short stories

I bought this book a little dubious of its quality (mainly because the annual publication has so many glaring ommisions, such as John O'Hara and more contemporarily, Deborah Eisenberg), however I was pleasantly surprised. The selection amongst the famous authors are brilliant (I'm thinking specifically of Nabokov, Faulkner and Hemingway). There are also short stories I'd never heard of that are amongst the best I've ever read (Elizabeth Bishop's gem and E.B. White's hysterically brilliant story). Finally there is a list of stories that doesn't dismiss contemporary writers. It is nice to see writers like Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, Alice Munro, Tim O'Brien and Anne Proulox be recognized. But I must once again bemoan the absence of perhaps the best living short story writer, Deborah Eisenberg.

From the well of short stories written by Americans in the 20th century, which were the best? The title of this book led me to believe that in it John Updike would attempt to answer this question. But he doesn't. As the introduction reveals, he asks, rather, which stories by Americans were the best in each decade, intentionally giving each decade roughly equal weight. He also intentionally excludes stories that don't take place in America (or inexplicably, Canada), with two (inexplicable) exceptions. So, if one decade was particularly heavy with great fiction, another particularly light, that is not reflected here. American writers' perceptions of foreign countries in large part are also not here for the (again inexplicable) reason that such stories do not reflect "an American reality". We have instead the best short stories of each decade, so long as those stories take place in America or Canada, considered separately decade by decade. Thus, the title of the book becomes misleading and "the best short story" people who have been keeping a watch over the short story world for nearly a century and therefore are probably the only people capable of producing a book of the best American short stories of the century have lost their opportunity to do so. I do not think this is a small concern. It would have been fantastic to see how each decade measured up against the other in terms of the quantity of great stories in each. This book, like so many, is a collection of lots of fine short stories, but it is not the collection that it purports (via its title at least) to be.

Solely due to the way this book was assembled, it cannot live up to its title. This book is not an assemblage of the best short stories from the entire body of 20th century American literature; rather, this book is an anthology of the best stories that happened to have appeared in the annual Best American Short Story volumes. So, to make it into this book, a story would have had to be recognized when it was written as being one of the best of that year, as chosen by a single editor/reader.

I enjoy reading short stories, and every year I purchase both the O. Henry Prize Stories and the Best American Short Stories. When I first did this, I was amazed at how little overlap there is between 20 stories chosen for each anthology (usually, there are only one or two stories in common, and typically the story chosen by O. Henry as the best of the year does not appear in the other anthology). So once again we have evidence that beauty (and art and subjective opinions such as "best") are in the eye of the beholder.

So, can John Updike's selections be debated? Undoubtedly; every reader of this anthology will be able to cite stories and authors that they believe should have been included (as for me, I was most disappointed by the absence of Ray Bradbury). But is this anthology worth reading? Absolutely!

Reading this anthology cover-to-cover is like traveling through time, and provides an enriching perspective on the history of the 20th century in America. From the hardscrabble existence of immigrants and farmers, to the Depression, to the problems of racism, to the war, to the ennui that exists in a time of relative plenty, these stories do cover the broad American experience of the past century. Furthermore (aside from Ray Bradbury), many of our best authors are represented, so this book is a good way to get introduced to authors that one has heard about but not read before.

It's surprising to me that short story anthologies aren't more popular, given our busy society. A well written short story entertains, conveys a message, teaches something about the human condition, and can be enjoyed in one sitting, such as a short plane or train ride. I would highly recommend this anthology as a way for short story novices to get started, and then one can graduate to the annual O. Henry and Best American Short Story anthologies.