Apparently, this was not a particularly good year for American Short Story Fiction, judging from the entries in this anthology. The stories varied in quality from “okay” to “solid.” I wondered if the inclusion of some of the entries was (unconsciously) influenced by the authors’ reputations or literary connections, given their mediocrity. Regardless, I did not find a single entry that I would choose to read a second time.

As is the practice of editors of these volumes, the entries focus on character development and word choice. Most of the focal characters are alienated, depressed, and evince little potential for personal development. Most of the stories offer glimpses of a brief segment of the life of an individual on the road to nowhere. ( )

so fun. i didn't love all of these stories, but so many of them were fantastic. i loved my first look ever at both david foster wallace and tobias wolff. i really enjoyed robert olen butler again, so i think i need to read more of him. same for rick bass and lorrie moore. i'm going to pick up something by thomas beller, whose story i had to immediately reread i liked it so much. and marshall n klimasewiski, oh marshall n klimasewiski, whose story i liked so much i couldn't read anything else for almost a day. he blew me away and almost got this book 5 stars all on his own. this is a really good collection, with a few in there that didn't resonate so much with me. but overall, quite good. ( )

i thought i was going off short stories. i haven't read a collection in a while that i could remember after 10 minutes.(or maybe i'm going off) but i enjoyed this collection as always. ( )