A review by gordonj
The Best American Short Stories 2020, by Curtis Sittenfeld
5.0
I enjoyed this collection much more than recent editions, perhaps because guest editor Curtis Sittenfield and I have similar tastes. As she states in her introduction, the success of the collection is probably the result of the “the idiosyncratic taste of a guest editor” being aligned more or less with the idiosyncratic taste of the reader. With that said, my favorites in this edition were:
The Apartment by T.C. Boyle in which a man tries to secure a woman’s Parisian apartment by offering her a reverse annuity, only to have her get the better end of the deal.
Sibling Rivalry by Michael Byers in which human and synthetic children begin to realize how they're similar and, more ominously, how they're different.
The Nanny by Emma Cline in which a young woman finds herself caught up in a Hollywood scandal.
Halloween by Marian Crotty in which a teen girl in love with her co-worker gets advice from her grandmother
This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill in which a woman deals with her conflicted feelings for a man caught up in a #MeToo scandal
Howl Palace by Leigh Newman in which an Alaskan woman has to deal with an unruly dog while trying to manage an open house
The Hands of Dirty Children by Alejandro Puyana in which a group of street children try to survive the crumbling city of Caracas, Venezuela
Kennedy by Kevin Wilson in which two high school boys are terrorized by a sociopathic bully
The Apartment by T.C. Boyle in which a man tries to secure a woman’s Parisian apartment by offering her a reverse annuity, only to have her get the better end of the deal.
Sibling Rivalry by Michael Byers in which human and synthetic children begin to realize how they're similar and, more ominously, how they're different.
The Nanny by Emma Cline in which a young woman finds herself caught up in a Hollywood scandal.
Halloween by Marian Crotty in which a teen girl in love with her co-worker gets advice from her grandmother
This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill in which a woman deals with her conflicted feelings for a man caught up in a #MeToo scandal
Howl Palace by Leigh Newman in which an Alaskan woman has to deal with an unruly dog while trying to manage an open house
The Hands of Dirty Children by Alejandro Puyana in which a group of street children try to survive the crumbling city of Caracas, Venezuela
Kennedy by Kevin Wilson in which two high school boys are terrorized by a sociopathic bully