The Best American Short Stories 2007 (2024)

I slogged through the first five stories in this book and was about to toss the entire collection away in disgust. Even the John Barth story was outright awful, and so I denigrated Stephen King's taste in stories and vowed to never buy this collection again.

However, round about page 85, I hit Joseph Epstein's "My Brother Eli" and things began looking up. In fact, every story after that point ranged from decent to really damn good.

The Gold Star Stories:

William Gay, "Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You?" - so unsettling and gloriously written that it changed my mood for the rest of the day

Lauren Groff, "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story" - dreamy, poetic prose; the best kind of romance story - a little twisted, a lot fervent

Aryn Kyle, "Allegiance" - Okay, she lives up to her hype. Dammit.

Bruce McAllister, "The Boy in Zaquitos" - creepy science fiction, and like the best science fiction, all too near

Alice Munro, "Dimension" - perfect, as ever, and more riskily dramatic than the average Munro story

Karen Russell, "St. Lucy's...etc." - wonderful story; her collection is wonderful, too

Jim Shepard, "Sans Farine" - If you read one story this year about a family of executioners living and working during the French Reign of Terror, let it be this one.

So, all in all, that's seven outstanding stories and several pretty good stories I haven't mentioned. Surprisingly, I'd say that's my favorite Best American or O. Henry collection so far. Who would have thunk it. Hats off to you, Mr. King (and, of course, the editor in charge of the series).

blech. i did wonder why the series editor kept going on and on about the "so-called death" of the american short story in her introduction. and then assured the reader that, um, it was going to get better. i didn't realize she was actually warning us that this crop was kind of crap! i DID wonder whether the anthology suffered because stephen king selected for it this year. i mean, i really like him, actually, but i don't think he's got lots of TASTE. whichever, i couldn't help but be disappointed. some of these stories were actually bad. most were meh.

I always dive into anthologies prepared for a mixed bag. This one, which I must have picked up at some moving-out-of-the-country-come-raid-my-bookshelves sale, was not like that. I'm flipping back through the contents and can't think of even one story I disliked. Some of my favourites (which, of course, will not be yours, de gustibus etc.) were Lauren Groffs' "L. DeBard and Aliette", Roy Kesey's "Wait", and Bruce McAllister's "The Boy in Zaquitos".
Going through the volume, I kept thinking how nice it would be to start collecting the yearly volumes, to set up a habit of reading the stories (one a day?) around the winter holidays, to start picking up on the subtle (and sometimes very obvious) trends in contemporary literature. But I probably won't.

(PopSugar Reading Challenge 2020, "An anthology")

When the title of the book makes such a bold statement, you expect it to be nothing but the best.

Unfortunately, it failed to live up to its audacious title. Only three of the short stories proved themselves to be the best out of the twenty. The rest of them, in my opinion, aren't what I would claim to be as "the best."

This is the first disappointment I've gotten from the Best American Short Stories Series. Stephen King proved to be a heavy-handed editor to say the least. While no story could be classified as out-right horror, they almost all contained horrific elements: a girl with her face shot off propped up in an abandoned farm house, a suicide pact, castration, biological warfare, girls raised by werewolves... even the obligatory Alice Munro story (she's been included in almost every year I've read) has murdered children.

It seems Mr. King confused with the collection with "Stephen King's Favorite Short Stories of 2007" collection.

Worst of all, it's a weak collection. There were some clearly over-looked gems from 2007 that weren't included from the year. "Darkness" by Andrew Sean Greer (from the summer Zoetrope All Story) comes to mind, or Bradford Tice's "Missionaries" (Atlantic Monthly, 2007 fiction issue). The stories that are included left me feeling lukewarm, though Joseph Epstein's "My Brother Eli" was a stand-out. Roy Kesey's "Wait" succeded only in being as terrible, boring, and pointless as the endless wait in an airport the story is about.

I love the idea of Stephen King editing this collection, but I had a really hard time mustering any interest in the majority of these stories. Alice Munro's story is brilliant. Besides that, there were a few that were okay, and then there were some that I was completely disappointed by.

