitcase
As reality set in that we were stuck here, they became like relatives, people you didn’t choose but must love.

...while the wife possessed that kind of beauty that seems like a form of cleverness, something she’s figured out that the rest of us haven’t.

Up close, he saw that she was way beyond his league: in other words, exactly his type, this confident girl in tight jeans and white high-top Converses.

An author is trapped in an Italian castle and ends up in a Decameron like setting with a Norwegian writer telling tales. I really like this one despite the twist being a bit predictable- 4 stars

Téa Obreht - The Morningside
Appartements and city life is a common theme in this collection. This one is a stronger one, with some magical realism (bordering on fairytale like) and reflections on being a refugee - 3 stars

Alejandro Zambra - Screen Time
The struggles of a couple with a small child in lockdown. Rather pedestrian and for whom is a tv still the main source of screen time? - 2 stars

Dinaw Mengestu - How we used to play
A travel to a supermarket in the early stages of lockdown make imagination more important than ever for a nephew and uncle reunited- 3 stars

Karen Russell - Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan
Very similar to the The Langoliers of Stephen King, but than with a bus and no horror or the Doctor Who episode Planet of the Dead. A bus driver ends up lost in time - 3 stars

David Mitchell - If Wishes Was Horses
Oh, Black Swan Green coming back in this prison story in quarantine. Luke Wilcox has a redemptive (”What we’ve done isn’t who we are, Luke”) fever induced episode in his cell, with quite some nice banter with cellmate Zam - 4 stars

Charles Yu - Systems
A history of the pandemic based on search terms and from the perspective of the virus - 3 stars but the gimmick should not have been continued much longer

Paolo Giordano - The Perfect Travel Buddy
The frustrations of suddenly having your student stepchild back at home. Bit of a bore as main character - 2 stars

Mia Couto - An Obliging Robber
A widower is visited but scares his visitor more than the other way around - 2 stars

Uzodinma Iweala - Sleep
Quite poetic, on a mixed race couple splitting up - 3 stars

Dina Nayeri - The Cellar
A touching story on how a couple is thrown back due to lockdown into their youth spend in Iranian bombshelters - 4 stars

Laila Lalami - That Time at my Brother’s Wedding
A very brief vignette of a woman stuck in Morroco when she travels there to attend her brother’s fourth wedding - 3 stars

Julián Fuks - A time of death, the death of time
A bit top heavy reflections on lockdown and how this reminds the narrator of the dictatorship in Brazil his parents fought against - 2 stars

Rivers Solomon - Prudent Girls
A girl who knew how to conceal herself from those who would do her harm had more freedom in the world than the girl who flaunted her supposed freedoms to her enemy unthinkingly.

Oh this is really a story, if very stereotypical in it’s depiction of America with mass incarceration, racism and poverty in a small town - 3.5 stars

Matthew Baker - Origin Story
A sweet story about culinary innovation in times of hardship, would have been right in place in Jeanette Winterson Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days - 3.5 stars

Esi Edugyan - To The Wall
Short vignette of a relation breaking down, with a couple being lost in snow on the Great Wall - 2 stars

John Wray - Barcelona: Open City
Interesting enough quite a few stories in the bundle reflect the wish the lockdown and suspension of normal life continued longer. This is a story of reversal of faiths due to the pandemic with an innovative business model of walking dogs - 3 stars

Edwidge Danticat - One Thing
Sobering story of the impact on the virus on a recently wed couple and on how virtual funerals become a thing - 3.5 stars

[Sunny Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

that awkward moment when you’re still in a pandemic two years later

[Trudie · Rating 5 out of 5]

* 4.5 *

It seems inevitable that 2020, that ignominious year, now safely in our rearview mirror, will at least provide fertile ground for the imaginative mind. While we wait for these seminal works of literature to percolate and ripen, The Decameron Project- 29 New Stories Stories From The Pandemic provides an immediate response to these seismic events that have shaped our lives.

