“Daddy hadn’t meant to hurt her, she knew. Even Momma believed this, which was why she hadn’t called 911. And when the doctor at the ER had asked Lisette how her face had got so bruised, her nose and eye socket broken, she’d said that it was an accident on the stairs – she’ been running and she’d fallen.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody  (OCT 5, 2011)

This year’s editor of The Best American Short Stories 2011 is Geraldine Brooks, an accomplished journalist and fiction writer. She says of her selections “that the easiest and the first choices were the stories to which I had a physical response.” I would agree that the best stories in this collection are those that are most visceral and physical in nature. Ms. Brooks also states that “In the end, the stories I fell upon with perhaps the greatest delight were the outliers, the handful or so that defied the overwhelming gravitational pull toward small-canvas contemporary realism.”

There are twenty stories in this alphabetically arranged collection. About half of them swept me away and the other half didn’t move me as much as I’d hoped they would. Each year, I look forward to this collection with much anticipation and excitement. This year’s collection felt a bit below par in consistency and quality.

I agree with Ms. Brooks that the best stories in this collection are those to which I had a physical response. They tended towards themes of violence and/or grief. One such story is by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In “Ceiling,” she writes about a man who realizes he is in the wrong life. He feels lassitude in his marriage which is superficial and without depth. He yearns for his college sweetheart who he’s built up in his mind as perfect. As Ms. Brooks states, this story “perfectly captures the yearning spirit of a man who has settled for the wrong wife, the wrong life, in the stultifying salons of Lagos’s corrupt upper class.”

In “Housewifely Arts” by Megan Mayhew Bergman, a single mother drives nine hours to visit her dead mother’s parrot because the parrot is so perfectly able to mimic her mother’s voice. The parrot has more of her mother inside her than the daughter does.

Nathan Englander’s story, “Free Fruit for Young Widows,” opens with a violent act and continues with acts of violence. The story examines the roots of violence as it explores the possibilities and rationales that make violence an appropriate act. Part tale of vengeance and part philosophy, the reader puzzles the situations as does the young son whose father is telling him the story.

Allegra Goodman’s “La Vita Nuova” is a haunting story of grief. A woman who is a children’s art teacher is left by her fiancé. She brings her wedding dress to school and lets her students paint all over it. The story is about the depths of grief and loss.

“Soldier of Fortune” by Bret Anthony Johnston tells about Josh, a high school freshman who is in love with his neighbor Holly, a senior. When Holly’s three year-old brother accidentally gets severely scalded by boiling water and the family has to spend weeks at the hospital, Josh takes care of their home and dog. He grows up during this pivotal time.

In “Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart,” by Rebecca Makai, a man and his friend, Peter, have known each other since high school. Both are gay and they initially bonded over that commonality. Peter was beautiful and charismatic and went on to become an actor. At one of his performances he has a meltdown and can’t work again. His friend gives his all to Peter getting nothing in return. The reader wonders why his friend would risk so much for Peter.

Joyce Carol Oates, in “ID,” tells about Lisette, an eighth-grader who is recovering from a shattered eye socket and broken nose incurred by a beating from her estranged father. Lisette lives with her mother, a black jack dealer in Atlantic City. Lisette’s mother has been gone for several days, leaving Lisette alone with no idea of when she’ll be back or where she went. The police appear at her school and ask her to ID a corpse that they think might be her mother.

George Saunders writes about prisoners who are used in an experiment where they are given psychoactive drugs that take them to the deepest recesses of their souls. “Escape from Spiderland” is about these prisoners, the experiment, and the feelings of ultimate love, eloquence and sexuality that these drugs render. The prisoners can be brought to the depths of despair and the height of exaltation and then returned to their baselines in a few seconds.

Overall, there are some very good stories in this collection and some that are just mediocre. The ones that stand out are definitely the ones that feel like a visceral gut punch and that pound on the reader’s psyche. Ms. Brooks did not want “small-canvas contemporary realism” but sometimes it is the small canvas that shows the most detail and beauty. One just needs to look at it from the right angle.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 18 readers
PUBLISHER:	Mariner Books (October 4, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Best American Short Stories
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Best American Stories 2010 edited by Richard Russo Our reviews of some of Geraldine Brooks’ novels: Caleb’s Crossing People of the Book

Partial Bibliography:

• The Best American Short Stories 2000 edited by E.L. Doctorow  (October 2000)
• The Best American Short Stories 2001 edited by Barbara Kingsolver  (October 2001)
• The Best American Short Stories 2002 edited by Sue Miller  (October 2002)
• The Best American Short Stories 2003 edited by Walter Mosley  (October 2003)
• The Best American Short Stories 2004 edited by Lorrie Moore (October 2004)
• The Best American Short Stories 2005 edited by Michael Chabon  (October 2006)
• The Best American Short Stories 2006 edited by Ann Patchett   (October 2006)
• The Best American Short Stories 2007 edited by Stephen King  (October 2007)
• The Best American Short Stories 2008 edited by Salman Rushdie  (October 2008)
• The Best American Short Stories 2009 edited by Alice Sebold  (October 2009)
• The Best American Short Stories 2010 edited by Richard Russo (September 2010)
• The Best American Short Stories 2011 edited by Geraldine Brooks (September 2011)

“I was becoming a fabulous liar. It was like I’d been born to the outlaw life. If I lost my library job, I could go pro.”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn  (JUL 9, 2011)

Debut novelist and elementary schoolteacher Rebecca Makkai combines a wily, madcap road trip with socially poignant conundrums and multiple themes in this coming-of-age story about a twenty-six-year-old children’s librarian, Lucy Hull, and a ten-year-old precocious book lover, Ian Drake, in Hanibal, Missouri. (Guess who is coming-of-age? Answer: not so evident.)