Eileen Pollacks' story "The Bris," for example, is based on an interesting idea--a son goes to tend to his dying father, only to find out that in fact his father is not Jewish, as he had always believed, and that his father wants to be circumcised so that he can be buried next to his wife. A fine idea. But then this sentence occurs in the second paragraph: "And so, with a heavy carry-on and an even heavier heart, Marcus flew to West Palm Beach." And it becomes clear that however interesting the idea is, the language and the writing just aren't going to do much.

This is the first edition with Heidi Pitlor as the series editor. Her introduction gives credit to Katrina Kinnesen who was the series editor before her. She has big shoes to fill.
In Stephen King’s introduction, he comes off quite arrogant. Typically the series editor reads stories from various publications and provides her selections to the guest editor to choose the ones he thinks are best. King went out and bought his own publications to make his own choices as if Pitlor was not qualified to make the initial picks and he wanted to hijack the project. At least that was my impression in his writing about the process. He also foretells the demise of the short story genre. I hope he is wrong.
It seems there is a good number of authors that are quite well known, such as Ann Beattie, T.C. Boyle, Alice Munro & Richard Russo. Oddly, theirs were not among my favorites.

It is hard to give a collection like this a star rating because some stories are so good and some just, not. I rated each story on its own and came up with a final rating not on the selections themselves but on King’s choices of the particular stories.
Five of the stories were excellent for content and writing. Seven of them were pretty good. The remaining eight were just ok or did not work for me at all.
There seemed to be a common theme in a number of King’s selections, old age, and death.

My Favorites
Riding the Doghouse by Randy DeVita:
My Brother Eli by Joseph Epstein:
L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story by Lauren Groff:
Wake by Beverly Jensen:
The Bris by Eileen Pollack

On to the next collection.

This took me two years to finish lol

THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2007 EDITED BY STEPHEN KING: International bestselling author Stephen King takes the stage with a different kind of performance: instead of being the creator and writer, he is the director, selected as the editor for the 2007 edition of the ever popular Best American Short Stories series. But don’t pick this book up expecting to find blood and gore, or a sense of horror and a feeling of terror that you are more used to when reading the editor’s own work; in this collection, King has select works he finds most fascinating, the stories that “make his blood curdle” but in an emotional and moving way, as opposed to a terrified one. Nevertheless, this collection has something to offer everyone, with twenty unique stories that were selected and deemed the best during the year 2006 by Stephen King and Best American Series ongoing editor, Heidi Pitlor.

King kicks off the collection with his own entertaining introduction, as he sets the scene for his discovering these special stories: bending down, ass in the air, going through the dusty and ignored journals shelf of a big-chain bookstore in Florida, and then making his way to the surprised cashier with this mighty pile of rarely bought materials. While it is humorous, King is making the clear point here that short stories are in some ways a dying art, for they are not being read by many, and in most cases, simply by other writers. And yet it is a crucial stepping stone for many aspiring writers. King sets out to show to the reader that while there were a lot of mediocre and not so good stories published in 2006, there were also some great ones, appearing in this collection, showing that the art of writing short stories is still alive and well.

The 2007 collection features stories by well known authors like John Barth, T. C. Boyle, Alice Munro and Richard Russo, to name a few. Here there are stories about everything, satisfying every reader’s taste in some way, whether it be “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” which is exactly what it sounds like; to an enchanting and memorable Lolitaesque story about an Olympic swimmer and a young girl with Polio who have a love a fair set with the backdrop of the 1918 flu epidemic in Lauren Groff’s “L DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story”; to “My Brother Eli” by Joseph Epstein featuring a famous writer who can never accept that he has done what he set out to achieve; to the wonderfully haunting “Sans Farine” by Jim Shepard, where the history and invention of the guillotine is revealed in gruesome detail while the French Revolution spirals out of control.

