Best American Short Stories 2004

Ah, it’s that time of year again: time for the annual edition of Houghton Mifflin’s exemplary anthology series, The Best American Short Stories. The 2004 collection is guest edited by one of my favorite writers, Lorrie Moore (although can I just say, Lorrie! You should be writing! Don’t spend too much time reading everyone else’s stuff!), and so I went into the book with heightened expectations. Lucky for me, Moore and series editor, Katrina Kenison, did not disappoint.

 

My one quibble might be with the number of well-known authors. Sometimes this series sheds light on little-known writers who deserve a wider audience, but

Moore

chose mostly high-profile authors: John Updike, Alice Munro, Annie Proulx, Charles D’Ambrosio, Edward P. Jones, and Thomas McGuane, all of whom had their stories originally published in The New Yorker. But at the same time, it’s hard to argue that their stories don’t deserve to be here; these are writers at the top of their game, and their stories are wonderful contributions to this series. Alice Munro, in particular, keeps writing and publishing some of the most beautiful and complex stories of any short story writer today, and her story “Runaway” is no exception.

 

Among the other gems in this year’s collection is the opening story, Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” a deceptively simple story about an alcoholic homeless Indian in Seattle who sees what he believes to be his grandmother’s powwow regalia in a pawn shop window and sets out to find the money to buy it. Paula Fox’s entry, “Grace,” spotlights some of the lonely, lost people in today’s society who can only recognize their own emptiness when confronted with the companionship of a pet. And Charles D’Ambrosio’s story “Screenwriter,” set in a mental hospital, considers the fragile nature of sanity, especially when human relationships are involved.

 

There are critics who periodically claim the short story is dead; that readership in general is down, and those reading fiction only read novels. The Best American Short Stories series consistently demonstrates that there are artists out there creating wonderful stories that are not simply condensed novels, but works of art that stand on their own and would not benefit from being stretched into a novel. Readers who avoid the short story would do well to give them another chance, and this series is one of the best ways to explore the story.