We Are the Stories We Tell

Rereading this 30 year slater, I was not an enamored as I was the first time through, but it's still a solid anthology and captures well the short story scene of the late 80s. It was racially diverse for its time -- Erdrich, Cisneros, and Birtha to go along with the fairly canonical at that time Walker, Marshall, Silko, Kingston, Bambara. Still plenty of white women, though, and a strong New Yorker presence. Among the 70s-80s stories, the Gordon, Prose, Beattie, and Janowitz feel dated, but the Minot holds up -- though does not seem as stylistically or thematically radical as it did then. Marshall's "Brookyln" I had completely forgotten but loved, and Erdrich's "Fleur" I completely remembered and loved. Some pieces seemed odd choices -- show more didn't work well as part of this grouping -- and those were primarily the less narrative-focused stories -- "Blackguard," "On Discovery," "She Unnames Them." Overall, it is a great snapshot of the state of the art in 1990. show less