A review by kinanik
The Best American Short Stories 2012 by Heidi Pitlor, Tom Perrotta
Will update this as I read. So far, through 8/20.
Carol Anshaw - The Last Speaker of the Language: A look into the life of a single mother, Darlyn, who works at Home Depot, whose challenges include being in love with a married woman, dealing with an dysfunctional alcoholic of a mother, and maintaining financial security through the recession, without a college education. The title refers to a story her lover heard on NPR about the last speaker of a language: Bo (or Aka-Bo). The tragedy being that the last speaker outlived the second-to-last speaker by four years. The story, then, focuses on relationships: those Darlyn wants, but can’t have (her lover), those Darlyn has, but doesn’t want (her mother), and those Darlyn doesn’t want and are able to avoid (her manager). It’s a hopeful story, as Darlyn is driven to making sure she can avoid becoming isolated, like the last speaker of Bo. Her lover leaves her husband and her mother gains (somewhat precarious) financial security. Overall a fun read. 4/5.
Taylor Antram - Pilgrim Life: The protagonist here lives with his roommate Rand. The two of them moved to SF and pursued different paths, the protagonist writing for a wine magazine and Rand getting into a tech startup. Rand was much more successful, but the two still live together. The protagonist (I couldn’t find his name in the first several pages, though he is obviously an Author Surrogate) has done something awful: on a drive back from a cabin, his girlfriend hits a hitchhiker. They leave the scene, and begin lying to the police about what happened, with the protagonist minimizing his responsibility. The accident serves to flaunt the protagonist’s flaws: a refusal to take responsibility, a lack of motivation, and being out-of-tune with himself—flaws that are evident in his relationship with Claire (he woman he loved unrequitedly) and his mother (who lives in FL and is suffering from cancer). The author’s flaws seem to be those shared by a great portion of this generation, and so this story’s reflective nature works well. There’s less direction than I would like, though, and I have a hard time sympathizing with someone who is ‘poor’ but has super rich friends who will pay for anything (this trope seems to crop up quite often—the author wants to garner sympathy with poverty, but doesn’t want there to be any actual scarcity involved). 3/5.
Nathan Englander - What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: So far, the best story in the collection. The protagonist and his wife, Deb, are hosting a couple from Israel, Mark and Lauren (or Yerucham and Shoshana, their chosen Orthodox names). Deb and Lauren grew up together; Deb’s husband brought her towards secularism, while Lauren’s brought her towards “ultra Orthodoxy,” and this meeting is their first in many years. The protagonist is the POV character, and his attitude towards the couple improves as the story goes on (he is initially reluctant to use their chosen names, but adopts them by the end, a nice touch). The story is a conversation between the couples, apparently modeled on Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” which I have not read but now mean to. The couples get drunk, and then high, and then start to play a ‘game’ that holocaust-obsessed Deb plays. The Anne Frank game. Simply, it is: “If the Holocaust were to happen here, would Person X protect us, or turn us in?” They turn the question on their respective spouses, and Englander drops a bombshell on the reader at the end—something that can only be done in a short story. Easily read, lots to think about. 5/5.
Mary Gaitskill - The Other Place: A father watches as his son develops an unhealthy obsession with violence. Not violence towards other people, but violence in the abstract. The story flashes back to the father’s cultivation of a secret fantasy fetish. He dreams of hunting down and killing a woman. No particular woman, just woman in abstract. As he grows up, he starts to substitute real women for the abstract one in his fantasies. Finally, he decides he is going to go through with his fantasy, but loses his nerve when the woman he chooses tells him to kill her. He has a vivid memory of the scene—and one night, his son awakes from a dream, a dream of that scene. The story portrays a character who lives in two worlds fairly well, but neither world leaves me completely satisfied. Too much rests on imagery that simply is not strong enough to carry it, and the relationship between the father and son doesn’t seem quite right. To Gaitskill’s credit, she faces a much steeper challenge entering-into her characters than the other writers do. 2/5.
Roxane Gay - North Country: Along the same lines of “Pilgrim’s Life,” “North Country” is a fictionalized version of a vivid time in the author’s life. Gay’s protagonist is a Structural Engineering Professor from Nebraska, who happens to be a Black Woman (a double novelty in the department). She accepts a post at a university in the panhandle of Michigan to recover from a terrible relationship, and finds that her environment is quite uninviting. The weather is relentlessly freezing, her colleagues and students are relentlessly flirty, and boy do the vegetables from the grocery store suck. As the year passes, she falls for a local man (who she refuses to take seriously, much to his chagrin), and finds herself enjoying some of the things she originally hated about the place. Unlike “Pilgrim’s Life,” I don’t feel like the Big Reveal of her past relationship adds much to the story. The protagonist is not wanting for sympathy, and I don’t see it strengthening her character arc much. Still, a fun read. 3/5.
