It’s that time of year again—time for the esteemed entry into the annual series, The Best American Short Stories. The 2006 volume is edited by guest editor Ann Patchett, and her essay opening the book is a tart and well-thought-out overview of the role of the short story:
“The first thing the short story needs to think about is casting off the role of The Novel’s Little Sidekick, the practice run, the warm-up act…Who’s to say the short story writer has a novel in him? Is a sprinter accepted to the team on the condition that she will also run a marathon?”
A collection that begins with the hardy advice to accept short stories on their own terms, rather than as short-versions or warm-ups to a novel, is a book after my own heart. It’s a book that certainly should include a story by Alice Munro, the acclaimed (and deservedly so) master of the short story, and this book does.
However, it’s not Munro’s finest work. That’s not Patchett’s fault; she only had so many Munro stories to choose from during the prescribed period. But the overall choices sometimes feel questionable. The opening store is a haunting beauty, the luminous “Once the Shore” by Paul Yoon. But other stories feel forced in their drama, such as Edith Pearlman’s “Self-Reliance,” or simply go on too long, ruining a good concept, such as Ann Beattie’s “Mr. Nobody at All,” which is a marvelous parody of modern-day memorial services, but would have been even more marvelous at half the length.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the short story, read hundreds of them myself every year for sheer pleasure. I think Patchett’s got it right when she complains about writers playing with the form, writers who are not short story writers at heart. But if that’s the case, it would have been nice to see more masters of the form in this collection. More (and better) Munro, for example; or looking at the 100 runner-up titles in the back, I see nothing listed by William Trevor. Did he not publish anything during that year? Because the latest work of his that I’ve read has been wonderful. He didn’t earn a spot in the top 120? Lorrie Moore is a finalist, but Ann Beattie’s story made the book?
If I sound disappointed, it’s because I am. I’m a big fan both of this series and of Ann Patchett. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but the stories that are included in this year’s volume don’t strike me as the cream of the crop, for the most part.
The good thing about this series is that there will be a new guest editor next year. Someone else will pick the final 20. And I’ll be ready and waiting when it comes out in print.
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