The Best American Short Stories 2008 (The Best American ... (ISBN 061878876X)

Recommended:
I look forward to this series every year, so it was with high hopes that I opened up this year's editon and began to read. The format is the same as it has been for years, with Ms. Pitlor cherry picking stories and handing over a hundred or so vetted stories to the guest editor. I don't get too caught up in who the guest editor is in any given year - I think Ms. Pitlor does a good job in gathering a pool of quality stories, but this year I thought the overall effort was slightly below the average. Four of the stories in the collection come from Harper's Magazine, and while I was glad to see the series move away from being so New Yorker oriented, I subscribe to Harper's, so those stories weren't new to me. To of them deserved rereading anyway - the masterful Alice Munro with "Child's Play", and Nicole Krauss, "From the Desk of Daniel Varsky." Two of the three stories from the New Yorker were also quite well done - "Puppy", by George Saunders, and "Nawabdin Electrician" by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Others that I felt really rose above were "Buying Lenin" by Miroslav Penkov, "Man and Wife," by Katie Chase, and "Straightaway," by Mark Wisniewski. Four of the stories in this collection would fall under what I would loosely consider 'Fabulist' stories, and those are not really my thing, although I still enjoyed "Man and Wife." Perhaps that is a trend, because I don't remember as much of that in years past. One of the things I've always enjoyed about this series is that it collects stories I'm sure I'd never get to see otherwise, and that always makes it worth it to me. This year, I would just have to say that not all of it was as interesting to me as other years. I would still definetly recommend it to anyone who enjoys short stories.

good variety of short stories:
Bought at the airport for a Denver-Seattle trip, I found these stories ranged from fair to excellent, with plenty of very good ones. These tend toward moderately serious, with definite purpose and action, and minimal preaching, and are 20-30 pages apiece. What else should a short-story review report to avoid any more "not useful" feedback? I like short stories, and have not come across such a good collection in my lackadaisical eclectic sampling for quite a few years. Several, including the ones about the guy on the motorcycle, the swimming girls, and the puppy adoption, remain on my mind still. The brief biographies and authors' comments about their stories was a welcome addendum.

And Miroslav Penkov is not even American:
Last night I read the first paragraph of every short story in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2008 to determine if any first paragraph made me want to read the second paragraph. Only one did: "Buying Lenin" by Miroslav Penkov. Mr. Penkov is from Bulgaria. I found the story exceptionally well written. It's a given that I'll be buying any publication that Mr. Penkov writes in the future. I am not a professional reviewer, but I know a great author when I read one. Entertaining as well was the biography in the back of the book on this new author. Of course I'll probably read the others stories that were written by the likes of Jonathan Lethem and Alice Munro.

Not so good:
There were only 2 or 3 stories in this whole book that I felt were really well done and not boring. The A.M. Homes story was one of them. Not a very good "best" collection.

Bought for an exchange, it was well received:
I bought this for a holiday gift exchange and it was pretty well received. They tried to read as many stories as possible before the holidays were over. I didn't get to read any so I can't personally speak to the stories.