Edited by Robert Pack and Jay Parini
(Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1987)
The short story has always attracted America's best writers, who have used the form to portray a vast range of geography and culture. Appropriately, the greatest distinction of this collection of 22 short stories written within the last five years is its variety of content and style. The result is both a sampling of the best short fiction being written in America today and a field guide to contemporary life.
While the contributors are each well established and authors of at least two books, they range in prominence from luminaries to lesser known writers. Stylistically, there are examples of pared-down "minimalist" writing, post-Freudian "psychological" stories, fantastical tales reminiscent of the Latin American magic realists, "maximalist" stories that luxuriate in the sheer physical presence of language, and, of course, the straightforward realistic fiction that has always thrived in America.
CONTENTS
Ann Beattie
GYPSY MOTHS
Harold Brodkey
FALLING AND ASCENDING BODIES: FOUR PASSAGES
Rosellen Brown
A GOOD DEAL
Raymond Carver
Boxes
Nicholas Delbanco
AT THE PRADO: A SHORT STORY
Richard Ford
FIREWORKS
Gail Godwin
OVER THE MOUNTAIN
Ron Hansen
NEBRASKA
Mark Helprin
THE PACIFIC
Robert Houston
LAWFULLY
David Huddle
APACHE
John Irving
TRYING TO SAVE PIGGY SNEED
Joyce Johnson
THE FALL OF TEXAS
David Madden
WILLIS CARR AT BLEAK HOUSE
Mary Morris
THE LURE
Joyce Carol Oates
SURF CITY
Tim O'Brien
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
Cynthia Ozick
THE SHAWL
Francine Prose
OTHER LIVES
Lynne Sharon Schwartz
THE PAINTERS
John Updike
POKER NIGHT
Nancy Willard
HOW POETRY CAME INTO THE WORLD ANDWHY GOD DOESN'T WRITE IT
Hilma Wolitzer
MOTHER
"This superior collection of 23 superb short stories written in the past five years by the best modern American writers demonstrates conclusively that the United States still remains supreme in this literary genre."
--Virginia Quarterly Review
"Should not be overlooked ... these stories add up to a primer on how good writers are keeping a cherished literary form alive and refurbished."
--Booklist