The Best American Short Stories of the Century

The short story is arguably the American contribution to literary form, developed in the work of Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Crane and others in the 19th century to flourish during the 20th century in the work of Bellow, Carver, Cather, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Malamud, Munro, O’Connor, Proulx, Roth, Updike, Welty and others. An anthology of the best American stories published during the year was first published in 1915 and continues today. In the earlier years the dedicated editor, Edward J. O’Brien, endeavored to read every short story published in America and select only the finest, and this custom has been continued over the years. Now, one of the finest short story writers of the 20th century, John Updike, with the assistance of Katrina Kenison, has read all the stories in the 85 volumes of Best American Short Stories and selected the cream of the crop over the century for this jewel of American short fiction. I have read all the stories as they are printed, in chronological order, and thoroughly enjoyed them all, but there are a few which I found particularly striking: 1929 Willa Catha Double Birthday and Grace Stone Wild Plums;1944 Vladimir Nabokov That in Aleppo Once…; 1951 Tennessee Williams The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffine; 1955 John Cheever The Country Husband; 1957 Flannery O’Connor Greenleaf; 1960 Lawrence Sargent Hall The Ledge; and Phillip Roth Defender of the Faith/; 1979 Saul Bellow A Silver Dish; 1993 Thom Jones I Want to Live!; 1998 Annie Proulx The Half-Skinned Steer.

The best short stories of the century. This book is very thick and yet the binding allows for the volume to lay open and to be read easily. The hardcover book came shrinkwrapped so it was in perfect condition upon arrival. I love it so much. It is now one of my cherished keepsake volumes.

Solely due to the way this book was assembled, it cannot live up to its title. This book is not an assemblage of the best short stories from the entire body of 20th century American literature; rather, this book is an anthology of the best stories that happened to have appeared in the annual Best American Short Story volumes. So, to make it into this book, a story would have had to be recognized when it was written as being one of the best of that year, as chosen by a single editor/reader. I enjoy reading short stories, and every year I purchase both the O. Henry Prize Stories and the Best American Short Stories. When I first did this, I was amazed at how little overlap there is between 20 stories chosen for each anthology (usually, there are only one or two stories in common, and typically the story chosen by O. Henry as the best of the year does not appear in the other anthology). So once again we have evidence that beauty (and art and subjective opinions such as "best") are in the eye of the beholder. So, can John Updike's selections be debated? Undoubtedly; every reader of this anthology will be able to cite stories and authors that they believe should have been included (as for me, I was most disappointed by the absence of Ray Bradbury). But is this anthology worth reading? Absolutely! Reading this anthology cover-to-cover is like traveling through time, and provides an enriching perspective on the history of the 20th century in America. From the hardscrabble existence of immigrants and farmers, to the Depression, to the problems of racism, to the war, to the ennui that exists in a time of relative plenty, these stories do cover the broad American experience of the past century. Furthermore (aside from Ray Bradbury), many of our best authors are represented, so this book is a good way to get introduced to authors that one has heard about but not read before. It's surprising to me that short story anthologies aren't more popular, given our busy society. A well written short story entertains, conveys a message, teaches something about the human condition, and can be enjoyed in one sitting, such as a short plane or train ride. I would highly recommend this anthology as a way for short story novices to get started, and then one can graduate to the annual O. Henry and Best American Short Story anthologies.

An incredibly un-putdown-able selection of the best short fiction writing of the 20th century. It’s rare I consider short story collections page turners, but there was just one masterful read after another. Of course, there were a couple of clunkers, but I loved over 90% of the stories and considering this collection is a door stopper, that’s pretty good!! Bravo John Updike (RIP) for a superb job editing this anthology. It can’t be easy choosing 56 stories to call the “best” spanning 100 years.

When something is titled “The Best ….” You pay attention! Yet contemporary short stories play obtuse games with us … be prepared ….and the accolade “best “ is subjective …be prepared for some interesting reads …this edition is chock full of thoughtful, interesting shorts

It was wonderful giving this book as a gift. Very good condition, fast delivery, appeared almost new. Packaged very securely.

About half the stories left me satisfied (I'll list those below) and the other half left me wondering, "Why was this selected as the best of the century?" Here are some of the ones I liked: The Ledge, by Lawrence Sargent Hall Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, by Joyce Carol Oates The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien Second Tree from the Corner, by EB White Greenleaf, by Flannery O'Connor There are others I enjoyed as well. As for the ones I didn't like, well, there were a variety of reasons, but let's just say they didn't hook me or left me feeling, "Eh, so what?" at the end. I attribute this to the mismatch between Updike's sensibilities and my own.

Not a single 'bad' story in the lot! Some stories seemed 'better' than others, but all were GREAT reading. I transferred this collection from the bathroom to the living room and dining room to keep going from one story to the next. My only 'complaint' was that there were not MORE sstories to enjoy and cherish. I have enjoyed re-reading several stories as well.

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I'm only about a third of the way through it at the time of writing but I can say that the book is an education. The biographical notes on the authors are useful and serve as links to other of an author's works - even, perhaps particularly, those which just give the date when a story was published and then chronicle : "nothing more is known about him/her". An outstanding collection.

Some wonderful reading to look forward to.

This is a treasure trove for short-story lovers. "The Best American Short Stories" is a well-established annual anthology, starting in 1915 which has been published without interruption every year since its inception. This tome in my hand brings together "the best of the best", fifty-six short stories hand-picked from the entire stock of two thousand stories that have been collected in those yearly volumes since 1915. So, you can imagine the scope of this delightful collection!

Great as expected. Some stories especially well chosen. All seem memorable and are representative of their time. Enjoy this book instead of travel.