Product Description

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. This year's Best American Short Stories features a rich mix of voices, from both intriguing new writers and established masters of the form like Michael Chabon, Edwidge Danticat, Richard Ford, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Arthur Miller. The 2002 collection includes stories about everything from illicit love affairs to family, the immigrant experience and badly behaved children -- stories varied in subject but unified in their power and humanity. In the words of this year's guest editor, the best-selling author Sue Miller, "The American short story today [is] healthy and strong . . . These stories arrived in the nick of time . . . to teach me once more what we read fiction for."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1132630 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Amazon.com
In her opening remarks to The Best American Short Stories 2002, guest editor Sue Miller notes the difficulty of reading fiction produced during 2001, the year of the September 11 terrorist attacks. She also remarks that by the time she had finalized her 20 selections, this act of reading had restored her faith both in fiction's significance and its ability to tap into timeless themes. The 2002 anthology includes stories best described as realist fiction or traditional fiction, many set in contemporary times. The tales range from E.L. Doctorow's "A House on the Plains," a murder set at the turn of the century, to pieces with more recent settings, like "Puppy" by Richard Ford, which shows how a New Orleans couple deals--or doesn't deal--with the appearance of a stray dog. Both Jhumpa Lahiri's "Nobody's Business" and Edwidge Danticat's "Seven" deftly portray the disconnection a semi-assimilated Indian American and Haitian American couple experience both as partners and as U.S. citizens. Leonard Michael's "Nachman from Los Angeles," in contrast, adds some levity to the mix. Miller adds in her preface that maybe next year the tales will depart further from tradition, but judging from this volume no departure is necessary: the selections take the reader on a delightful journey through some of America's best contemporary writers. --Jane Hodges

From Publishers Weekly
Timeless yet time bound, these excellent stories inhabit the past as solidly as the present, ranging from Midwest murder around 1900 in E.L. Doctorow's wonderful but deadly "A House on the Plains" to the 1937 Hindenberg tragedy in Jim Shepard's ingenious "Love and Hydrogen." Almost every story concentrates on producing perfect grace notes of characterization, with individual epiphany or anti-epiphany favored over plot and experimentation. An exception is the Shepard story, which describes the love affair of two male crewmen on the doomed Hindenberg a setting that contrasts sharply with the semi-anonymous backdrops of other stories. Most entries are fairly traditional in structure, but in the semiromantic "Digging," Beth Lordan displays a talent for dynamic shifts in time and place. Multicultural voices provide moving and deeply felt, if more conventional, gems, including Edwidge Danticat's "Seven" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "Nobody's Business." The most humorous entry is Leonard Michael's "Nachman from Los Angeles," the witty story of a rich Arab prince and a ghostwritten term paper. An impressive eight of the 20 stories chosen by editor Miller come from the pages of the New Yorker; Zoetrope is in second place with two entries to its credit. But no matter where they were first published, nearly all of the stories chosen are stellar examples of each writer's work. If a comforting sense of tradition and consolidation pervades this anthology, it is cause for praise, not criticism.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This year's edition of the popular short story anthology contains many pieces that focus on the past as either a setting or a counterpoint to the protagonist's current life. As guest editor Miller states in her introduction, the realist story seems to have taken hold as the American form of this art. There is very little experimental writing, except perhaps in the trend toward covering a surprisingly broad span of time in a short amount of space. The always reliable Alice Munro gives us a fascinating character sketch in "Family Furnishings." In Akhil Sharma's "Surrounded by Sleep," a young Hindu boy's most comforting image of God is a cardigan-clad Clark Kent. And both E.L. Doctorow ("A House on the Plains") and Melissa Hardy ("The Heifer") remind us that the American frontier was far from quaint or picturesque. Writers like Arthur Miller, Michael Chabon, and Beth Lordan are also featured. Recommended for most collections.
Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Worth it!
Only a few of the stories here evoke tears, laughter or breath-holding, but still worth the price. Several previous reviewers were critical because 9 stories were from THE NEW YORKER. (The same thing happened in 1992.) Cream rises to the top. Enough said!

I found great variations in locales, time periods, voice, texture, as well as responses of the characters to their circumstances. In her introduction, editor Miller fashions loose categories: the immigrant experience, deals gone awry, dog stories, etc. I could just as easily name groups such as: illicit love, children's voices, academia, morality, etc. So, it is all so very personal! Thank goodness!

Miller praised Richard Ford's "Puppy" due to its "meandering" style, which is exactly what turned me off. If an author wants to ask (and not answer) giant philosophical questions, he should write a novel or maybe an essay. But the Short Story depends on and is driven by an economy of words, and this piece was a failure in that respect.

Alice Munro's "Family Furnishings" was easy to read, engrossing and it glided along without a single bump. It was a satisfying and complex, but not ponderous, a richly woven tapestry of family conflict, snobbery, secrets, growth, shifting alliances and revelations. Munro clearly respects her readers by not being too obvious and not withholding too much.

"Heifer" begins in Finland, telling us of Aina, a teen girl with a fantasized love for Uwe, who sails to Canada to establish a farm. The incredibly strong-willed Aina later follows but only finds misery and a dolt of a husband. She takes her fate into her own hands. Cool stuff!

At first I was disappointed in "Digging" for it's seeming lack of character development, but then I came to realize that character development can be done ancesterorally as well as in the traditionsl way. Excellent writing and technique.

To me, most stories written from a child's perspective fail because the voice of origin seems so phony. Not so in "Red Ant House," where the child's voice is as clear and true as a ringing bell. But untruth and the usual phoniness prevailed in "Billy Goats." Too bad.

"Watermelon Days" tells us of Doreen, a Philadelphia flapper who winds up in South Dakota where she meets an insipid radio announcer. With nothing more on the horizon Doreen marries him and has a child, Edna. We learn that Doreen has neither talent nor desire for motherhood and seems almost sociopathic in her selfishness, irresponsibility and disdain for her husband. (She reminded me of Mildred in OF HUMAN BONDAGE - a user, a taker.) Perhaps Doreen's behavior originates in her disordered and deceitful childhood (and maybe that's the point). If you like nihilistic and depressing stories, this one is for you!

Those are the highlights (in my opinion). Happy reading!

There's no acccounting for taste
Every year I buy a copy of "The Best American Short Stories". Some years I like the stories; some years I don't. I loved the collection selected by Amy Tan (1999). I thoroughly enjoy Garrison Keillor's writing - but his taste in short stories is like a dose of castor oil for me (1998). Sue Miller's choices are even more... medicinal. Some years I win; some years I lose... in fact, if it were possible, I wouldn't give this year's edition 1 star. Out of 20 stories, not one caught my imagination; not one held my attention. I wouldn't have even wasted the paper and ink to publish this collection. I'm sure Ms. Miller can give a very erudite defense of her choices, but I can't. But then there's no accounting for taste... and that's what this all come down to. Sue Miller likes stuff that I don't. Big deal, I suppose.

a wonderful collection
The Best American Short Stories 2002 is a wonderful collection, and a great introduction to some of america's finest new authors. I especially liked the first story, entitled Along the Fontage Road -a compelling story from a father's point of veiw about raising his son in today's world. I would recomend this book to just about anyone who enjoys reading.