Lucy isn’t entirely sure that she’s a reliable narrator—part of our reading pleasure is to figure that out. She tells us in the enigmatic prologue “I’m not the hero of this story.” Is she the villain? And, if she is not the hero, who is? The answers turn out to be thoughtfully complex and yet exquisitely simple for those of us–and only for those of us–whose love of reading is almost religious (upside down pun there).

Lucy has been sneaking laudable books to Ian, whose evangelical, anorexic mother, Janet, will only allow him to read books “with the breath of God in them.” No books with content matter related to magic, witchcraft, wizardry, the occult, weaponry, adult content matter, evolution, or Halloween. No authors/books that question authority and explore complicated issues, or that have morally ambiguous themes. Oh, or contain a “sensitive” male character.

Janet has enrolled her son in the Glad Heart Ministries youth group with Pastor Bob, in order to de-gayify her son for his proto-gay behaviors. Pastor Bob is a “former” homosexual married to a “cured” once-upon-a-time lesbian, who believes that “sexuality is a choice, not an identity.” His goal is to “speak to our children before the secular media has reached them with its political agenda.” It makes your hair stand up and splits your ends.

One morning, when Lucy opens the library, she discovers that Ian has been camped out there all night. This sets the stage for the fugitive scene–adult and child on the lam, playing spontaneous road trip games and mimicking passages of children’s books. (OK, the reader needs to suspend a little judgment here on how Ian maneuvers this, but this is fiction, so waive a little realism for a little magic, capisce?).

Lucy, as it turns out, has some, ahem… issues. A Chicago-raised Mount Holyoke graduate with a Russian émigré father and Jewish-American mother, she has a predilection for flight and self-flagellation. Her dad was a revolutionary, and his shady business dealings and questionable money sources have been a cause of discomfort all of Lucy’s life. It seems she also has a knack for prevaricating. And indolence. Her adult decisions have, up to this time, been aimed at not taking action in her life, other than putting distance between her and her parents. She’s “a would-be revolutionary stuck at a desk.”

As Lucy and Ian cross state line after state line, she has moments of doubt and dread about her hapless journey with a juvenile. Although she tries to remind herself that Ian maneuvered this odyssey, she acknowledges her complicity. Lucy wants to save Ian from the clutches of religiosity. She impugns Janet Drake for wanting to censor a highly intelligent boy’s mettle. But is she trying to censor the censor? She has doubts. But the voice of her insurrectionist father vexes her.

There are flaws, admittedly. Yet, they are easy to ignore when trumped by the nimble narrative and crack characterizations. Librarians beware—Lucy doesn’t have her Masters of Library Science. And, as mentioned above, the inadvertent “kidnapping” scene raises a few eyebrows of believability.

But this beguiling story captivates, nonetheless. Ian and Lucy have a tart, biting relationship rather than a sentimental, precious one. Moreover, Makkai deftly weaves in children’s literary lore, including The Wizard of Oz, Madeline, Charlotte’s Web, and many others, bolstering the narrative. Moreover, Lucy’s subversive ire for social liberty and freedom of expression are ripe and riveting. Makkai pushes the envelope, and the reader may wonder if the story will wax pedantic, but the author doesn’t disappoint with easy answers; she doesn’t manipulate Lucy’s rant into her personal crusade.

The Borrower appeals, inevitably, to the ardent reader whose love of books starts with the mind but voyages to the soul. It is a journey of self-discovery and sanctuary, finding home wherever you are, and the courage to face your future.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 30 readers
PUBLISHER:	Viking Adult; First Edition edition (June 9, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Rebecca Makkai
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé

Bibliography:

• The Borrower (June 2011)

“In her every small movement she was the woman of the future, a type that would swagger and curse, fall headlong, flaming into the hell of war, be as brave and tough as men, take the overflowing diarrhea of nervous frontline troops without grimacing, speak loudly and devastatingly, kick brain matter off her shoes and go unhurriedly on. When he looked at Bern, Viktor saw the future, and it was lovely and bright and as equal as things between men and women, between prole and patrician could be.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (OCT 3, 2010)

The Best American Short Stories 2010 was edited by Richard Russo, this year. The collection contains a wide range of stories selected both from some of the most well-known and most obscure magazines and anthologies. The stories, on the whole, are impressive and I was spellbound by many of them. Usually, in a collection of twenty stories, there will be five or less that really speak to me. Here there were nine.