This short story collection was commissioned by the New York Times Magazine in March 2020 and spans a period up to July, i.e 'early pandemic'. The inspiration was drawn from Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century collection of tales written after the Plague of 1348. While somewhat lacking in the bawdy tales found in the Italian classic, it does capture the zeitgeist of the early months of the global pandemic while simultaneously introducing readers to a variety of voices in contemporary literature.

Some favourite authors are here; Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Rachel Kushner, and Colm Toibin, the later presenting an amusing lockdown diary in which we learn some interesting details about Colm:
I cannot drive and cannot cook. I cannot dance... I have never willingly used a vacuum cleaner or knowingly made a bed" sounds like the perfect pandemic house guest.

Charles Yu, the recipient of the National Book Award for Interior Chinatown, writes from the point of view of the virus and also appears to use my own Google search history to full advantage :

 They search for things: Why do some people say coronavirus not that bad. News sources trustworthy. Facui... Fauci facepalm gif

What results is a perfect encapsulation of all our 2020 anxieties wrapped up in an unusual little story.
John Wray pens a story about a curfew workaround involving dog walking that will be the stuff of Dr Ashley Bloomfield's nightmares (NZs own Director General of Health).

There is a gratifying diversity of voices in this collection, several in translation. Writers from Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Israel, stories told from jail, from frustrated parents or lovers, and from the whip-smart mind of Margaret Atwood there is a little doozy narrated by an alien. Some tales touch on the pandemic only tangentially others, do not mention it at all. 
Capping off this extraordinary project is a heartbreaking piece written by Haitian-American, Edwidge Danticat. She writes with tenderness about a relationship that ends via a final note :

words look as though they'd been scribbled .. with a trembling hand...words glide down the paper, degenerating

This story is a gut-punch, serving to remind us what, as a nation, we have been working hard to prevent. The reality painted by Danticat is not yet our own. 

In a collection of 29 stories, published relatively rapidly, some submissions inevitably feel a little underbaked, something dashed off during a lockdown writing session. But what this collection lacks in depth it makes up for with an impressive resonance to the time we have all shared facing down a pandemic. 
Prehaps The Decameron Project greatest achievement is its immediacy,  capturing a small but important window in time. It works on the reader as a soothing balm to help us all begin the process of recovery after a very dark year.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an anthology of 29 short stories commissioned by the editors of The New York Times Magazine during the pandemic. The NYT managed to attract a lot of very famous authors, including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, David Mitchell, Laila Lalami, Colm Tóibín and Edwidge Danticat. The stories reference the pandemic to varying degrees but some provide glimpses of what life was like during the initial global lockdown, new ways to cope and an appreciation of familiar places and activities that are now changed. It also gave me ideas for new authors to try. Although uneven, the anthology is “a reminder that the best fiction can both transport you far from yourself but also, somehow, help you understand exactly where you are.”

Some standouts for me:

“Recognition” by Victor LaValle - two women form a connection in a mostly-deserted Washington Heights apartment building

“Impatient Griselda” by Margaret Atwood - a funny story in which a visitor from another planet tries to entertain a group of earthlings during the pandemic (“only snacks whimper”)

“If Wishes Was Horses” by David Mitchell - a quarantined prisoner lives with COVID-19

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspired by Baccaccio’s 1353 compilation of stories told as the Black Death raged near Florence, the New York Times Magazine commissioned a number of notable authors to write their own short story. These very short stories were written after the first wave of the pandemic which resulted in lockdowns and travel restrictions. We have now endured marathon lockdowns, overwhelmed hospitals, exhausted health care workers, and the politicization of the virus; so some of the stories already seem a touch outdated.

The uneven mix cover: the emotional toll of being isolated for long periods of time, the fear of seeking medical attention while COVID is prevalent; the difficulty of returning home to one’s country when borders are closed; and the necessity of conducting virtual funerals. My favorite stories include: Rachel Kushner’s ‘The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase’—a charming story within a story; David Mitchell’s ‘If Wishes Was Horses’—the experience of a COVID-positive prisoner; John Wray’s ‘Barcelona: Open City’—a scammer who rented his dog-walking so that people could escape from their lockdown; and Rivers Solomon’s ‘Prudent Girls’—that suggests a lockdown is the perfect time to commit murder. Enjoy!

[Katerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Какой хороший сборник! Очень своевременный, искренний, человеческий. Прекрасный пример сиюминутного художественного осмысления непростой реальности; думаю, в какой-то момент появится множество романов про ковид, а этот сборник станет первым и самым незамутненным зеркалом. Понравилось все, кроме натужного рассказа Этвуд про пришельцев — потому что в переживании актуального ценно как раз живое, а не «я большая писательница, я по-простому не умею».

[Titi Coolda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi-a plăcut la antologia asta că avem 29 de povestiri cap-coadă, nu fragmente din cărți în devenire. Modul de abordare a tematicii este diferit de la autor la autor. Și asta iarăși este un lucru fain. Nu fac un top pentru că nu doresc să alterez activitatea următoarelor luni ale Clubului cititorilor de cursă lungă.

[Mina H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Between 3 and 4 stars. Doar 13 din 29 de povestiri din antologia de față au reușit să îmi trezească interesul/plăcerea lecturii, niciuna însă fiind de 5* + premiul cu coroniță.

Acestea sunt:

• Povesti de la rîul LOS Angeles - Colm Toibin (4*)
• Broussard - Leila Slimani (4*)
• Nerăbdătoarea Griselda - Margaret Atwood (4*)
• Descătușare - Etgar Keret (3*)
• Fata cu valiza mare și roșie - Rachel Kushner (4*)
• Cum ne jucam cîndva - Dinaw Mengestu (3*)
• Tovarășul de călătorie perfect - Paolo Giordano (4*)
• Un hoț blînd - Mia Couto (3*)
• Atunci, la nunta lui frate-meu - Laila Lalami (3*)
• Fete prudente - Rivers Solomon (4*)
• Povestea originii - Matthew Baker (3*)
• Barcelona: oraș deschis (4*)
• Un singur lucru - Edwidge Danticat (3*)

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, varied collection of 29 short stories, quite short in fact. As with any short story collection, some are better than others, but the BEST one, hands down, is Impatient Griselda by Margaret Atwood. Her wit and humor at its best.

[Hristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5
Mare parte din texte mi-au plăcut. Rămâne totuși o carte medie, fără revelații

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) Creative responses to Covid-19, ranging from the prosaic to the fantastical. Worry over a sick baby (Liz Moore), screen time as a distraction or reward (Alejandro Zambra); sadness, loss, or just boredom. I appreciated the mix of authors, some in translation and some closer to genre fiction than lit fic.

Standouts were by Victor LaValle (NYC apartment neighbors; magic realism), Colm Tóibín (lockdown prompts a man to consider his compatibility with his boyfriend), Karen Russell (time stops during a bus journey), Rivers Solomon (an abused girl and her imprisoned mother get revenge), Matthew Baker (a feuding grandmother and granddaughter find something to agree on), and John Wray (a relationship starts up during quarantine in Barcelona).

The best story of all, though, like by a mile, was by Margaret Atwood (she pitched it to the NYT as “told to a group of quarantined Earthlings by an alien from a distant planet who has been sent to Earth as part of an interstellar aid package”), so funny and with canny gender commentary. Hers was probably the one that most cleverly took up the Decameron brief, too: telling a story about storytelling for distraction during a plague.

A few good out-of-context lines:

“I know the illness well. It’s called indifference. They would need a hospital the size of the whole world to treat this epidemic.” (from Mia Couto’s story)

“Time stripped of meaning was a collective happening, and yet a strictly intimate one.” (from Julián Fuks’s story)

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deși unele sunt excelente (Atwood, Edugyan, Mitchell), unele foarte bune (Slimani, Keret, Tóibín, Giordano, Wray, Danticat, LaValle, Kushner), iar altele - foarte slabe, antologia are un aer unitar, pe care nu l-am găsit în alte volume de genul. Se simte că tema (pandemia) le leagă, chiar dacă unele nu fac nicio referire directă la ea, ci doar sunt cumva bântuite de o atmosferă de izolare, de nevoia de libertate sau doar de umor negru.

