An Anthology of Famous American Stories

Strangely disappointing collection. It is difficult to discern the principle of selection. If "famous" is truly the key, that at least explains the inclusion of some old chestnuts that are really not very good. But then there are quite a few that just aren't well known. There is a great skew toward very dark stories. It is tempting to see the collection as a good representation of mid-twentieth century malaise and worse. There's also a skew toward the clever, and clever doesn't work well on the second and subsequent readings.