The beauty of a short story collection such as this is that with so much good material, if one is not immediately satisfied, one can just skip to the next story; and by the same token one can also slowly read and savor each story. Stephen King has certainly shown that he has some interesting and appreciative reading habits, proving his job as a good editor for today’s short stories. The Best American Short Stories 2007 is an ideal gift for anyone who has read all of Stephen King and wants something different, or simply loves to read books for what they are: an escape from reality into a world of the fantastic.

For more book reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.

I'm extremely wary of 'literature' as it is defined in the 21st Century. Too many wankers, too many people writing to impress other wankers, too much navel gazing and 'stylish' writing standing in for, you know, something actually happening. But with Stephen King at the helm of this thick book of literature, I thought I might actually find some stories like grandfather used to make. Profound and entertaining instead of turgid, fulsome and tedious.

What I got was a rather strange mix. The ones that didn't work tended to be self-important ('Do Something' by Kate Walbert) or bang on with the same old themes ('St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves' by Karen Russell). Here are some favourites:

Toga Party by John Barth A pragmatic (verging on nihilistic) look at aging as an older couple living in a housing estate attend a toga party thrown by one of their neighbours. Amusing and poignant.

Balto by T. C. Boyle Without doubt the best story in the collection. A drink-driving father tries to get his daughter to lie for him in court. Will she perjure herself to save his skin?

My Brother Eli by Joseph Epstein An engrossing read about an obnoxious Jewish writer's demise and his brother's attempt to understand him. Unfortunately, the ending doesn't quite match up to the pages that precede it.

Eleanor's Music by Mary Gordon A depressing tale about a living doormat whose only saving grace is the musical theatre in her life. When her gay ex-husband invites a crude director into their company, even that is threatened.

L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story by Lauren Groff Forbidden love in the early 1900s. Between a former Olympic swimmer and a crippled girl he is supposedly rehabilitating. Tell me you're not intrigued.

Wake by Beverly Jensen An ineffectual brother and sister try to get their late father to his funeral/wake. Has a folksy humour that would probably translate well to the screen in the right scriptwriter's hands.

The Bris by Eileen Pollack This very Jewish story is essentially a caper with a moral question at its core.

I've never read one of these yearly anthologies before. I picked this up because Stephen King chose the ones for this year. I wanted to see what kind of stories he included.

I really liked:

Riding the Doghouse
Solid Wood
Wait
L. DeBard and Aliette

I really disliked:

Pa's Darling
Toga Party
Sans Farine

All the others I liked to varying degrees. Can't help but wonder what made them decide these were the "best," but taste is inexplicable.

I started loving this book from the very first story by Louis Auchincloss (who I had never heard of) entitled 'Pa's Darling'. What a great title. Four of the first six stories made me say 'Wowww' out loud when I finished them. If I saw Stephen King I'd kiss his feet to thank him for selecting these great stories.

this is the 5th Best American Short Stories installment that i've read, and until now they've all been disappointing. i was starting to wonder if i just didnt like Heidi Pitlor's choices; and when i saw that for the 2007 edition Stephen King had also spent the entire year reading stories instead of just choosing from her suggestions i became hopeful. and i was not disappointed at all. which is somewhat surprising considering that i'm not really a fan of King's books these days. these stories are all excellent. i thought these were especially excellent:
My brother Eli
where will you go when your skin cannot contain you?
findings & impressions
the bris
St. Lucy's home for girls raised by wolves

Twenty stories from the New Yorker and other periodicals.

All these stories are good, all are soundly written, all feel drawn from the same well. This last will not make sense to most, and that's fine, but there's a similarity that left me underwhelmed with the collection while retaining an appreciation for individual story and author.

Wow, I must not have the same taste in stories as Mr. King. In his intro, he was talking about how he only picked stories that grabbed you from the start and stayed entertaining and page turning until you reached the end. I found myself rolling my eyes from the start and groaning my way through each BORING selection. For example, "Toga Party" seemed like it was going to take off, but is really just a bunch of rich people hanging out with each other surrounded by "clever" prose. It wasn't all bad, but there was far more that I didn't like than did. Some that I liked more than the others:

"Pa's Darling" by Louis Auchincloss was an interesting story about men's relationships and the bonds men have that may even transcend marriage.

