Book Cover: As far as I can tell there’s no variation in book cover, because there’s no second printing. Or, rather, no trade printing, I think it’s called, where they package the book in a cheaper setting and sell it for half the original price. The cover is also the same as every other cover between, from what I can tell, 1989 and 1999, with only the date and the name of the guest editor changing.
Editor: E. Annie Proulx
Category: American Literature, Contemporary Literature, Anthology, Short Stories
Why I Read It: The Best American Short Stories Series might very well be the death of me someday. When it comes to books I am not just a reader; if that were true I’d be getting them from the library (Dude, if you are ever in Cheyenne for any period of time and you like reading, check out the library. Three floors, full collections, everything is well kept...the staff is pretty surly, actually, for reasons I'm not entirely sure on, but there's an automated check out so you can just shun them all as soon as you walk in. The library is one of the things I am going to miss when I leave Cheyenne). I mean, I am a broke AmeriCorps VISTA living on a pittance and yet the guy down at Phoenix Used Books practically knows my name. All because I am a notorious collector.
The library's impressively large BASS collection. If I were very evil they'd never see half of these books again after I moved away in September. Lucky for them, my evil flavoring is mild.
I know everyone these days says they have OCD, and really if everyone who said they did actually did the world would be a hell of a lot neater (Anyone who says they have OCD and then leaves their trays on the table when they leave a fast food restaurant is a liar. And also disgusting). So I’m not saying I have OCD, but I do have some…tendencies. One of which is that if I start collecting something, either on purpose or by accident, I’m not really happy until I have the entire set. I did it with small national flags you could buy from the Epcot Center (I have around fifty and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them), I did it with those Beanie Baby Bears you could get with your Happy Meals back when people were still planning to go to college by collecting those things (Ahh, the great Beanie Baby Crash of 2002. One of the worst financial downturns of the century), and I’m doing it with my books. I want to have these books, little monuments to what I have read, and if I have a bunch by the same author, I’d prefer it if the covers match each other (as I said with Coyote Blue). And if they do match, I want them all.
The problem here is that Best American Short Stories started in 1915, and I only got my first one for my 22nd birthday shortly after I started snatching up all the fiction anthologies I could. That’s...okay, hold on her...born in '87...graduated '09...carry the one...okay, that's ninety-four books I’d need to catch up on, most of which can’t be in print anymore and the bulk of which must be damned hard to find.
So, in an effort to stay sane (sane enough, anyway) I’ve decided I’m only going to go back to the year I was born, 1987. I found 1997 at the same time I found 1998. There are some names in here I recognized instantly and looked forward to reading, and it’s funny to me that now, in 2010, I know these names and what they mean to the literary world, but when it was written, I was a ten year old kid who barely even knew how important language and storytelling was going to become to me. I remember having dreams of writing movie reviews, but whenever I pictured my future I was always working in a cubicle somewhere. Then again, ten year olds are notoriously stupid.
They say there are two reasons why people read something, because they want to, or because they want to tell people they have. I read this for both reasons, I guess, and for a third: if I’m going to be a writer, I want to read everything considered the ‘best.’ What did these writers do to get a place in this book? They tell you that as a writer you never get to read for pleasure again, and they’re right: it’s all research.
Reading Time Period: July 15, 2010-July 19, 2010
Book Printing and Condition: Copyright 1997, printed probably early 1998 although it doesn’t give a date anywhere. Printed by Houghton Mifflin Company in the USA. There’s a slight crease down the front cover but otherwise this book is in excellent condition. Also, I received a fun surprise as I reached “Search Bay” by Alyson Hagy: she had signed the book just above her name.
Where I bought it: Night Heron Books, In Laramie, WY, for $5.50, which explains how I got Hagy’s signature as she’s currently teaching at the University of Wyoming. What I can’t figure out is how a book with an author’s signature ended up in a second hand shop. Who goes out of their way to get the author’s signature and then sells it? There was nothing on the front indicating that the book had been signed, which makes me think the owner of the store didn’t even know. Hell, maybe she just took a walk to the store, found it on the shelf, and signed it for funsies.
Thoughts: Unlike the other BASS I’ve read in the past, guest editor E. Annie Proulx (best known at this point for writing the short story "Brokeback Mountain") split the stories up into groups, every story in each group relating to a main topic. The stories were well placed and obviously fit into the theme, and I think the order Proulx put them into made for a very even flow.
Manners and Right Behavior
“Saboteur” by Ha Jin
- Very dark, very sparse, and short. There is a brief female presence and a massive police presence. I feel that the spreading of the hepatitis at the end might actually have been the spreading of anger.