[Rick Slane · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I was reading Billy Summers, I noticed Stephen King mention Covid-19 and the lockdown but did not work it into the novel. So I became curious about this collection but found it for the most part unremarkable.

[Giorgia Monni · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nei primi mesi del primo lockdown, e sotto la pelle di tutto quello che accadeva, sembrava che il tempo si fosse fermato. Sembrava non esserci più passato, sembrava impossibile immaginare futuro e si ripeteva costante il presente senza confini”

[Eggp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing mess
not in the spirit at all
shocking lack of nuns.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first and last stories in this collection touched me deeply. Recognition by Victor Lavalle and One Thing by Edwidge Danticat. The Morningside by Tea Obreht was also memorable and haunting.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boccacio writes that during the Black Death the people of Florence stopped mourning or weeping the dead. After some days away, the young storytellers of his tale are finally able to cry, nominally over imaginary tales of tragic love but more likely from their own hearts.

--Rivka Galchen, from the introduction

So, as the title says, here are 29 original stories solicited by the NYTimes from a group of top notch writers in 2020, the first and definitely worst year of the pandemic for the majority of us. Reading about it now already feels like something I imagined, my brain furiously shoveling blankets and bulk toilet paper rolls over top of the memories.

If you are a Times subscriber, you can access these stories for free in their archive. And I wonder if that might be a better way to consume them. There are great stories, good stories, stories that have little to nothing to do with Covid or feel like someone pulled an old story out of a drawer and stapled the word "coronavirus" to it, stories I didn't get, and a small few I just didn't like. Surprisingly few tackle the pandemic head on.

It was a bit of a grind reading this up and down collection and the book's weight slowly became akin in my mind to the weight of the sun when I picked it up. So, as much as I would like to give 5 stars for the concept and despite being an NYT superfan, I'm going to settle on three. But shop around, there are lots of opinions.

The Stories, with favorites in bold

• “Recognition” by Victor LaValle: Two women form a fragile bond during the grim NYC lockdown but Covid lays waste to the uninfected too in its own way (3 stars)

• “A Blue Sky Like This” by Mona Awad: A woman in search of a facial (just a facial, for God's sakes) in this crazy lockdown mess gets the Eternal Sunshine treatment of her dreams. This story is pure Mona Awad and I loved it. (4.5 stars)

• “The Walk” by Kamila Shamsie: Some readers found this story about some women taking a walk in Karachi too brief but it reminded me a bit of The Story of Zahra, another story about women in a repressive society finding freedom unexpectedly in apocalypse. (3.5 stars)

• “Tales From the L.A. Basin” by Colm Toibin: An unexpectedly hilarious recounting of a lockdown romance failing to measure up to the glossy Instagram fables of others. Nothing can stop FOMO culture, not even a demi-apocalypse.(4 stars)

• “Clinical Notes” by Liz Moore: “Warm, not hot, she thinks—a chant, a prayer.” Sick baby + middle of the night + Covid circa 2020. Liz Moore is a genius and everyone should read her. (4 stars)

• “The Team” by Tommy Orange: This slice of life POV of the pandemic was ok, it didn’t totally work for me. (2.5 stars)

• “The Rock” by Leila Slimani: Not sure what this has to do with the pandemic, or much of anything really. Maybe it makes more sense in the French? (1 star)

• “Impatient Griselda” by Margaret Atwood: Oh, Margaret. You minx. This story about an alien trying (and both failing and succeeding) to recount an Earth folktale to a group of captive humans is very funny so I don’t care that it has little connection to an asshole virus. (5 stars)

• “Under the Magnolia” by Yiyun Lee: I do enjoy Yiyun Lee and this story about a lawyer/estate planner has a lovely melancholy tone, but it was too slight for me (3 stars)

