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A review by innatejames
The Best American Short Stories 2011 by Geraldine Brooks, Heidi Pitlor
3.0
I went back and reread Allegra Goodman's La Vita Nuova three times. I just couldn't shake the story of a former teacher getting over a break-up. The style of it really worked for me. The way she phrased the ex's words, the frank descriptions of her emotional state, the crying boy in her arms at the end. It all sucker-punched me.
Saunders' sci-fi tale of chemical lust was creative and unique. Just a fun, disturbing read.
Steven Millhauser's story of a town who sees dead people had interesting implications in the narrator's life. I loved the detail that when he left the town and didn't see the phantoms he missed them.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Ceiling" made me want to pick up her novel, Americanah.
Claire Keegan's "Foster" of an Irish girl being given to a grieving couple for the summer was gorgeous.
Those were the stand out stories to me. Rebecca Makkai, Jennifer Egan, Elizabeth McCracken and Richard Powers are favorites of mine and I enjoyed reading their short stories. I was not a fan of Call of Blood or Soldier of Fortune, though they were both written very well.
I've learned that reading short stories is all about voice. Authors don't have a lot of time to get their voice across to the reader in a short story, so if you don't care for the voice at first you probably won't like it a few pages later when it ends. So I'm not surprised looking at other reviews of this collection that people's stand-outs vary greatly. Also, this is the Best Of and yet, I really didn't care for a few of them. So someone's opinion of a short story is subjective, more so than for a novel.
Saunders' sci-fi tale of chemical lust was creative and unique. Just a fun, disturbing read.
Steven Millhauser's story of a town who sees dead people had interesting implications in the narrator's life. I loved the detail that when he left the town and didn't see the phantoms he missed them.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Ceiling" made me want to pick up her novel, Americanah.
Claire Keegan's "Foster" of an Irish girl being given to a grieving couple for the summer was gorgeous.
Those were the stand out stories to me. Rebecca Makkai, Jennifer Egan, Elizabeth McCracken and Richard Powers are favorites of mine and I enjoyed reading their short stories. I was not a fan of Call of Blood or Soldier of Fortune, though they were both written very well.
I've learned that reading short stories is all about voice. Authors don't have a lot of time to get their voice across to the reader in a short story, so if you don't care for the voice at first you probably won't like it a few pages later when it ends. So I'm not surprised looking at other reviews of this collection that people's stand-outs vary greatly. Also, this is the Best Of and yet, I really didn't care for a few of them. So someone's opinion of a short story is subjective, more so than for a novel.