Status Updates From The Best American Short Sto...

I loved The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories which was so varied & interesting so I thought I'd like this too, but so far the stories are pretty similar in structure and not creative linguistically. Anchor being edited by Ben Marcus, whose work I love, also must have contributed to that being such an exceptional collection.

I'm not sure what to make of The Valetudinarian. It was rather open-ended, and almost made me feel like a David Lynch film was pulled. I think it's more about emotions than anything though. Also, the military story preceding it was a bunch of Southern "corrupting youth" makeup for kids, it's exactly what liberals nowadays warn us against.

Only got so far with the fifth story, but it was still very hard to swallow. Military might seem enchanting but it has its demons.

The fourth short story was a bit unsettling, but I enjoyed the frank descriptions of the African outdoors. It was a bit contrary to the Millennial way of handling things, but it's only about 13 years old so I wouldn't expect it to appeal to that many progressives.

The first story was the first story my English class in college studied. It was kind of like looking back in time and back then I was not at all a full time studious student. But it's not entirely outdated, and some stuff still sticks out as like a case study of sorts.

On my way to starting a short story collection that haunted me in terms of difficulty and analysis. Now with age, I can better see how everything fits together and my English course didn't just say things for no reason. Also, it's good to see it's focused on fun.

So far I've really liked most of the stories. A lot of familiar names from previous BASS selections.