This new Best Stories collection, the weakest in years, should not necessarily lead to generalizations about the sad state of the American short story—because the problem may have more to do with editorial judgment. Calisher, who provides a preening, empty introducton, seems to have played it supposedly safe, choosing many big-name authors and New Yorker contributions. But the result is mostly undistinguished, with under-par work by such writers as Walter Abish, Max Apple, Robert Coover, Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro (an unusually poor story for her), Richard Stern, John Updike, Larry Woiwode . . . and Ann Beattie, whose interminable "Winter 1978" is selfindulgent and nearly incoherent. Only five stories out of the 20 here, in fact, seem genuinely outstanding. Andre Dubus' "The Winter Father" (from Finding a Girl in America, 1980) is a story of divorce that's somewhat unshapely but often touching in its asceticism. Elizabeth Hardwick's "The Bookseller" is, if you can imagine it, a New York story told in a Viennese manner—a perceptive cultural vignette with stately, shrugging cadences of knowledge. Bobble Ann Mason's "Shiloh," though marred by its ending, is deeply controlled. And there are two superb entries: Amelia Moseley's "The Mountains Where Cithaeron Is," a contemporary yet pagan fantasy of a society where mother is, quite naturally, also wife—a story of extraordinary, mysterious alignment; and Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl" (the first-prize-winner of the O. Henry Awards collection, p. 293)—a fragment of Hell, pathos made scarifying in the concentration camps. Very few standouts, much inferior, unflattering work: a definite dip in quality and authority for this usually-solid series.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1981
ISBN: 0395312590
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1981
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