• “Outside” by Etgar Keret: “The body remembers everything, and that heart that softened while you were alone will harden back up in no time.” Kudos to Keret for punching me in the gut with this slightly surreal tale about people forgetting and remembering how to be—and remembering the wrong things. (5 stars)

• “Keepsakes” by Andrew O’Hagan: Another story I didn’t really get or care for about a singularly unpleasant Glasgow man dealing with his mother’s effects after she dies. (1 star)

• “The Girl With the Big Red Suitcase” by Rachel Kushner: The only author to take on the Decameron concept head-on with this tale of international travelers stuck together in lockdown swapping stories. Quirky and fun. (4 stars)

• “The Morningside” by Tea Obreht: Again, not sure how this tied into the theme but it was such an odd, maybe or maybe not magical realist tale and I can’t get it out of my head. (4 stars)

• “Screen Time” by Alejandro Zamba: a perfectly pleasant but dull story of two parents navigating the more mundane aspects of lockdown. Parents might relate to it better. (2 stars)

• “How We Used to Play” by Dinaw Mengestu: This story of a young man trying to take his uncle to the grocery in the early days of the pandemic took me there. I should hate Mengestu for that—who wants to remember that?—but it was so perfectly captured and felt exactly like trying to help my mother. (4.5 stars)

• “Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan” by Karen Russell: I just can’t buy into Russell’s magical realist tales typically, but I got this one, maybe, about time stopping on a Seattle bus ride. (3 stars)

• “If Wishes Was Horses” by David Mitchell: My first David Mitchell!! I’m of two minds of this one, a story about lockdown in a British prison. Mitchell’s storytelling sucked me in immediately, but the plot was predictable and it was obvious where the story was going. (3 stars)

• “Systems” by Charles Yu: WOW!! This was the best story in the collection for me, a tale of humanity being observed by a mysterious watcher. The story starts out making you wonder if it’s going to be absurdist but it takes some emotional but still absurd turns that made me feel like Yu was pulling off a magic act. (5 stars)

• “The Perfect Travel Buddy” by Paolo Giordano: this tale of a man’s lockdown in rural Italy being ruined by the appearance of his weird stepson was funny, but I think maybe I’d have to be Italian, or at the very least European, to get it. (2.5 stars)

• “An Obliging Robber” by Mia Couto: an elderly man mistakes a public health worker for a thief. I didn’t get it, but that’s probably a me thing. (1 star)

• “Sleep” by Uzodinma Iweala: This story of shifting perspectives in a rocky interracial relationship was hard to follow and (wait for it) had nothing discernibly to do with the theme. I’ll allow I’m not smart enough to get it. (2 stars)

• “The Cellar” by Dina Nayeri: As the story passes, you come to fully understand how an Iranian expatriate couple who grew up during the Iran-Iraq War perceive lockdown in Paris. There were some scenes with their daughter I didn’t really get but I definitely want to read more Nayeri. (3.5 stars)

• “That Time at My Brother’s Wedding” by Laila Lalami: I just need someone to tell me the plucky and hilarious Ms. Bensaid made it out of the Casablanca airport for the love of God. (4.5 stars)

• “The Time of Death, The Death of Time” by Julian Fuks: Another story about time slowing and distorting assures me I’m not the only one who still feels unable to understand the passage of time years after 2020. (3 stars)

• “Prudent Girls” by Rivers Solomon: Jerusha has a plan to bust her momma out of the Penitentiary and Covid, along with some convenient information, is going to help her do it. This story had some flaws but that didn’t stop me from being pissed that it was over because I just wanted to keep reading it. (3.5 stars)

• “Origin Story” by Matthew Baker: “From rationing and desperation, greatness can arise!” This story about a family who unwittingly launched a foodie trend by sheltering with their matriarch was warm and charming. (5 stars)

• “To the Wall” by Esi Edugyan: A woman recalls a trip to the Great Wall as a milestone in a faltering relationship. Edugyan’s story really comes alive in small details, like the women who serve them hot tea when they get lost, but was otherwise too slight and another submission that has Covid shoved into it. (3 stars)

