Year’s best stories have staying power

October 15, 2010|Joseph Peschel

Since 1978, when Shannon Ravenel became the series editor, an annual guest editor has had the final say on which stories will find a cozy and prestigious home in the annual “Best American Short Stories’’ anthology. Katrina Kenison succeeded Ravenel, and, in 2007, Heidi Pitlor became the series editor. Her tenure began inauspiciously when she chose Stephen King as guest editor. The following year, Salman Rushdie guest-edited a fine collection, but last year’s volume, its stories chosen by Alice Sebold, proved disappointing.

This time Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo made the final selections, and, with only a couple of exceptions, the best stories in this year’s collection would be great in any year. The collection is as good as the Rushdie edition, and one of the best of this young century. Most of Russo’s selections are steeped in realism, but a few venture into science fiction and one into magic realism. Russo chose five stories from The New Yorker and The Atlantic, but the other 15 stories come from old and distinguished literary magazines like The New England Review, Ploughshares, and The Paris Review, with seven stories from young sprouts: Tin House and McSweeney’s.

These stories are arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name, not by relative excellence, but usually I dub one story the best. This time I can’t; I jumped around in my reading, and felt that each story, whether about personal loss, betrayal, love, or suicide, was better than the last. Some are funny, some are sad or a magnificent combination. If I read them in a different order, I’d feel the same way.

In Ron Rash’s “The Ascent,’’ the child of poor, drug-addicted parents finds a downed airplane and steals jewelry from its dead passengers. The parents sell the booty to support their habit with devastating results. Jill McCorkle’s Hannah, in “PS,’’ now done seeing her marriage counselor, writes a parting message telling him how incompetent he is and tries to set him straight on a few things. In Steve Almond’s “Donkey Greedy, Donkey Get Punched,’’ a champion poker player is getting psychological help from a reformed gambler.