"Balto" is the reason I picked this up from the thrift shop. I'd read it in a collection from the library and I felt I wanted to own it. I adore T.C. Boyle's stories and this tale of alcoholism and the moment when a child realizes the power they actually hold is brilliant.

"Eleanor's Music" by Mary Gordon about a woman who finds the world has left her behind.

Lauren Groff's "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story" about a relationship between two different worlds and the tragic power of social pressures.

Stellar Kim's stellar "Findings and Impression" about a radiologists strange fascination with a woman destined to die. This story was the best of the book with a quirky structure, gripping story, and emotional heart.

"Allegiance" by Aryn Kyle about the ways that even children must manipulate social dynamics go get by.

Another great story was "The Boy in Zauitos" by Bruce McAllister about a young man chosen as a biological weapon and it's effect on his psyche.

Eileen Pollack's "The Bris" about a man coming to terms with his father's mortality by helping him complete his dying wish.

Three stars for the best stories... not for the average quality of the book as a whole!

At first, I thought I'd figured out what a Best American edited by Stephen King was going to look like: straightforward told tales, with a point of drama or literary shock that would catch your attention, and hopefully cover over for other awkwardnesses in the writing. That was my impression for the first half of the book. By the end though, it was yet another year (now 2 past!) of Best American Short Stories. Perhaps the best of the year, some good, some certainly not the best you've ever read.

I noticed in this edition, and can't recall if it was in previous editions, that at the very, very end, each writer has a short bit on how they wrote the story. I thought it was worth perusing for the stories one liked.

What I liked best out of the whole book, and heartily recommend for general audiences:

Wake, Beverly Jensen. Apparently published posthumously, and part of a connected series of tales of a family, this story poetically paints a brother and sister traveling north, with their their father, in coffin, to his funeral. If you're like me, at least three things in the above sentences remind you of Faulkner; the accusation isn't unfair. Linguistically, she's more in the Frost, or even Hemingway vein of things, but the story pushes forward in emotional tones and striking sensory pulses. It's wistful, elegiac, organically rough-hewn, and simply lovely.

Findings & Impressions, Stellar Kim. Although I felt that some of the prose voice and exposition hit awkward patches, this was a beautifully genuine and emotionally hard story. It achieved moments of being powerfully present and real that many more polished tales have lacked entirely.

Allegience, Aryn Kyle. This is the tour de force of the book. It is an intensely, wonderfully uncomfortable story about all sorts of raw emotions and relations, and it's all arranged in symbolic symmetries that are nigh on purely magical. This story is a really a complete gem.

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell. Charming and wonderful. The title says everything that needs to be said about this.

Horseman, Richard Russo. I wasn't sure whether I liked this story or not; I think it has a slow start, but the payoff was moving and well-earned. There is a moment -- when the old professor explains his favorite poem -- that honestly took my breath away.

Other stories worth reading:

Balto, by T.C. Boyle. Worth reading, although the ending felt too easy, or perhaps, like I suggested, too explosive to land quite true. Still, a powerful and engaging situation is rendered in this story.

Riding the Doghouse, Randy DeVita. Wonderfully evocative, creepy, cello sonata of a story. If I turned a critical eye, I could find fault with the framing narrative, but there's hardly a point. it builds up like an incoming thunderstorm and ends with vivid flashes of lightning.

Where Will YOu Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You, William Gay. At first it might strike you as a sort of adolescent, emotionally over-blown Kerouac impression... which although it may be true, doesn't do a single-thing to efface the rough-hewn poetry, ink-blotter mystery for the reader to solve, or the amount of emotional energy that causes the letters to float above the page.

L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story. Lauren Groff. Charming, in a sort of faded B&W photograph sort of way.

