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PRIZE STORIES 2000

Name: PRIZE STORIES 2000
Author: Larry Dark
ISBN: 0-385-49877-2

THE O. HENRY AWARDS

edited by Larry Dark ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2000

The few historical stories, while a welcome change, seem mostly warm-ups for bigger works; in any case, the 80th edition of...

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Dark’s perfunctory introduction to this year’s collection is right about one thing: there are a lot of deaths in the 20 stories selected by judges Michael Cunningham, Pam Houston, and George Saunders.

Tim Gautreaux, now a staple of such anthologies, strikes the one humorous note in the volume that gives top honors to John Wideman’s meditation on his mother’s death, a somber, almost schmaltzy, blues riff. Just when you thought, though, that it was safe to read annual anthologies without encountering Raymond Carver or his epigones, the editors include a posthumous piece by the daddy of minimalism himself, a tiresome tale of a dried-out alcoholic who renews himself after chopping a few chords of wood. The Atlantic Monthly, represented with three stories, wins the magazine honors, and Mary Gordon’s “The Deacon” well merits its third prize: it’s a smart profile of a righteous modern nun who learns the true meaning of loving those who we’re inclined not to. Melissa Pritchard’s “Salve Regina” also tangles with the church: a non-Catholic girl attends a convent school and sublimates her confused sexuality into passionate faith. Religion figures quite differently in Nathan Englander’s tale of a gentile investment banker who suddenly decides one day that he’s an Orthodox Jew, a decision with devastating practical consequences for his shiksa wife. But death sustains the longest note here: in Russell Banks’s “Plain of Abraham,” a construction foreman inadvertently causes the death of his former wife; in John Biguenet’s poignant “Rose,” a woman keeps a folder of computer-generated physical updates on her long-dead son; in Kate Walbert’s “The Gardens of Kyoto,” a woman remembers a cousin killed in the South Pacific; and in Alice Dark’s “Watch the Animals,” a snooty community comes together to respect and honor its most eccentric member as her death approaches.

The few historical stories, while a welcome change, seem mostly warm-ups for bigger works; in any case, the 80th edition of this fine series serves its basic function: it’s a window into the world of contemporary fiction.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2000

ISBN: 0-385-49877-2

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Anchor

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE STORY PRIZE
edited by Larry Dark

- BOOK REVIEW
THE O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES 2002
edited by Larry Dark

- BOOK REVIEW
PRIZE STORIES 2001
edited by Larry Dark

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.