Jennifer Haigh - Paramour: This is the first one I don’t think really works, although I may be missing something. The protagonist, Christine, had had a sort of affair with her theater professor, Ivan, when she was a student, and was asked to attend a lifetime achievement award for him. While there, she discovers that Ivan’s wife knew about the ‘affair’ all along, and approved of it. She meets Ivan’s daughter, a prima donna who is just 17. She and Ivan agree to meet at her hotel later (for a real, affair, perhaps), but she ends up hooking up with another guy at the party. The story ends with Christine hearing about the car wreck of Ivan’s daughter, whose boyfriend/driver had abandoned her at the party tipsy. In the author’s note, Haigh reveals that a real lifetime achievement award ceremony inspired her—one where she was quite sure the recipient wasn’t done creating. The award, then, is a sort of slap in the face to a still-contributing mind. The inspiration seems like it would make a great story, but I had no inkling of that inspiration until I read the author’s note. The story was well written, but it didn’t work for me as a story. 1/5.
(Updating on 07/02)
Mike Meginnis - Navigators: About a father and son, who have fallen on hard times but are able to bond via a video game that they are trying to beat. The game is the opposite of most video games: instead of growing more powerful as the game progresses, the character grows weaker and weaker--first losing flight, then the ability to run, then stand, then see... the goal of the game is to find nirvana, which requires the player to lose all power, yet still make it to the end. I'm not sure there's more than a superficial connection between the two storylines, but the interaction between the father and son is excellent, and the game idea is simply fun. 4/5.
Steven Millhauser - Miracle Polish: Hilarious! Reminded me of some of Philip K Dick's more snarky stories. A salesman comes to the door selling something he calls 'Miracle Polish' that will clean any mirror in one try! The protagonist buys a bottle out of pity, and forgets it. Until he finds a smudge... and once he has cleaned the mirror, the mirror shows him a different version of himself--a version that is more positive, optimistic, undefeated... His girlfriend, too, is improved by reflection, and he starts to fall for the other woman... I'm not sure I loved the ending of this, but the ride getting there was great fun. 4/5.
Carol Anshaw - The Last Speaker of the Language: A look into the life of a single mother, Darlyn, who works at Home Depot, whose challenges include being in love with a married woman, dealing with an dysfunctional alcoholic of a mother, and maintaining financial security through the recession, without a college education. The title refers to a story her lover heard on NPR about the last speaker of a language: Bo (or Aka-Bo). The tragedy being that the last speaker outlived the second-to-last speaker by four years. The story, then, focuses on relationships: those Darlyn wants, but can’t have (her lover), those Darlyn has, but doesn’t want (her mother), and those Darlyn doesn’t want and are able to avoid (her manager). It’s a hopeful story, as Darlyn is driven to making sure she can avoid becoming isolated, like the last speaker of Bo. Her lover leaves her husband and her mother gains (somewhat precarious) financial security. Overall a fun read. 4/5.
Taylor Antram - Pilgrim Life: The protagonist here lives with his roommate Rand. The two of them moved to SF and pursued different paths, the protagonist writing for a wine magazine and Rand getting into a tech startup. Rand was much more successful, but the two still live together. The protagonist (I couldn’t find his name in the first several pages, though he is obviously an Author Surrogate) has done something awful: on a drive back from a cabin, his girlfriend hits a hitchhiker. They leave the scene, and begin lying to the police about what happened, with the protagonist minimizing his responsibility. The accident serves to flaunt the protagonist’s flaws: a refusal to take responsibility, a lack of motivation, and being out-of-tune with himself—flaws that are evident in his relationship with Claire (he woman he loved unrequitedly) and his mother (who lives in FL and is suffering from cancer). The author’s flaws seem to be those shared by a great portion of this generation, and so this story’s reflective nature works well. There’s less direction than I would like, though, and I have a hard time sympathizing with someone who is ‘poor’ but has super rich friends who will pay for anything (this trope seems to crop up quite often—the author wants to garner sympathy with poverty, but doesn’t want there to be any actual scarcity involved). 3/5.