The foreword by series editor Heidi Pitlor speaks eloquently and poignantly to her belief that “it is indisputable that American literary journals are in danger.” She encourages readers to “subscribe to one literary journal, either on paper or online. Buy a short story collection by a young author. We must support our smaller magazines if we are to support our talented new writers.” The stories selected for this anthology were all written between January 2009 and January 2010 by American or Canadian authors. Pitlor narrowed her selection to 250 stories and Richard Russo selected the final twenty.

The stories take place in different parts of the world and in different eras. Some are serious and some are laugh out loud funny. What the best ones have in common is that they stop you in your tracks and make you think and feel deeply, long after you have finished reading the story.

My favorite story in this collection is “All Boy” by Lori Ostlund. Originally published in the New England Review, it is about a precocious, effeminate boy who is a voracious reader. His mother can’t see him for who he is and describes him as “all boy” to the other mothers in his school. Harold, eleven years old, is very lonely and has no friends. Recently, his babysitter was fired and Harold believes this was because she locked him in the closet so she could watch television undisturbed. In truth, that is not the reason she was let go. She was wearing Harold’s father’s socks when her feet got cold and he can’t stand other people touching him or his things. Harold’s mother thinks that being locked in the closet develops inner resources. Harold likes the closet. It makes him feel safe. “The familiar smells of wet wool and vacuum cleaner dust, the far-off chatter of Mrs. Norman’s television show…” make him feel safe. A child as lonely as Harold can find a whole world in his closet.

Lauren Groff’s short story, “Delicate Edible Birds,” is loosely based on the life of Ernest Hemingway’s third wife. Just before the German invasion of France during World War II, reporters unknowingly knock on a cottage door belonging to Nazi sympathizers. The reporters need food and gasoline and offer to trade gold, watches and diamonds. The peasant who is the head of the household wants only one thing in exchange – a night with the female reporter. He plans to hold all of them hostage and turn them over to the Germans until she consents. The impact of this situation on the relationships between the reporters makes for a stunning piece of writing.

Rebecca Makai’s short story, “Painted Ocean, Painted Ship,” is about a female professor who makes a huge politically incorrect mistake. She assumes that an Asian student who is silent in her classroom is from Korea when she is actually ethnically Chinese. Additionally, she believes that the student’s silence is due to the cultural differences of new immigrants. Actually, the student’s family has lived in Minnesota for generations and files a grievance against the professor. This story is sad, poignant, and laugh out loud funny.

“The Laugh,” by Tea Obreht takes us to the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania. A woman has been killed by a hyena and her husband and child are left to cope with her death. Her beauty and her laugh are juxtaposed with that of the hyena’s in a chilling story of revenge and guilt.

“Into Silence” by Marlin Barton is about a woman named Janey who lost her hearing when she was ten years old. Her mother is emotionally abusive and, for all intents and purposes, has stolen Janey’s life. Her mother refused to let her finish her education, makes her spend her days working around the house and has her wait on her all the time. Into this small mid-western town wanders a WPA photographer who asks Janey to assist him with his work. This experience opens Janey’s eyes as to how life could be different. We hear Janey speak through her silence.

This anthology shows us that the art of the short story is very much alive. Despite the economic downturn causing several anthologies to go out of business this past year, new anthologies have started and the web has taken on an ever larger role than it ever has. New writers of great talent abound and, for the short story lover, they are as close as your fingertips. Whether you love that piece of paper in your hands as I do, or you love your Kindles, podcasts, and web anthologies, there are beautiful short stories to be found everywhere.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 44 readers
PUBLISHER:	Mariner Books (September 28, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	Not Yet
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Best American Short Stories
EXTRAS:	Table of Contents
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Another great collection: The Pen/O’Henry Prize Stories 2010 edited by Laura Furman The Best American Short Stories 2011 edited by Geraldine Brooks Our reviews of some of Richard Russo’s novels: Empire Falls That Old Cape Magic

Partial Bibliography:

• The Best American Short Stories 2000 edited by E.L. Doctorow  (October 2000)
• The Best American Short Stories 2001 edited by Barbara Kingsolver  (October 2001)
• The Best American Short Stories 2002 edited by Sue Miller  (October 2002)
• The Best American Short Stories 2003 edited by Walter Mosley  (October 2003)
• The Best American Short Stories 2004 edited by Lorrie Moore (October 2004)
• The Best American Short Stories 2005 edited by Michael Chabon  (October 2006)
• The Best American Short Stories 2006 edited by Ann Patchett   (October 2006)
• The Best American Short Stories 2007 edited by Stephen King  (October 2007)
• The Best American Short Stories 2008 edited by Salman Rushdie  (October 2008)
• The Best American Short Stories 2009 edited by Alice Sebold  (October 2009)
• The Best American Short Stories 2010 edited by Richard Russo (September 2010)
• The Best American Short Stories 2011 edited by Geraldine Brooks (September 2011)