Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Best American Short Stories 2008 – Not What You’d Expect

It’s quite easy to see the big names and the big titles on a book like Best American Short Stories 2008, editor: Salman Rushdie, and say something along the lines of – “That must be literature!” – but you’d instantly be calling into question the precise definition of literature, and of course, as is the tradition of any Best American series introduction to do, the definitions of both ‘best’ and ‘American’. Salman Rushdie and Heidi Kitlor have put together an interesting, certainly entertaining collection with two or three remarkable stories. However about half of this volume contains stories very similar, in both content and style. Many seem to follow "The New Yorker model" of short stories - very well written, of course, using clever adjectives to describe in great detail everything about the character's past, the character's surroundings, the character's feelings. Very little is suggested or left up to the reader. Ultimately these stories are easy to follow and enjoyable to read - it makes sense that they are widely anthologized and have found a place in the nation's most popular magazines – however, they can hardly be considered incredible stories. They focus almost exclusively on some quirk or emotion of an urban romance, or if they contain a theme, it is something redundant, ordinary, and unprofound. Example: 'Man and Wife' by Katie Chase is an interesting story, emotional to read, but doesn't seem to be about much more than how unfair arranged marriages are to women. It's enjoyable to read but lacks the deeper element that you expect from someone writing with such lucid prose and an obvious sense of the dramatic – not to mention from a story that’s been given the label ‘best american’.

Stories which break this mold and stand out in a more literary context: Child's Play by Alice Munro, Straightaway by Mark Wisiniewski, and Closely Held by Allegra Goodman. Child's Play contains some great one liners: "She had a habit of hanging on to - even treasuring - the foibles of my distant infantile state." That is from the first paragraph, which makes no sense until you have read the rest of the story. Munro puts off revealing the climatic event which drives the plotline and connects all the various storylines until the last possible moment, and when she finally does it, it is with characteristic suggestion and understatement. The event, the murder of a child by another child, is somehow portrayed through the lens of childhood innocence - and Munro has the reader convinced by story's end that the two girls (it is impossible to really call them 'killers' if you have read the story) who committed the act are actually the victims, not the girl they have killed. Munro avoids "The New Yorker model" trap by simply taking artistic care in laying out her story like an X-Files mystery, weilding her voice with confidence and precision.

Allegra Goodman’s ‘Closely Held’ is a sarcastic and sardonic critique of the life of a businessman through the eyes of a brilliant science scholar who was slowly lured into founding his own company. Now worth millions, his life does not do anything to approach a happy one. This story breaks down each aspect of his life and how this new business replacing his academic pursuit has ruined the person he sought to become.

Mark Wisiniewksi’s ‘Straightaway’ will lure the reader in instantly, almost like a mystery story, as we seek to figure out exactly what is inside the “drum” that these three young black men, billing themselves as waste-disposal workers for hire, receive from a woman who pays them $3000 dollars to remove it. Throughout the story the author keeps this secret at bay, urging the reader on and inspiring his nerves as the characters grow increasingly more worried. Through the gentle, very natural thoughts of the main character, we discover that the three men were on state championship basketball teams together, and you can tell they mourn with nostalgia the passage of time without Wisiniewski explicitly saying so. Through the slightest suggestions and careful usage of language, the author is able to reflect the emotion of particularly the main character, who seems deeply dissatisfied with a life that is clearly missing something, some key element of alive, which he bemoans by attaching himself to the few good things he does see. In the end, it was just bad luck that even brought the three of them into such a situation in the first place, as the main character ruined his knee near the end of his career and lost his explosiveness, and was never given a shot at the college level. The conclusion of the story, a climatic horse race at the Meadowlands, further establishes the role pure chance plays in becoming rich in a capitalist world.

The one entry from the small UNC-Wilmington journal Ecotone - Kevin Brockmeier's The Year of Silence - is quite unique as well, but for me became a bit repetitive by the end. The ending is a good idea (you certainly can't accuse Brockmeier of unoriginality), but unless you have a morse codebook handy, you feel a bit cheated.

Is this collection worth buying? It depends what you’re expecting. If you’re a die-hard New Yorker-Atlantic Monthly kind of guy or girl, you’ll probably be interested. If you’re just looking for a story to keep you occupied and entertained, this collection will certainly do that. But if you are looking for the next Chekhov, it really isn’t worth the money. It pains me to say that because I have nothing but respect for the authors in this volume, and for creative writers in general. But I think I was just hoping and looking for a different kind of writing. That is not, however, to undermine the very specific, magazine-oriented craft engaged by some of these artists. Ultimately, the three stories mentioned are certainly worth digging up somewhere – and Tobias Wolfe’s concluding story, Bible, ain’t bad literature either.

Complete list
1. Straightaway (Mark Wisniewski)
2. Closely Held (Allegra Goodman)
3. Child’s Play (Alice Munro)
4. Bible (Tobias Wolff)
5. The Year of Silence (Kevin Brockmeier)
6. The Wizard of West Orange (Steven Millhauser)
7. Virgins (Danielle Evans)
8. The Worst You Ever Feel (Rebecca Makkai)
9. Vampires in the Lemon Grove (Karen Russell)
9. Puppy (George Saunders)
11. Man and Wife (Katie Chase)
12. Nawabim Electrician (Daniyal Mueenuddin)
13. May We Be Forgiven (A.M. Homes)
14. Missionaries (Bradford Tice)
15. Quality of Life (Christine Sneed)
16. Buying Lenin (Miroslav Penkov)
17. The King of Sentences (Jonathan Lethem)
18. Galatea (Karen Brown)
19. From the Desk of Daniel Varsky (Nicole Krauss)
20. Admiral (T.C. Boyle)