Nathan Englander - What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: So far, the best story in the collection. The protagonist and his wife, Deb, are hosting a couple from Israel, Mark and Lauren (or Yerucham and Shoshana, their chosen Orthodox names). Deb and Lauren grew up together; Deb’s husband brought her towards secularism, while Lauren’s brought her towards “ultra Orthodoxy,” and this meeting is their first in many years. The protagonist is the POV character, and his attitude towards the couple improves as the story goes on (he is initially reluctant to use their chosen names, but adopts them by the end, a nice touch). The story is a conversation between the couples, apparently modeled on Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” which I have not read but now mean to. The couples get drunk, and then high, and then start to play a ‘game’ that holocaust-obsessed Deb plays. The Anne Frank game. Simply, it is: “If the Holocaust were to happen here, would Person X protect us, or turn us in?” They turn the question on their respective spouses, and Englander drops a bombshell on the reader at the end—something that can only be done in a short story. Easily read, lots to think about. 5/5.
Mary Gaitskill - The Other Place: A father watches as his son develops an unhealthy obsession with violence. Not violence towards other people, but violence in the abstract. The story flashes back to the father’s cultivation of a secret fantasy fetish. He dreams of hunting down and killing a woman. No particular woman, just woman in abstract. As he grows up, he starts to substitute real women for the abstract one in his fantasies. Finally, he decides he is going to go through with his fantasy, but loses his nerve when the woman he chooses tells him to kill her. He has a vivid memory of the scene—and one night, his son awakes from a dream, a dream of that scene. The story portrays a character who lives in two worlds fairly well, but neither world leaves me completely satisfied. Too much rests on imagery that simply is not strong enough to carry it, and the relationship between the father and son doesn’t seem quite right. To Gaitskill’s credit, she faces a much steeper challenge entering-into her characters than the other writers do. 2/5.
Roxane Gay - North Country: Along the same lines of “Pilgrim’s Life,” “North Country” is a fictionalized version of a vivid time in the author’s life. Gay’s protagonist is a Structural Engineering Professor from Nebraska, who happens to be a Black Woman (a double novelty in the department). She accepts a post at a university in the panhandle of Michigan to recover from a terrible relationship, and finds that her environment is quite uninviting. The weather is relentlessly freezing, her colleagues and students are relentlessly flirty, and boy do the vegetables from the grocery store suck. As the year passes, she falls for a local man (who she refuses to take seriously, much to his chagrin), and finds herself enjoying some of the things she originally hated about the place. Unlike “Pilgrim’s Life,” I don’t feel like the Big Reveal of her past relationship adds much to the story. The protagonist is not wanting for sympathy, and I don’t see it strengthening her character arc much. Still, a fun read. 3/5.
Jennifer Haigh - Paramour: This is the first one I don’t think really works, although I may be missing something. The protagonist, Christine, had had a sort of affair with her theater professor, Ivan, when she was a student, and was asked to attend a lifetime achievement award for him. While there, she discovers that Ivan’s wife knew about the ‘affair’ all along, and approved of it. She meets Ivan’s daughter, a prima donna who is just 17. She and Ivan agree to meet at her hotel later (for a real, affair, perhaps), but she ends up hooking up with another guy at the party. The story ends with Christine hearing about the car wreck of Ivan’s daughter, whose boyfriend/driver had abandoned her at the party tipsy. In the author’s note, Haigh reveals that a real lifetime achievement award ceremony inspired her—one where she was quite sure the recipient wasn’t done creating. The award, then, is a sort of slap in the face to a still-contributing mind. The inspiration seems like it would make a great story, but I had no inkling of that inspiration until I read the author’s note. The story was well written, but it didn’t work for me as a story. 1/5.
(Updating on 07/02)
Mike Meginnis - Navigators: About a father and son, who have fallen on hard times but are able to bond via a video game that they are trying to beat. The game is the opposite of most video games: instead of growing more powerful as the game progresses, the character grows weaker and weaker--first losing flight, then the ability to run, then stand, then see... the goal of the game is to find nirvana, which requires the player to lose all power, yet still make it to the end. I'm not sure there's more than a superficial connection between the two storylines, but the interaction between the father and son is excellent, and the game idea is simply fun. 4/5.
Steven Millhauser - Miracle Polish: Hilarious! Reminded me of some of Philip K Dick's more snarky stories. A salesman comes to the door selling something he calls 'Miracle Polish' that will clean any mirror in one try! The protagonist buys a bottle out of pity, and forgets it. Until he finds a smudge... and once he has cleaned the mirror, the mirror shows him a different version of himself--a version that is more positive, optimistic, undefeated... His girlfriend, too, is improved by reflection, and he starts to fall for the other woman... I'm not sure I loved the ending of this, but the ride getting there was great fun. 4/5.