[.ca] The Best American Short Stories (ISBN 0395875145)

From Amazon.com:
"Each of these twenty stories surprised and delighted me. Each is a story I'd gladly read out loud to anyone who wanted to be read to," writes guest editor Garrison Keillor in his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 1998. We should be so lucky! Read out loud or not, this is still one of the liveliest, most varied volumes in this venerable series. One pleasant surprise is that it isn't as New Yorker-centric as it has been in years past. Readers will find stories by both long-established voices (John Updike, Annie Proulx) and exhilarating new talent (Poe Ballantine, Maxine Swann), first published in magazines that range from regional to slick. The subject matter is no less diverse: a couple in their 40s desperate to have a baby; Walt Whitman ministering to wounded Union soldiers; the vengeful ghost of a half-skinned bull. And then there's what was perhaps the year's most stunning piece of short fiction, Lorrie Moore's "People Like That Are the Only People Here" (published in her 1998 collection, Birds of America ), a gut-wrenching, unsentimental, and yes, funny account of a mother whose baby is diagnosed with liver cancer. From its opening image of blood in a diaper ("like a tiny mouse heart packed in snow") to its bitterly self-conscious conclusion ("There are the notes. Now, where is the money?"), this is storytelling at its most visceral and affecting. Moore's piece alone makes Best American worth the price of admission; combined with the 19 other tales here, it makes a convincing case for the continuing health of the American short story.

This Year Look to Next Generation for Short Stories:
As a short story lover and and die hard fan of THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES collections, I was surprisingly disappointed by this year's edition. With the exception of a couple stories ("Cosmopolitan" and "People Like That Are the Only People Here"),I found the stories to be boring, bland, and generally lacking any spark of life. I refer anyone interested in reading authors that push limits, bring unique points of view, and take risks to Scribner's Best of the Fiction Workshops 1998 by Carol Shields (Editor), John Kulka (Editor), Natalie Danford(Editor).

Great stories:
In this collection the focus is on great storytelling. You won't find lots of stylistic acrobatics and clever postmodern narrative techniques but you will find stories that are consistently moving and a joy to read. This is the most enjoyable collection of Best American Short Stories that I have read. The audiotape is also fantastic with many of the stories being read by Garrison Keillor.

Great stories:
In this collection the focus is on great storytelling. You won't find lots of stylistic acrobatics and clever postmodern narrative techniques but you will find stories that are consistently moving and a joy to read. This is the most enjoyable collection of Best American Short Stories that I have read. The audiotape is also fantastic with many of the stories being read by Garrison Keillor.

Good collection if looked at the right way:
Interested in being published, I picked this up as a survey of what publications are buying these days. Looked at in that light, this was a "helpful" book; I am, however, inclined to agree with the previous reviewers in saying I was not overwhelmingly pleased by the stories. "Elvis has left the building" was definately a favorite, though. Still, if you like short stories, give this one a whirl.

A Quick and Nourishing Fix:
The honest reason why I pick up the Best American Short Stories series is because I typically don't like to make the commitment of reading a full length novel (read: lazy!). I figure if I really don't want to go through the hassle of reading good, classic fiction, then what should be the next best thing? Short stories are more immediate and if they're really written well, as is usually the case in these compilations, the reader is immediately submerged into another world, place and time. And when time's up, you can go on to the next story and plunge into another reality. I've been collecting the Best American Short Stories series for quite a few years now and they've never disappointed me. The special standouts in the 1998 series include Lorrie Moore's humorous and frightening account of a mother's ordeal with her toddler's life-threatening illness, as well as John Updike's wonderful short story on his tribute to his father. When you need quick brain nourishment, pick up this book and read some great writing from some of today's best authors.