The Boy in Zaquitos, by Bruce McAllister, is a little dry for fiction, but a really clever, well written, and intriguing piece of what's technically sci-fi (it was originally published in a sci-fi / fantasy review).

Dimension, Alice Munro. I like this writer a lot. This is a wonderful piece with what I felt was a flaw at its center. You can still appreciate the story around the flaw, but it's there: a random tragic moment, where the point point is that it was random... but still, it needed to be set apart, narratively, maybe especially because of its nature.

I asked a friend if he had read anything by Karen Russell and he responded by giving me two of the Best American Short Stories anthologies, one of which is this one from 2007. Unfortunately, most of the stories in here are pretty bland. I don't know if that's due to Stephen King being a poor editor or 2007 just being a mediocre year for short stories; either way, most of the stories in this collection are not bad but not astounding, either.

The problem with this anthology is that almost all of the stories deal with death in some way, ranging the gamut from suicide to murder to simply dying of old age. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it gets a little tiring to read story after story about death. There are very few lighthearted stories here, which only reinforces this prevalent notion in literature that in order to be a good writer you have to talk about Very Serious themes such as death. I'm sure Stephen King's role as editor and his predisposition towards the macabre had something to do with this as well.

The few stand-outs in this collection:

TC Boyle, "Balto" - a 13 year old girl has to drive her father and sister home when her father is too drunk to drive. On the way she hits a boy on a bike and is faced with the decision of whether or not to lie and say that she wasn't driving to prevent her sister and her from being taken away from her father.

William Gay, "Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You?" - a man dealing with his grief after the death of the woman he loved

Roy Kesey, "Wait" - the only outright humorous story in this anthology, "Wait" shows how people deal with being stuck in an airport after a fog prevents the plane from taking off.

Alice Munro, "Dimension" - a woman coming to terms with the death of her three children at the hands of their father.

Karen Russell, "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" - this is exactly what you'd expect from the title.

It’s difficult to review a collection of unrelated short stories, which is why I usually don’t. This is one of the better ones, oddly despite King’s upping the number of fantasy/horror offerings. I thought the addition of fantasy-tinged stories in Amy Tan’s 1999 outing is what made it one of the better collections, but here it didn’t quite work for me, despite my usually enjoying Stephen King’s own fantasy and horror.

What King may have brought to this collection that worked, however, was a sense of very disturbed people in downward spirals. There’s a short story about an executioner during the French revolution who is himself suspected of Royalist tendencies (or thinks he is); a short story about a woman whose son died of cancer and has decided to join the fringest of the fringe left and blame the military. A story about a group of people who have literally lost all joy for life going to a toga party.

Those are just the ones toward the end of the book so they’re still fresh in my memory, but paging through for my favorites from the beginning of the collection, the pattern holds. A woman living in a constructed reality in which her husband, who separated from her decades ago for another man, remains in a congenial marriage with him. Two siblings who can’t even successfully get their father’s body to the funeral.

In some cases we’re allowed to decide for ourselves how the story will end; in some we can see how it ends. But one thing is certain: none of these people will end well.

Having Stephen King rate the best short stories is like having a baby build a skyscraper. In his introduction, King laments the waning popularity of the short story, noting his own books' existence at the front of a book store, while short story anthologies are relegated to the back, away from where they could possibly be noticed. On some level, King is humiliated, even embarrassed by this. He has probably realized, in doing research for this collection, that his works pale in comparison to the ones he and Pitlor selected. But then Pitlor announces, in true cliche fashion, that despite the lack of readership, short stories will continue to thrive. Which would be downright impossible in anywhere but Pitlor's fantasy world, but King also echoes her sentiment.

These collections always focus on realism. I'm sure King infused some element of genre with stories like Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves." Joseph Epstein's "My Brother Eli" is fantastic, as well as Stellar Kim's "Findings & Impressions." But even these standouts meander to the point of being lazy. There's a lack of attention here, which is difficult to criticize correctly. I'm not sure whether it's King's, or Pitlor's, or each of the writer's fault, but this is easily the worst "Best American" collection to date.

