The Best American Short Stories 2018

Locations
Call Number: 808.83 Be, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / General / Best American Short Stories
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	808.83 Be	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / General / Best American Short Stories	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / General / Best American Short Stories	4-week checkout	Due 05-02-2024

Cougar / Maria Anderson -- A family / Jamel Brinkley -- The art of losing / Yoon Choi -- Los Angeles / Emma Cline -- Unearth / Alicia Elliott -- Boys go to Jupiter / Danielle Evans -- A history of China / Carolyn Ferrell -- Come on, Silver / Ann Glaviano -- What got into us / Jacob Guajardo -- Everything is far from here / Cristina Henríquez -- Good with boys / Kristen Iskandrian -- Control Negro / Jocelyn Nicole Johnson -- The Brothers Brujo / Matthew Lyons -- A big true / Dina Nayeri -- Items awaiting protective enclosure / Téa Obreht -- The baptism / Ron Rash -- Suburbia! / Amy Silverberg -- The prairie wife / Curtis Sittenfeld -- Whose heart I long to stop with the click of a revolver / Rivers Solomon -- What terrible thing it was / Esmé Weijun Wang.
Presents a selection of the best works of short fiction of the past year from a variety of acclaimed sources.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Terrible contribution to a usually-excellent series submitted by MH17 on July 14, 2019, 4:58pm A travesty, this collection edited by Roxane Gay, who makes her narrow-minded, self-serving intentions known in her disgrace of an introduction, is a low point in the history of this usually-excellent series that celebrates the best stories of the year. Standout stories by Tea Obreht, Ron Rash and Emma Cline are definitely worth checking out; many of the other stories are entirely worth missing and range from ham-handed middling works that could have used another round or two of revisions, to idea stories that beat you about the head with their political point of view, to the bizarre-for-sake-of-bizarre, obscenity-laden, gross-out that infects readers with its poison rather than give any meaningful insight into the human condition--"The Brothers Brujo" by Mathew Lyons, the dregs of this collection, truly awful. The biggest tragedy--that there were many, many more worthy stories that could have been selected (some of which are in the "Other Distinguished Stories" section), had Gay been interested in quality before any other consideration. Gay should be ashamed. Her bitterness and political grandstanding ruined this year's edition and is an affront to the spirit of the series, which is bigger than her, bigger than any political ideology. It's about art, about being human. Gay blows it. Let's hope 2019 is better.