Best American Short Stories of the Century

Best American Short Stories of the Century edited by John Updike


I feel like I've been reading this book for a long time. A really long time. Technically I think I started reading it in October and the reason it's taken so long is that despite each story being fantastic I couldn't read too many stories in a row. The stories are the very best out of the very best anthology often by the undisputed masters of their craft so every story has a lot of weight and seriousness to it. Alright, honestly there are a ton of stories that are just downright sad. While I enjoyed each story I couldn't do many back to back as it was just too much. But as I said each individual story is amazing. I'm actually surprised looking back that considering the inclusion of so many of my favorite authors that I had only read a couple stories before.

The stories go from earliest to most recent;

1915.Zelig /Benjamin Rosenblatt
1916.Little selves /Mary Lerner
1917.Jury of her peers /Susan Glaspell
1920.Other woman /Sherwood Anderson
1922.Golden honeymoon /Ring Lardner
1923.Blood-burning moon /Jean Toomer
1927.Killers /Ernest Hemingway
1929.Double birthday /Willa Cather
1929.Wild plums /Grace Stone Coates
1930.Theft /Katherine Anne Porter
1931.That evening sun go down /William Faulkner
1931.Here we are /Dorother Parker
1933.Crazy Sunday /F. Scott Fitzgerald
1934.My dead brother comes to America /Alexander Godin
1935.Resurrection of a life /William Saroyan
1938.Christmas gift /Robert Penn Warren
1939.Bright and morning star /Richard Wright
1940.Hitch-hikers /Eudora Welty
1943.Peach stone /Paul Horgan --"That in Aleppo once..." /Vladimir Nabokov
1944.Interior castle /Jean Stafford
1948.Miami-New York /Martha Gellhorn
1948.Second tree from the corner /E.B. White
1949.Farmer's children /Elizabeth Bishop
1951.Death of a favorite /J.F. Powers
1951.Resemblance between a violin case and a coffin /Tennessee Williams
1955.Country husband /John Cheever
1957.Greenleaf /Flannery O'Connor
1960.Ledge /Lawrence Sargent Hall
1960.Defender of the faith /Philip Roth
1962.Criers and kibitzers, kibitzers and criers /Stanley Elkin
1964.German refugee /Bernard Malamud
1967.Where are you going, where have you been? /Joyce Carol Oates
1968.Rotifer /Mary Ladd Gavell
1969.Gold Coast /James Alan McPherson
1970.Key /Isaac Bashevis Singer
1973.City of churches /Donald Barthelme
1975.How to win /Rosellen Brown
1976.Roses, rhododendron /Alice Adams
1978.Verona: a young woman speaks /Harold Brodkey
1979.Silver dish /Saul Bellow
1980.Gesturing /John Updike
1981.Shawl /Cynthia Ozick
1983.Where I'm calling from /Raymond Carver
1986.Janus /Ann Beattie
1987.Way we live now /Susan Sontag
1987.Things they carried /Tim O'Brien
1989.Meneseteung /Alice Munro
1990.You're ugly, too /Lorrie Moore
1993.I want to live ! /Thom Jones
1994.In the gloaming /Alice Elliott Dark
1994.Proper library /Carolyn Ferrell
1995.Birthmates /Gish Jen
1997.Soon /Pam Durban
1998.Half-skinned steer /Annie Proulx

So many brilliant authors and too many great stories to comment on individually as much as I'd like to.