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THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 1981

Name: THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 1981
Author: Hortense Calisher
ISBN: 0395312590

edited by Hortense Calisher Shannon Ravenel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1981

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
NEW STORIES FROM THE SOUTH
edited by Shannon Ravenel

- BOOK REVIEW
NEW STORIES FROM THE SOUTH
edited by Shannon Ravenel

- BOOK REVIEW
NEW STORIES FROM THE SOUTH
edited by Shannon Ravenel

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PET SEMATARY

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 1983

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This novel began as a reworking of W.W. Jacobs' horror classic "The Monkey's Paw"—a short story about the dreadful outcome when a father wishes for his dead son's resurrection. And King's 400-page version reads, in fact, like a monstrously padded short story, moving so slowly that every plot-turn becomes lumberingly predictable. Still, readers with a taste for the morbid and ghoulish will find unlimited dark, mortality-obsessed atmosphere here—as Dr. Louis Creed arrives in Maine with wife Rachel and their two little kids Ellie and Gage, moving into a semi-rural house not far from the "Pet Sematary": a spot in the woods where local kids have been burying their pets for decades. Louis, 35, finds a great new friend/father-figure in elderly neighbor Jud Crandall; he begins work as director of the local university health-services. But Louis is oppressed by thoughts of death—especially after a dying student whispers something about the pet cemetery, then reappears in a dream (but is it a dream) to lead Louis into those woods during the middle of the night. What is the secret of the Pet Sematary? Well, eventually old Jud gives Louis a lecture/tour of the Pet Sematary's "annex"—an old Micmac burying ground where pets have been buried. . .and then reappeared alive! So, when little Ellie's beloved cat Church is run over (while Ellie's visiting grandfolks), Louis and Jud bury it in the annex—resulting in a faintly nasty resurrection: Church reappears, now with a foul smell and a creepy demeanor. But: what would happen if a human corpse were buried there? That's the question when Louis' little son Gage is promptly killed in an accident. Will grieving father Louis dig up his son's body from the normal graveyard and replant it in the Pet Sematary? What about the stories of a previous similar attempt—when dead Timmy Baterman was "transformed into some sort of all-knowing daemon?" Will Gage return to the living—but as "a thing of evil?" He will indeed, spouting obscenities and committing murder. . .before Louis must eliminate this child-demon he has unleashed. Filled out with overdone family melodrama (the feud between Louis and his father-in-law) and repetitious inner monologues: a broody horror tale that's strong on dark, depressing chills, weak on suspense or surprise—and not likely to please the fans of King's zestier, livelier terror-thons.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1983

ISBN: 0743412281

Page Count: 420

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
NEVER FLINCH
by Stephen King

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU LIKE IT DARKER
by Stephen King

- BOOK REVIEW
HOLLY
by Stephen King

- BOOK TO SCREEN
4 New Adaptations To Watch in October

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THE LINCOLN LAWYER

by Michael Connelly ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2005

Contains everything readers have come to expect from powerhouse Connelly. Bonus: Additional installments hold the intriguing...

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Fresh from returning Harry Bosch to the LAPD with The Closers (2005), veteran crime novelist Connelly offers intrigue and bracing twists in his first legal thriller.

Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller is known as a “Lincoln lawyer” because he does business while being driven from courthouse to courthouse in his Town Car. Scraping by by defending lowlifes, some of whom offer their chauffeur services to work off Haller’s fees, he stumbles across a dream client: a rich boy accused of viciously beating a woman. Most important for Haller, Louis Roulet loudly proclaims his innocence, and his family has the dough to pay top-dollar for representation. But Haller’s father, J. Michael Haller (making Bosch and Haller half-brothers, Connelly’s wink to longtime fans) said there was “no client as scary as an innocent man,” and soon Haller is confronted with the consequences that come from the system’s inevitable compromises. When Haller’s investigator and friend is murdered for getting too close to the truth, he’s forced to confront the cost of sacrificing ideals for pragmatism. To spill more plot detail would spoil a good deal of the considerable fun here; suffice to say the conflict sparks in Haller an epic case of cognitive dissonance. Connelly gets the legal details and maneuvers just right, and Haller is a great character—world-weary but funny and likable—he’s never met an angle he couldn’t play or a corner he couldn’t cut.

Contains everything readers have come to expect from powerhouse Connelly. Bonus: Additional installments hold the intriguing possibility of one day seeing Bosch and Haller together on the streets of L.A.