Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

The Best American Short Stories 2016

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
0 of 1 copy available
"This terrific and surprising collection of tales by a diverse group of writers lives up to Diaz's 'rah-rah' (his term) rallying cry for the form." —USA Today
"If the novel is our culture's favored literary form, upon which we heap all our desiccated literary laurels, if the novel is, say our Jaime Lannister, then the short story is our very own Tyrion: the disdained little brother, the perennial underdog. But what an underdog," writes Junot Diaz in his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2016.
From a Nigerian boy's friendship with his family's former houseboy to a sweatshop girl's experience as a sister wife, from love and murder on the frontier to a meltdown in the academe, these stories, for Diaz, have the economy and power to "break hearts bones vanities and cages."
"The literary 'Oscars' features twenty outstanding examples of the best of the best in American short stories." —Shelf Awareness
"Its strongest installment yet . . . Díaz's compilation is the most diverse and inclusive entry to date of any of the major annual story collections—reason enough to get it in the classroom, and a good vehicle for readers to see what's up in neighborhoods they may not be familiar with. Essential for every student of the short story form." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This year's collection brings together fine stories by famous fiction writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Karen Russell . . . [while] a great deal of the magic is generated by the appearance of less familiar names." —The National Book Review
  • Creators

  • Series

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      A renewal of the longtime prize-volume series, perhaps its strongest installment yet.Leave it to guest editor Diaz, of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao fame, to make a cogent, even urgent claim for the primacy of the short story without resorting to academic fancy-pantsness: "Novels might be able to summon entire worlds, but few literary forms can match the story at putting a reader in touch with life's fleeting, inexorable rhythm." Vita brevis, so ars brevis, then. Diaz opens with a wonderfully self-effacing memoir concerning his own checkered successes as a short story writer before turning over the stage to a fine roster of writers, most in midcareer. If there's a shared preoccupation here, it would be that very vita-brevis business; many of the pieces touch on death, sometimes head-on, as with John Edgar Wideman's perfectly paced "Williamsburg Bridge" ("Dawns on me that I'll miss the next Olympics, next March Madness, next Super Bowl. Dawns on me that I won't regret missing them"), and sometimes a touch more obliquely, as with Louise Erdrich's eccentric but chilling "The Flower" ("Nobody took a knife and stabbed an uncle who held her foot and died as the blood gushed from his mouth"). When not outright cemeteries, the settings of many pieces are clinics, dark woods, and rec rooms where 9/11 is the theme of conversation. These are, in the main, then, sober-minded pieces, marked by tears and angst and confusion, the stuff of life indeed. There's no whiff of political correctness to the choices, which stand out entirely on their own, but even so it has to be said that Diaz's compilation is the most diverse and inclusive entry to date of any of the major annual story collections--reason enough to get it in the classroom, and a good vehicle for readers to see what's up in neighborhoods they may not be familiar with. Essential for every student of the short story form. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from September 1, 2016
      A renewal of the longtime prize-volume series, perhaps its strongest installment yet.Leave it to guest editor Diaz, of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao fame, to make a cogent, even urgent claim for the primacy of the short story without resorting to academic fancy-pantsness: "Novels might be able to summon entire worlds, but few literary forms can match the story at putting a reader in touch with life's fleeting, inexorable rhythm." Vita brevis, so ars brevis, then. Diaz opens with a wonderfully self-effacing memoir concerning his own checkered successes as a short story writer before turning over the stage to a fine roster of writers, most in midcareer. If there's a shared preoccupation here, it would be that very vita-brevis business; many of the pieces touch on death, sometimes head-on, as with John Edgar Wideman's perfectly paced "Williamsburg Bridge" ("Dawns on me that I'll miss the next Olympics, next March Madness, next Super Bowl. Dawns on me that I won't regret missing them"), and sometimes a touch more obliquely, as with Louise Erdrich's eccentric but chilling "The Flower" ("Nobody took a knife and stabbed an uncle who held her foot and died as the blood gushed from his mouth"). When not outright cemeteries, the settings of many pieces are clinics, dark woods, and rec rooms where 9/11 is the theme of conversation. These are, in the main, then, sober-minded pieces, marked by tears and angst and confusion, the stuff of life indeed. There's no whiff of political correctness to the choices, which stand out entirely on their own, but even so it has to be said that Diaz's compilation is the most diverse and inclusive entry to date of any of the major annual story collections--reason enough to get it in the classroom, and a good vehicle for readers to see what's up in neighborhoods they may not be familiar with. Essential for every student of the short story form.

      COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Loading