I borrowed this book from the library for a short vacation. I usually find that I’m the first person up in the morning during family vacations, so it’s nice to have a short-story book on hand to occupy myself while I wait for the rest.

Well, this book was a real disappointment. I read about 8 short stories before I completely gave up. All of these stories could be characterized as “dysfunctional-family stories”. What a bunch of weird people! How about the dad who’s a famous judge who refuses to acknowledge that his daughter is smart? All because he’s unable to perform in bed? Or the tycoon who’s having an affair with his maid but won’t let his daughter marry her love despite her being pregnant with the baby? My God, what monsters exist in this world!

This book was all the more disappointing because Stephen King has recently published a collection of short stories and those are really fun to read! Why King would praise these stories is beyond me. Don’t waste your time on this book, there is much better stuff to read out there.

Very strong collection of stories, especially for this series.

When I've read some of them in the past, they're usually hit or miss- there are usually a few with some interesting plot points, some that are good for their literary values and techniques, but then others that know they're trying to be great literary short stories and end up feeling contrived and boring in the end, especially with some of them in the 2012 and 2013 editions.

But these were pretty good: interesting plots, great techniques, and original ideas. Highlight's include Lauren Groff's "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," a self-described lover story between two unlikely people and featuring a plot point that I didn't think she would actually include, Bruce McAllister's "The Boy in Zaquitos," a rare sci-fi story found in a literary collection, and Richard Russo's "Horseman," a fascinating look at a college professor's seemingly small mid-life crisis.

Overall, I was only disappointed with one story ("Eleanor's Music" by Mary Gordon), so this was a very good year for the anthology collection in my opinion.

I'm about 1/2 way through this, but wanted to jot down some of my thoughts so far.

It's been a long time since I read a collection of short stories, so I'm not sure what I was expecting. With that said, I'm finding the stories very "academic" - meaning, I keep waiting for my 10th grade English teacher to show up at the door with a thematic test for me on these, which I fear I would fail miserably. I get the feeling there must be more meaning to these stories than I see right away, otherwise why would they be in this book? So far, most are depressing, and all are written in a style that is hard for me to follow...

I'll keep slogging away at this one. More to come...

UPDATE 6/9: I'm abandoning this one for now. I just can't get interested and there are too many other books on my shelf that I really want to read! Maybe I'll try a different one in the series sometime. Sherrie - I'll put this in my car so I remember to get it to you next time I see you!! :)

This really didn't click for me until about the sixth story, My Brother Eli by Joseph Epstein, but after that they were pretty great with two exceptions. Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You by William Gay which I really wanted to like for the title alone and Sans Farine by Jim Shepard, a more boring story about the rise of the guillotine I cant imagine.
Lauren Groff's L. Debard and Aliette: A Love Story and Stellar Kim's Findings and Impressions pack more punch into 25 pages or less than most novels do in hundreds. Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is about exactly what you think it is and it's awesome.
All of the stories have at least one scene or line that's pretty gruesome, which I guess can only be expected with Stephen King doing the final selection.

I loved this book!! My favorite stories were
"Balto" by T.C. Boyle,
"Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You" by William Gay, "Wake" by Beverly Jensen (I especially loved that one),
"Findings and Impressions" by Stellar Kim,
"The Boy in Zaquitos" by Bruce McAllister
"Dimension" by Alice Munro
"The Bris" by Eileen Pollack

What I particularly liked is that the selections were not all grim and disturbing, as if contemporary fiction has to bother you in order to be good. All of these stories made me think and contemplate a different kind of life but they weren't necessarily depressing, negative views of the world. there was some hope. Short stories are my new favorite thing to read.

There was really only one or two stories out of this collection that I didn't enjoy--and even then, it was only because I couldn't get into the writing style. Out of the lot, the stories by William Gay, Stellar Kim, Lauren Groff, and this other short story called "Allegiance," these made the collection worthwhile all by themselves. Granted, everyone will feel differently about each of these and have their own favorites, but they really and truly were all amazing stories. If I had the time to keep up on this series, I would try, but for the moment, I've got too many other things to read already.