• “Barcelona: Open City” by John Wray: “Still, they might have stood a chance, Xavi insisted—they might have made a real home, settled down, maybe even had a couple of kids—if the lockdown had never been lifted.” Another comical tale, about a slacker’s plan to make a living charging strangers wishing to thwart quarantine by walking his dogs, perfectly captures the surreal aura of the time. (4.5 stars)

• “One Thing” by Edwidge Danticat: This is the only story that tackles the illness directly and it’s a brief but painful tale about a newlywed woman coping with her husband’s illness and her inability to even visit him in the hospital. (4 stars)

[Karen O · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really a mixed bag. I read some of these stories in the NY Times magazine and listened to some on audio. I was hoping to like it a lot more than I did. There are some very good stories in here along with quite a few forgettable ones.

[Nostalgia Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

WELL THAT WAS DISAPPOINTING. The introductions to this collection led me to believe that the stories would be much like those in the original Decameron: not mentioning the plague in anyway in their stories. But no, all of these stories directly and actively are set in the midst of covid lockdowns, or in the world surrounding it, where social distancing and zoom and masks are all involved. The Decameron was intended to be escapist stories, stories from BEFORE the plague, or at least, a world without it. These were not that at all. And I think that just made me bitter towards the collection from the start. But I kept on reading. And reading. And skimming. Hoping there was something that was either a story I could relate to (there were none) or something that was just absurd and amusing and mindlessly funny. But nope.

While I hated these stories mainly because SO MANY of them were lamenting about losing a life that I have no desire to live (mainly these are about people, likely extroverts, living in large metropolises that are now depressed they have no social life, can't interact with others, or have to interact with family), these stories might also just depress those people who WOULD relate more to this lifestyle. I suppose I'm just too much of a cynical hermit to appreciate the supposedly heart-felt, heart-wrenching laments.

That's not to say there aren't a few good stories in here.

5 stars: Tea Obreht's "The Morningside" started off a bit like all the others had, but slowly wove itself into a delightful magical realist tale (as many of these stories are!). A woman's doggos are not what they seem. Nor is the painting. Very much a Grimm-level story.

4.5 stars: Margaret Atwood's "Impatient Griselda" was quite excellent as it was framed exactly like a Decameron story (it supposedly is inspired by Day 10, Story 10's tale even!), with aliens telling it to childish humans in quarantine. (If you know the Strange Planet comics, it is essentially told in b e i n g s p e a k). It had an accurate framing device and a fun story!

Runner's up (3 stars) include: Rivers Solomon's "Prudent Girls" (poetic justice), Karen Russell's "Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan" (weird time travel mechanics), and Victor LaValle's "Recognition" (another magical realism one). Rachel Kushner's "The Girl with the Red Suitcase" was relatively mediocre, but gets an honorable mention for also utilizing proper Decameron framing devices.

But those are it. Everything else got 1 or 2 stars. And while that made my average star rating just BARELY 2 stars exactly, I was just so disappointed by it all--the currentness of all the stories, the lack of framing amongst them all, the fact I didn't find any new authors to explore more, and the fact that the stories numbered 29--not 30 or 31 for a full month of stories, not 100 that would match it to the original Decameron, despite the editor saying they had a bajillion submissions (if these were the best, I'd hate to see the ones that weren't included)--means I'm just rounding down to one, mediocre star.

I'm glad to be done with it. I would have dnf'd it had the stories not been super short to read/skim through during a work day.

[Thor Balanon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It what I needed, this strangely comforting collection of shorts stories about the pandemic. The stories are short but with an anxious, exhausted mind, they feel lengthy, like bits of memories from the last year: the bad that some of us luckily lived through, the silly that we clung to for survival, and the long stretch of loneliness, stretched so thinly you were *this* close to snapping. The quality of writing is more or less consistent—I'm more forgiving these days—and there are several standouts: The Cellar by Dina Nayeri about a couple stuck in lockdown remembering their childhood spent in bomb shelters in Iran, Téa Obreht's fable-like The Morningside, opener Recognition by Victor LaValle about connections made during lockdown in an apartment, which takes a haunting turn, and closer One Thing by Edqige Danticat about a young couple separated by the virus, which broke my heart. And of course, you have the literary darlings Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Karen Russell, Rachel Kushner, Cólm Toibín, and Charles Yu.

