About this title: This brilliant collection, edited by the award-winning and perennially provocative Rushdie, boasts an array of voices both new and recognized. Always a sure bet for gripping, emotionally challenging reading.--"San Diego Union-Tribune."
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Very Good. 0618788778 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780618788774ISBN:0618788778
Description: New. NEW, unread book, publisher overstock-FAST SHIPPING! Our savvy customers know Purple Turtle has BEST PRICES AND BEST SERVICE! Satisfaction guaranteed! read more
Description: Very Good. 0618788778 Copy has been read but remains in nice & clean condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or high-lighting. Spine is tight; a clean read. Some shelf wear to the cover. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Reader copy. Ex library copy with stamps and labels. Pages have extensive moisture wrinkling, but are otherwise clean and unmarked. read more
Description: Fine. 061878876X NEVER USED! This book has never been read. There are no highlights, No pen marks, No missing pages. The binding is sturdy. This book may have slight shelf wear. Tracking information provided for all orders. Orders over $49.99 will receive an upgrade from standard to priority mail. Customer satisfaction guaranteed! ! read more
Edition: First edition. 2008 ed., 1st Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), Bostom
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780618788767ISBN:061878876X
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. NF/NF(top tips + crown's top edge creased) 8vo. 358pp. 100 Other Distinguished Stories Of 2007, Editorial Addresses Of American And Canadian Magazines read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780618788774ISBN:0618788778
Description: Good + Cover has bumping, edgewear, marks, chipping, dents, scratches-Few marks on pgs & edges-Edgewear-Bumped pgs-Cocked-Dents. read more
"I continue to love this series and always find myself lost in some great reads. Rushdie chose more traditionally "literary" tales, as opposed to last year's editor, Stephen King, and there are more familiar names here but still, great choices. Standouts for me: TC Boyle's "Admiral" about the lengths rich people will go to over their pets; Katie Chase's creepy "Man and Wife" about an arranged marriage within an unnamed religious sect; AM Holmes' "May we be Forgiven" (a man coping with his brother's mental illness gets dirty with his brother's wife); the always wonderful Alice Munro's "Child's Play" (the literal cruelty of young girls); Christine Sneed's "Quality of Life" (sexual dominance, very chilling); and Bradford Tice's "Missionaries" which concerns issues of faith and personal power in the lives of two very different teenage Mormon boys. Some nice additions in the fantastical/SF vein include "Galatea" by Karen Brown (alien signals in the form of both silence and noise?) and "Vampires in the Lemon Grove" by Karen Russell (lonely vampire eats lemons).
Read a short story anthology! There's something in it for everyone!"
"As is the case with every volume of "Best American", this year's edition is filled with all quality writing. Not every story will appeal to every reader, nor did every story appeal to me, but I can't say anything in here just didn't work. Again, it's all quality writing.
That said, the stories from this series can usually be broken down into three categories, "Meh", "Decent", and "Great", and the 2008 edition is no different.
The Great There were a handful of stories that really jumped out at me, and if everything else had sucked, it was worth my time to find them. My favorite, hands down was George Saunders' Puppy which managed to catch me off-guard without any obvious twist. Its multiple perspectives play off of one another rather effectively in building to a heartbreaking conclusion. I also quite enjoyed Danielle Evans' Virgins which offers a strong, yet flawed protagonist straining against peer expectations and inevitability. The King of Sentences, from Jonathan Lethem, is slight, but just clever and odd enough to be quite memorable. I'd also include Daniyal Mueenuddin's Nawabdin Electrician whose main character reminded me a great deal of V.S. Naipaul's Mr. Biswas. Oh, and I also rather enjoyed the musically themed The Worst You Ever Feel from Rebecca Makkai, which captures in words the joy and sorrow of playing the violin. And finally, I have to mention Alice Munro's Child's Play, a dark trip down a girl's memory lane with another unexpected conclusion that stuck with me.
The Decent This volume earned 4 stars, but I'll admit I'm less in love with this collection than those of the past, mostly because so many story fit into this category. These are all effective stories, but none of them really crossed that threshold into greatness. Stories like T.C. Boyle's Admiral works mostly due to the novel collection of characters that get thrown together. Kevin Brockmeier's The Year of Silence is almost great, with its mysterious premise, but falls flat in its closing moments. Also interesting, due to novel premises, were Steven Millhauser's phantasmagoric The Wizard of West Orange, and Vampires in the Lemon Grove which isn't quite as good as her Werewolf story from last year. Nicole Krauss's From the Desk of Daniel Varsky begins with beautifully quirky language, but doesn't go anywhere interesting after the first few pages. Katie Chase's Man and Wife is like a wierd and creepy prequel to Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaiden's Tale". There are also moderately entertaining stories from A.M. Homes, Bradford Tice, Miroslav Penkov, and Mark Wisniewski, and so on. Probably 80% of the stories fit right into this category, including a brief little nugget from Tobias Wolff.
The Meh Which brings us to the 'meh', which aren't bad, just forgettable. Such stories included Karen Brown's Galatea about a woman's disfunctional attraction to a maybe-serial pervert; Allegra Goodman's Closely Held, about an apathetic and lovelorn tech-industry millionaire; and Christine Sneed's Quality of Life, which, quite honestly, I'm having trouble remembering off the top of my head.
Would I recommend this edition? If you read these regularly, then yes. You know the drill concerning what quality to expect. If you've never read the "Best American" brand, I'd probably steer you to a past volume if I really wanted to show off what the series is capable of."
"Kevin Brockmeier's "The Year of Silence" is terrific -- a fantastically smart story that transcends what could be a gimmicky premise, and is as sincerely compelled by its imagined world as it is compelling. Check it out. Second runner-up would be "The Wizard of West Orange" by Steven Millhauser (in some ways, a literary kindred spirit to Brockmeier). Otherwise, this is a big yawn of a collection, ranging from the unobjectionable to the so-so to the ploddingly competent to the mediocre. (I read a lot of these stories when they came out, and was just as underwhelmed the first time.)"
"I'm not generally a huge fan of short stories, and that held true for this collection as well. I won't say that they were bad stories, but too many of them were either depressing or slice of life, neither of which I really enjoy. It'd be really nice to read more short stories with characters who make the right choice, do the right thing, and change for the better. Reading about people screwing up their lives just makes me discontent.
Favorite stories: 1) "Buying Lenin" by Miroslav Lenkov 2) "The Worst You Every Feel" by Rebecca Makkai 3) "Man and Wife" by Katie Chase
The only one I sincerely disliked was "The Wizard of West Orange" by Steven Millhauser, partially for stylistic reasons, and partially because I just found the story boring.
The rest were mostly of the ok but unremarkable variety, with a few in the good but not my cup of tea category."
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