Universal human themes
K. KUNHIKRISHNAN
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A collection of straight narratives devoid of experiments.
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The Best American Short Stories 2006; Ed: Anne Patchett, Series Editor: Katrina Kenison, Houghton Mifflin Co., $14.
THIS annual anthology carries the best contemporary American short fiction published in American and Canadian periodicals. The current volume is dominated by the The New Yorker ( four stories( followed by the Zoetrope (three) and Tin House, Ploughshares and The Paris Review (two each). They highlight the variety in the genre in terms of narrative styles, rhythm and themes.
Master writers
Masters like Alice Munro, Ann Bettie, Nathan Englander, Tobias Woldd and Thomas McGuane are featured, as are first timers like Yiyun Li and Katharine Bell.
Yiyun Li's story "After A Life" focuses on two couples in China. One hides their child from public view because she has birth defects, though her screaming haunts the neighbours. All their hopes are pinned on their normal son. The story unravels the labyrinths of Chinese society and the cultural changes happening there.
Another story set in Beijing is Jack Livings' "The Dog", about the banned dog racing.
Katharine Bell's "The Casual Car Pool" is only her second story but is incredibly inventive in craft, technique and narration. The protagonist is stuck in the rush-hour traffic jam on Bay Bridge in San Francisco and a skydiver is falling from above. The suspense and anxiety in the story are kept alive.
High quality
Alice Munro's "The View From Castle Rock" is a fictional narrative of her Scottish ancestors' emigration to Canada in 1818. In "Refresh Refresh", Benjamin Percy presents a forceful account of a young man's choice when his father and many others from their small town are deployed in Iraq. Kevin Moffet's "Tattooism", Donna Tartt's "The Ambush" and "Maxine Swann's "Secret" concern adolescence and rites of passage of time. Paul Yoon's "Once The Shore" is set in Korea and relates to the destruction of the Japanese fishing boat Ehime Maru by an American submarine, the USS Grenville. Alexander Hemon's "The Conductor" is about a Bosnian poetry community.
All the stories maintain a high quality and are ideal examples of short fiction.
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