- Another dark one. This story had great characterization and even better imagery. Everybody in this story is a pain in the ass, but you still care about them. Or at least, you care about who you’re supposed to care about.
- “…lemony point of her nose.”
- We have two equally selfish people here who fail amazingly at any sort of communication. Bob doesn’t like Carla, he just wants her to submit, which she won’t because that’s not the kind of person she is. He’s screwed himself on this one.
- My favorite of the book. I loved the voice, especially, and I loved the style and the flow of the prose.
- “…since the fiction of living in this house was that no one lived here.” God, what a line. It’s the truth, isn’t it?
- “This is one way of recognizing a place of enchantment: a suspiciously high incidence of narcolepsy.”
Identifying the Stranger
“Transactions” by Michelle Cliff
- Brilliant characterization, and I loved the voice, the style, and the word choices. It’s quite the oddball story, when you think about it, from beginning to end, and it’s written in a way that doesn’t shy away from that, exactly, but makes it feel like oddball is the normal.
- I wasn’t a fan of this story in the beginning but it grew on me until I loved it by the end. Everybody hates the kind of person Samantha is, don’t they?
“Save My Child!” by Cynthia Ozick
- I liked Lidia more and more as this went on but was still glad to see her go. Such culture clash! And such a destruction of expectations for both people in this relationship. There was a line of dark humor here I very much appreciated and the imagery was very clear.
“Eternal Love” by Karen E. Bender
- I didn’t love this one but it was all right. Bob was very annoying and I only felt mildly bad for Ella. It was a very interesting thing to write about, I will give it that. It’s not a topic you’d see just about anywhere.
“A Girl with a Monkey” by Leonard Michaels.
- I loved the opposites and turned around expectations used to write this. “He knew it wouldn’t work so he only did it three more times.” Stuff like that. This kind of phrasing peppers the whole piece and clearly sets it apart.
- The house and their lives during this time are the true main characters here, not the people themselves. The details are lovingly written and expounded upon and you can feel the seasons change in the story. Who are they and why are they there? Doesn’t matter. The house matters.
“Fiesta, 1980” by Junot Diaz
- I loved the voice on this one. Authentic, I think, and still very unique. I loved how the party is the eye of the storm, a moment in time where events folded in on themselves, coming together from the past and then spreading out indefinitely in the future.
- “The affair was like a hole in our living room floor, one we’d gotten so use to circumnavigating that we sometimes forgot it was there.”
“From Willow Temple” by Donald Hall
- This was written carefully and has a slow meter. I wrote in my notes right after reading that I didn’t love it, that it was too slow and felt liked it dragged, but sitting here a few days away from reading it I have a better appreciation for it. It’s a life and death story. It should be told with care.
“Killing Babies” by T. Coraghessan Boyle
- Fascinating. This one has left the biggest emotional impact on me so far. God help me, I wanted him to do it. This one is easily my favorite of the section, and my second favorite of the book. The style, the characterization, the layers these characters have, the dialogue – all of it. Loved it.
- “…and looked hate at us.”
“Send Me to the Electric Chair” by Clyde Edgerton
- A tight and sparse story that is darkly funny after a little thought about it.
“Missing Women” by June Spence
- I loved the style used here. It was unique and it worked very, very well. Missing person stories are rarely about the missing – they’re about everyone else. The style caters to that and that sets this story apart.
“Air Mail” by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Quiet and contemplative. I knew he would still be sick and even though I knew he was just being stubborn I rooted for him to not take the pills. Unfortunately, these existential bordering on nihilistic types always get under my skin. They’re too much unlike me. I kept calling him a damn hippy as I was reading it.
“Soon” by Pam Durban.
- This story was selected to be in The Best American Short Stories of the Century, which I have already read (took me almost a year, too). Reading through it again, I still don’t like Martha. Nutter.
“Shipmates Down Under” by Michael Byers
- I loved this one. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to know more about this family and where they were going to end up. And honestly, if the couple didn’t make up, and ending up splitting, I was rooting for the father to end up in that house in Perth with his son.
- “…as if someone had told her a joke she hadn’t understood.”
“Powder” by Tobias Wolff
- Short, sweet, cute tale of a failing marriage and a father just reckless enough to make for a fun little childhood. And to produce a child opposite from him, something only just carefully brushed over. I liked it a lot.
“Search Bay” by Alyson Hagy
- So slow and methodical I’d call it plodding if I didn’t like it so much. I loved the use of imagery here and the way it was written. It’s understated, but you could feel and see and hear winter all around them perfectly.
“Little Frogs in a Ditch” by Tim Gautreaux
- Two men with equally dire families just trying to figure out how to set their kids straight without killing them. I liked the style here. And I liked Annie.
No comments:
Post a Comment