Our country is still in the middle of a surge so a lot of these emotions are still present. The Decameron Project is good company and allowed me to process things, good and bad and unknown. Thank you @_fullybooked for sending this my way. I needed this.

Amazing cover art by @sophyhollington

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in the original version when first released by the NY Times Magazine. It is an awesome collection. Highly recommended.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the spirit of the original Decameron, at the beginning of the pandemic, the editors of the New York Times Magazine put out a call for submissions. The Decameron Project is the result of that call - 29 stories from some of today’s most well known authors. The voices and styles are varied, the quality is rock solid. It was so interesting to read this collection immediately after finishing some of the original Decameron -seeing how themes and reactions tie together across the centuries. Some of the stories in this collection connect significantly to the plots in the original collection, others just pull on a thread - but reading these back to back was a great reading experience. Also - the chance to read a short story collection that includes writers such as Eli Edugyan, Tommy Orange, David Mitchell, Rivers Solomon, Edwidge Danticat, Kamala Shamsie, and many more - that alone makes it worth picking up this book. The lineup of authors is like a list of some of the best authors publishing today.

[Emily Coffee and Commentary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Decameron inspired anthology on the ways in which life has changed due to The coronavirus pandemic. From some of today’s most iconic writers, this anthology details not only the chaos, uncertainty, and unrest caused by the pandemic, but also the ways in which we have come to better appreciate ourselves, each other, and whatever may come next. From funny to somber to otherworldly, each story adds a layer of complexity and emotion to the ways in which our world has changed, and continues to change, in the face of such an impactful event. Is reminds us that although we must be cautious and aware, we must also find ways to connect to one another, and to express our stories for centuries to come.

[Nazmi Yaakub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Antologi cerpen ini ibarat ‘dokumentasi’ kreatif terhadap kehidupan pengarang bergelut dengan pandemik COVID-19 dan perintah berkurung dilaksanakan yang boleh disifatkan sebagai ‘mentah’. Pandemik masih menjadi realiti yang perlu diharungi, manakala kemanusiaan masih bergelut untuk melaluinya. Sudah tentu, cerpen-cerpen terkandung dalam antologi ini tidaklah betul-betul masak, tetapi boleh menjadi sebahagian rujukan sosio-budaya bagaimana manusia berdepan dengan krisis kesihatan yang menguji makna kemanusiaan dalam banyak segi.

[Johannes · Rating 2 out of 5]

En sano, että kaikki kertomukset olivat täysin yhdentekeviä, ainoastaan valtaosa.

[Panou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am avut așteptări mai mari. Mi-au plăcut: „Fata cu valiza mare și roșie” (Rachel Kushner) și „Spre zid” (Esi Edugyan).

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's December 31, 2020. The most perfectly appropriate way to end this strange year, I thought, was to read a book that is all about 2020. The Pandemic Year. What it was like. I just finished reading "The Decameron Project," two hours before the end of the year, and the last thing I will do this year is post my review of it at Goodreads.

First comment: I loved the original Decameron. So it's hard for any other book to measure up.

Nevertheless: I loved the idea of this book. Twenty-nine stories by authors from all over the world. The number one message of this book is that every country, from Spain to Israel to Brazil to China, went through a major upheaval because of the coronavirus. We were all in this together, even while we were so much apart.

But on the other hand: "The Decameron Project" is a book that no one will want to read or remember a year from now, or two years, or ten years. 2020 is a year that everybody is going to want to forget. This book will of of interest only to people writing dissertations on What it Was Like During the Pandemic.

Addressing myself to that dissertation writer: What will you find here? Aside from that one gentle and profound message, that we were all in this together, you will not find any other single and consistent message. The 29 voices here are all different.

