“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)

“Only love made such a leap possible. Only love related one thing to all other things, putting all your eggs into a single basket—that dumbest yet most courageous and thrilling of all economic strategies.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Eleanor Bukowsky (AUG 5, 2009)

Fifty-five year old Jack Griffin has been in a funk for a very long time. The only child of dysfunctional and embittered college professors, he proudly asserts that he aggressively rejected his mother and father’s warped values, their snobbery, their refusal to compromise, and their chronic dissatisfaction. In Richard Russo’s bittersweet That Old Cape Magic, Griffin discovers, much to his chagrin, that he has inherited his parents’ negativity and selfishness. He may pay a steep price for his failure to come to terms with his troubled past. Jack’s wife of thirty years, the ironically named Joy, is growing weary of her husband’s immaturity and discontent.

Richard Russo is a master storyteller who, with humor and wit, demonstrates how certain people perversely destroy what is most precious to them. Jack’s parents were academics who never achieved the professional glory that they craved. Both were adulterers, although his father was a more blatant philanderer. His mother and father ignored Jack and were critical of his choices. Joy, on the other hand, came from a noisy and large blue-collar family, and she always felt loved and valued. Although Jack enjoyed brief success as a screenwriter in Los Angeles, he and his wife eventually moved to Connecticut, where they raised their daughter, Laura. Although Jack and his wife still care for one another, they are gradually drifting apart; soon, their relationship may be beyond repair.

That Old Cape Magic goes back and forth in time, giving us glimpses into Griffin’s memories, dreams, fears, and regrets. Each character in the book sees reality differently, and we sometimes wonder if anyone’s “truth” can be taken at face value. Russo creates some amusingly quirky individuals, including Laura’s college friend, a stiff and proper Korean named Sunny Kim, who is academically brilliant but socially inept; Tommy, Jack’s friend and collaborator, who is as every bit as short-sighted and self-involved as his old pal; Joy’s father, Harve, whom Griffin denigrates for his lack of breeding and bad taste; and Marguerite, an attractive but needy woman whose kind heart has been broken once too often. Russo embellishes each scene and conversation with exquisite detail, lively dialogue, and well-crafted figurative language. As we get to know and understand Jack Griffin, we sympathize with his angst. At the same time, we want to shake him for behaving so childishly.

The author inserts a number of delightfully comic moments into his narrative. They feature such props as a too-tall Christmas tree, a collapsing ramp, a talkative and opinionated ghost, an urn filled with ashes, and a pair of pugnacious twins. The concluding pages are a bit too busy; Russo goes off in too many directions as he frantically tries to wrap up his story. Fortunately, he manages to come up with a conclusion that is both satisfying and entertaining.

The title is a metaphor for the power of fantasy. Jack’s father believed in the special qualities of Cape Cod, hoping that if he and his wife surrounded themselves with beauty, then harmony, tenderness, and passion would somehow prevail over discord, anger, and indifference. Jack’s parents learned to their dismay that, although a lovely place may revitalize a marriage, it cannot work its magic indefinitely. A loving partnership is created and sustained by mature individuals who, in spite of their flaws and life’s inevitable disappointments, make a valiant effort to treat one another with understanding and compassion.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 133 readers
PUBLISHER:	Knopf (August 4, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on Richard Russo
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read a review of Empire FallsThe Best American Short Stories 2010 edited by Richard Russo

Bibliography:

• Mohawk (1986)
• The Risk Pool (1988)
• Nobody’s Fool (1993)
• Straight Man (1997)
• Empire Falls (2001)
• The Whore’s Child and Other Stories (2002)
• Bridge of Sighs (2007)
• That Old Cape Magic (2009)
• Interventions: Novella and Stories (June 2012)

Nonfiction:

• Elsewhere: A Memoir (October 2012)

Other:

• The Best American Short Stories 2010 (2010)

Movies from books:

• Nobody’s Fool (1995)
• Empire Falls (2005)