Reaching inside 50 acclaimed authors on 100 unforgettable short stories

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Fiction authors weigh in on their favorite short stories in these soulful reflections, collected by novelist Dubus (Gone So Long). The contributions meditate on literature and its purposes; for instance, Ann Patchett finds at the heart of James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" the message that "life is hard," but "in art at least the pain could be put to use." Meg Wolitzer considers how James Joyce's "Clay" and Mary Robison's "Yours" showcase the power of fiction to "stop time" by telling stories that linger on moments of epiphany. Several contributors consider the catharsis afforded by literature, as when Lois Lowry suggests that Raymond Carver's "A Small, Good Thing" and Bharati Mukherjee's "The Management of Grief," both about grasping for comfort in the face of incomprehensible grief, exemplify how putting pain into words can "keep the fraught heart from breaking." The contributors' list contains an impressive roster of talent--Michael Cunningham, Junot Díaz, Emma Donoghue, Lauren Groff, and ZZ Packer, to name a few--and the pensive selections offer revealing insight into how they think about literature. Bookworms will want to dig into this. (Apr.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

For this collection of essays by 50 accomplished authors discussing 100 short stories, editor Dubus, a novelist in his own right (Townie; House of Sand and Fog), asked authors--including Tobias Wolff, Richard Russo, Edith Pearlman, and Lois Lowry--to select and discuss two short stories that impacted their lives. Thus, the book provides a wide array of voices and backgrounds, as well as a large spectrum of story selections. The short essays provide fast yet erudite analysis of these works. For instance, Wolff (This Boy's Life) discusses Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wakefield" and Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Elsewhere, Oates analyzes Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" and John Updike's "A&P." Other authors discuss works by William Faulkner, Herman Melville, James Baldwin, and Edith Wharton, among many others. The title functions as an index and contextual discussion for the great short stories. VERDICT The book's subject matter lends it to a literary audience, making this publication most intriguing to authors, teachers and professors of English and to literature connoisseurs. This compilation of articles on important short stories will make avid readers and writers very happy.--Jeffrey Meyer

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Famous writers riff on their favorite short stories. Dubus III asked 50 working writers to write a brief essay praising two short stories. Joyce Carol Oates selects John Updike's "A & P" and Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal," and Paul Harding spotlights a pair of John Cheever classics: "The Swimmer" and "The Jewels of the Cabots." While it's pleasant enough to read seasoned writers celebrating their inspirations, the project has its shortcomings. Because Dubus invited his contemporaries to contribute, the selections tend to gravitate to writers in the New Yorker mold from the second half of the 20th century. Selections are dominated by the likes of Raymond Carver (cited three times), Russell Banks, Jamaica Kincaid, and so on. Many contributors also have their own stories praised by others--Michael Cunningham, Tobias Wolff, Jayne Anne Philips, Stuart Dybek, Ron Carlson, and more--which exacerbates the insular vibe. The better pieces break free from either effusions of praise or workshop analysis and make more adventurous selections or statements. Lois Lowry's commentary on Carver's "A Small, Good Thing" is a pathway for a discussion of her own experience with grief; Dagoberto Gilb's piece on Juan Rulfo and Tomás Rivera is both an appreciation and a critique of the American literary canon; Phil Klay opens his piece on Dostoyevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor" by recalling a near-death experience; and Cunningham blends an essay on the limits of teaching fiction writing with a lucid study of James Joyce's "The Dead" and its iconic ending, "one of the greatest paragraphs produced by human hand." Some of the authors share writing prompts, suggesting this book is intended as a teaching tool; in most cases here, though, it may be enough to take their recommendations on faith and go directly to the stories themselves. Other contributors include T.C. Boyle, Meg Wolitzer, Richard Russo, Lauren Groff, Ann Beattie, and Junot Díaz. Well-intentioned but often thin praise pieces. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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