In a book with 29 authors, it's very, very tempting to pick winners. The story I enjoyed most surprised me: it was by Margaret Atwood, author of the dour "Handmaid's Tale," a feminist dystopia. Her story in this book, "Impatient Griselda," is absolutely hilarious. Maybe it's because this time we're *already living in* the dystopia, so she doesn't have to waste any words setting up that aspect of her story.

The story that hit me hardest? Probably Edwidge Danticat's "One Thing," with Victor LaValle's "Recognition" a very close second. I think it's no accident that the compilers placed them first and last in the collection. They are the two stories that deal most directly with death. Among all the things we have lost this year, you have to acknowledge that the people who died too soon were the most grievous loss.

The cleverest story? "The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase," by Rachel Kushner, has a wonderful twist at the end. The most unique voice? That would have to be "Systems," by Charles Yu, told from the virus's point of view.

As for the other 24 stories that I haven't mentioned, like me, you will probably find most of them to be forgettable stories from a forgettable collection about a forgettable year. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Most of Boccaccio's stories were forgettable, too. And yet it's somehow the massive fact of all of them that makes his book unforgettable.

As I get older and my memory gets worse and worse, I think of memory as a tapestry in which the vast majority of stitches, 99 percent of them, are completely unnoticeable. If you really peer closely you'll see the stitches, but when you look away they will recede. Only a few highlights of the tapestry stand out, no matter what angle you look at it from. But you need the whole tapestry. Without it, the highlights would not have anything to stand out against.

So, "The Decameron Project" is a tapestry of the year 2020. Read. Remember. And then forget.

[Jayme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the concept of a modern, COVID Decameron. All star cast of authors. Buuuut, it reminded me, in tone, of the environmental edition of McSweeney's last year. Maybe themed short story collections aren't for me. They all ended up blending together at some point.

My favourites were the ones that played with form, like Clinical Notes by Liz Moore (literally told through the point of view of notes documenting a young family's late-night stress about baby's fever) and Systems by Charles Yu told from the point of view of google, I think? Karen Russell's Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan wins for weirdest (and therefore best) short story where a bus accident traps the passengers in time.

[Monte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading about this pandemic as it’s happening has been... interesting. Many stories were set in New York and other major cities in April, and reading them from the vantage point of a suburb in December was downright bizarre. The deserted streets and desperation for human contact permeating many of these stories contrasted with my reality working retail right across a lockdown border, telling customers to pull their masks up over their noses and dealing with people who didn’t understand why their package was delayed the week of Christmas in the middle of a pandemic. The reality depicted in the Decameron Project is no longer as horrible to me because at the end of 2020, I was living the alternative. Compared to the risks I and many others ran every day to keep the world open, deserted streets sounded downright idyllic.

Beyond highlighting the major shifts that have already occurred in the few months since these stories were written, this collection was, for the most part, less illuminating than I had hoped. Only a few stories were truly excellent. I believe these might be available somewhere on the NYT website ?? if you’d like to seek out just the standout ones. Below are my picks:

- Clinical Notes by Liz Moore
- Impatient Griselda by Margaret Atwood
- The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase by Rachel Kushner
- Line 19 Woodstock/Glisan by Karen Russel (my favourite of the bunch!)
- The Cellar by Dina Nayeri
- Prudent Girls by Rivers Solomon
- Barcelona: Open City
- One Thing by Edwidge Danticat

Overall, I felt this worth reading if only to experience these stories during the pandemic, but enter with tempered expectations.

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. I will post that review upon publication.

Updated 11/10/20

4 stars

Like all collections - particularly those by a compilation of distinct authors - there are some standout works here and some that fall a bit short.

In some ways, it's too soon to appreciate these writings. After all, we're still very much living in the pandemic; in Southern California, especially, the life we started living in March clearly reflects the experience we're in now. I wonder if I'll appreciate more of these works when I have added distance from the immediate situation.

On the other hand, there is something quite unifying about reading these pieces. Being in this situation is wildly isolating, and it's impossible to know what others' experiences are when you are in less contact verbally and no contact in person. I really enjoy that connective element throughout the collection.