A review by jmcphers
The Best American Short Stories 2013 by Elizabeth Strout, Heidi Pitlor
3.0
I can pinpoint with a high degree of accuracy the moment in time when I became interested in short fiction. I was in my early twenties and was driving from California to Washington State, and I was lost in Portland during rush hour, which is the worst time to be lost in Portland. Due to my poor navigational skill, I wound up driving in elliptical loops that kept dumping me into industrial-looking areas instead of on I-5 North, which is where I wanted to be. While driving in heavy traffic on these fruitless loops I habitually scanned the radio and wound up on a public radio station in which someone appeared to be telling a story.
It wasn't a particularly exciting story, but the details and characters were so well-painted that I was quickly sucked in. There was a party. The narrator was going there, and someone with whom she had been involved was going to be there, and it was a little bittersweet. That's all I remember. But man, it made me forget all about being lost in Portland. I've loved short stories ever since.
Anyhow, this is a collection of short stories, and most of them are good, and it's very easy to skip the ones that aren't and not feel like you're missing anything (this is one of the best things about collections of short fiction). My very favorite story in the book was the Semplica Girl Diaries, which can also be found online if you search for it.
It wasn't a particularly exciting story, but the details and characters were so well-painted that I was quickly sucked in. There was a party. The narrator was going there, and someone with whom she had been involved was going to be there, and it was a little bittersweet. That's all I remember. But man, it made me forget all about being lost in Portland. I've loved short stories ever since.
Anyhow, this is a collection of short stories, and most of them are good, and it's very easy to skip the ones that aren't and not feel like you're missing anything (this is one of the best things about collections of short fiction). My very favorite story in the book was the Semplica Girl Diaries, which can also be found online if you search for it.