I try and try, but I still can't seem to fall in love with the short-story format. Add this to my unfinished pile, although I did make a valiant attempt.

Two things I like about books of short stories:
1. you can read it in spurts - read a story, put it down for a while, and pick it up again later
2. if you get bored with a story you can simply move on to the next one.
I did both with this collection - which I found a few years ago and bought it mainly because it was edited by Stephen King. I finally got around to reading it and did that over an eight month span.

If rating this as a complete book, I probably would have given it only 3 stars because there are a few stories in here that are snoozers that I either skipped to the next one or gritted my teeth and powered through.
But there are also some standout stories in here that are well worth reading. So I decided to give it 4 stars with the caveat that you, fellow reader, may choose to skim through a few like I did.

If you read through a number of reviews, you will likely see similar comments and a bit of commonality on the good stories. A few of my favorites were:
- My Brother Eli
- Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You?
- The Boy in Zaquitos
- St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

That said, some other reviewers listed the first 2 as some of the worst in the book. That goes to show you that we all have different views and like different things.
The latter 2 on my short list above seem to be common favorites among the reviewers.

So don't just read what another person said were the good stories. Start each one with the best intentions and don't be afraid to cast aside a particular story and move to the next one.

The thirtieth Best American Short Stories collection I've read, completed just a week shy of the three-year anniversary of the project. (Cue fanfare balloons streamers party hats and the rest.) One of these days, I should probably sit down and write something about the whole experience. Maybe when I finish the fortieth one...

Anyway, about this edition: to my surprise, it wasn't the radical departure I expected (feared?) from King. Maybe a little longer that usual, a touch plottier, but compared to, say, Kingsolver's, Mosley's, or Chabon's editorial turns (just to name some examples), King's was about as straightforward as they come: no axes to grind, no causes to push. Just a good-if-uneven set of stories, not unlike most BASS collections.

Nothing really knocked my socks off this time around, as sometimes happens, but there was plenty of top-notch fare all the same. Favorites of the bunch, in rough order of preference:
* Alice Munro - "Dimension"
* Karen Russell - "St. Lucy's School for Girls Raised by Wolves"
* Jim Shepard - "Sans Farine"
* Bruce McAllister - "The Boy in Zaquitos"
* Eileen Pollack - "The Bris"
* John Barth - "Toga Party"

And some honorable mentions:
* Joseph Epstein - "My Brother Eli"
* Mary Gordon - "Eleanor's Music"
* Aryn Kyle - "Allegiances"
* Richard Russo - "Horseman"

Scan the table of contents and you'll find an all-star line-up of literary heavy-hitters: Louis Auchincloss, John Barth, Ann Beattie, T. C. Boyle, William Gay, Mary Gordon, Lauren Groff--the list goes on, you get the idea. They skimmed the most delicious cream from the top of the cream! It's hard to pick the standouts in a collection that contains so many short masterpieces. I will say this: two very memorable stories involve cutting: "Bris" by Eileen Pollack and "Sans Farine" by Jim Shepherd--the latter about an executioner during the French Revolution--both of these stories will cut you to the quick. So to speak.

One other note: the 2007 edition of the annual series is perhaps the longest in its decades-long history--400 long pages of short fiction. Some selections border on novellas--but I don't begrudge their inclusion.

I have a collection of the Best American Short Stories. The introduction by Stephen King is authentic in the way he communicates the value of print literary journals. It was refreshingly and scholarly. I love how he describes the talent in these short stories as 'exuberant cartwheels'.

The stories here are character-focused. In most all the stories, the characters struggle with impossible circumstances, choiceless choices, and in reading their triumphs and defeats, they are all reminders of what good writing is. As I have mentioned in other reviews, I love stories that reveal characters. The plot is never secondary; it must be compelling enough that it challenges what we expect of the characters laid out, leaving us hoping for their redemption and their goodness to shine.