Status Updates From The Best American Short Sto...

2nd story: The Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue (by: Poe Ballantine)
a dark coming-of-age

4th story; Chance (by: Edith Pearlman) Love & Ancestry

2nd Story; Semblance of control

five words or less to describe the first story - roommates; the key to happiness

Read the final story, “Would You Know It Wasn’t Love” by Hester Kaplan, which was decidedly middling.

Read “Welding with Children” by Tim Gautreaux, a perceptive, sadly funny, but not quite fully formed portrait of a grandfather trying to do better with his grandkids than he did with his own children.

Read the short, very thin, sort of funny “Wayne in Love” by Padgett Powell

Read “United Front” by Antonya Nelson, which tried just a bit too hard to be both clever and emotionally grounded, although its central idea was an interesting one.

Read the delicately rendered, subtly complex “Tea at the House” by Meg Wolitzer. She’s a writer whose work is widely acclaimed, but this was my first encounter with her. It won’t be my last.

Read “People Like That Are the Only People Here” by the magnificent Lorrie Moore. It resonated quite powerfully for me, as the father of a 5-month-old son. I’m not quite sure how she manages her wonderful alchemy of blending dark humor with real heartbreak, but this is a shining example of its powerful effect.

Read “Penance” by Matthew Crain, which is the most powerfully affecting story I’ve read so far in this collection.