The New Granta Book of the American Short Story by Richard Ford

The New Granta Book of the American Short Story Reviews

• 
  Paul Bryant

  This did not knock me out but lemme tell you it would’ve if it had fell from the top shelf and caught me a curt blow upon the cranium. It’s a whopper. I think my reviewing career would have come to a sudden halt. I read it over about four years and finished it this week.
  
  
  Well of course I would like to spin some grand theory about The Short Story And Its Vastly Underappreciated Importance but who has the time. Not you, not me. What I can say is that now – right now – is a golden age, specifically in America. I could name you six or seven brilliant practitioners of the art of the literary 45 rpm, only one of whom is in this vast volume. So we need a New New Granta Book. The recent stuff is wilder, rantier, less judicious, no more the freezing psychological insights and ironed lapels of 70s and 80s, just the weep and the woof and the weft and the raving madness of the life we try to lead now. They are my pied pipers and I am a very willing rat.
  
• 
  Bryan Murphy

  This is a splendid read. In a boring, didactic introduction, the editor bangs on about the shortest of the stories, tempting the reader to ignore all the others, which would be a shame. The stories are all well crafted, though they vary considerably in content and style. Inevitably, not all will be to every reader’s taste, and though I found a few distasteful, I was happy enough to be forced out of my comfort zone for a short time. In several, I was struck by how surprisingly different the USA is from Europe; indeed, one or two made it seem more alien than cyberpunk. Now that I’ve finished this hefty volume, I’ll be down my local Library to look for more by many of its authors.
• 
  Jody

  As far as variety goes, this book has it. But the choices within did not impress me. I like short stories, but I think that I am not a fan of modern short stories. I want closure and most of these stories lacked closure. They did not even read like a story, but more like an exercise in wriitng and cleverness.
• 
  Carolyn

  Read in 2008 with Dad.
  
  What a behemoth of a book for us to have picked for our challenge. As you may remember, we wound out spreading this one out and reading it in both July AND October and even then it was touch and go whether we’d finish this one as it’s just too darn big for me to carry around (and I do apparently almost all my reading in transit).
  
  There were a few oldies thrown in at the beginning, where I thought “what is this one doing here?” (i.e., given the composition of the rest of the choices), but for the most part I thought these were good stories.
  
  My favorites were “The Pugilist at Rest” by Thom Jones, “Firelight” by Tobias Wolff, “Blue Boy” by Kevin Canty, “Anthropology” by Andrea Lee and “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline” by George Saunders. And my least favorite was the Mary Gaitskill next to which I wrote just “Ick.”
• 
  Ronald Wise

  Following an inspiring Introduction by editor Richard Ford, I was disappointed by the early selections in this collection. Perseverance paid off, however, as I was pleased to later encounter over a dozen excellent stories I had not yet read in other anthologies. These included: “The Artificial Nigger” by Flannery O’Conner; “Oh, Joseph, I’m So Tired” by Richard Yates; “Killings” by Andre Dubus; “Helping” by Robert Stone; “Get Some Young” by Barry Hannah; “Ancient History” by Richard Bausch; “The Rabbit Hole as Likely Explanation” by Ann Beattie; “A Romantic Weekend” by Mary Gaitskill; “Two Dogs” by Steve Yarbrough; “People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk” by Lorrie Moore; “Aurora” by Junot Díaz; “The Tumblers” by Nathan Englander; “Devotion” by Adam Haslett; “The Ant of the Self” by Z.Z. Packer; and “Lucky Girls” by Nell Freudenberger.
• 
  Tanner Wendel

  This massive collection gets a 60:40 like:dislike ratio from me. The stories that stood out the most for a variety of reasons, and authors I plan to read into:
  
  - Ship Island: The Story of a Mermaid, Elizabeth Spencer
  - The Half-Skinned Steer, Annie Proulx
  - Get Some Young, Barry Hannah
  - The Rabbit Hole as Likely Explanation, Ann Beattie
  - Work, Denis Johnson
  - Nothing to Ask For, Dennis McFarland
  - Blue Boy, Kevin Canty
  - The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
  - People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk, Lorrie Moore
  - The Toughest Indian in the World, Sherman Alexie
  - Aurora, Junior Díaz
  - Devotion, Adam Haslett
  
  
  
• 
  Cheryl

  Finally finished this book. There were some good stories. Very few. Most of them were ghastly. Why do people need sex and profanity to tell a story? I am used to stories that actually make sense and teach a lesson. After reading some of them, I would shake my head and say, "What exactly did I just read?" I really need to be more picky with my reading choices. I do not recommend this book to my friends.
• 
  Keith

  An amazing anthology of American short stories, nothing short of magic in effective storytelling.
• 
  Scott Done

  **read for class**
  
  The closest I can get to Pilgrims by Julie Orringer. The Pilgrims was a rollercoaster. I wish this was an actual novel.
• 
  Thomas Kiernan

  A marvelous collection here. I have a few favourites but I think that Robert Stone's short story, "Helping" is just magic. Again we have the bumbling middle aged alcoholic, the cynical Vietnam veteran who is never far from shooting his neighbour just for the hell of it. He is the perfect metaphor for that generation of men who came of age in the 1960s America of free love and drugs and who left their youthful dreams behind in the jungles of Vietnam. There are so many others here. For the short story fans this is a great read/reread.
• 
  Charles White

  By and large, an excellent collection. Plus, the intro by Ford is a must read for anyone interested in the aesthetics of the contemporary short story. He also writes a beautiful intro to Barry Hannah's AIRSHIPS. Ford really can write brilliantly from a theoretical stance; he impresses me more for this than through his own creative efforts, though I haven't tackled ROCK SPRINGS yet. Perhaps I'll revise my opinion then.
• 
  Jenni

  I have been only been able to read a story here and there, so my rating isn't on the entire collection, but I love what I have read so far! John Cheever is the man. I dig how this collection combines the "old school" with new gen. writers. This will def come with me on the plane for spring break, even though it weighs a few pounds (no kidding).
• 
  girija

  I've only read three stories and I was surprised to find that they while I think a lot of Welty and Bartheleme, I didn't fall in love with these. But I like the range of authors covered and the selection of old and new... my rating may yet change.
• 
  Katie Bailey

  I've only read about half the stories in this massive book, and if I had to pinpoint a theme it might be sexual violence. Not like assault but more like violence that is sexy and sex that is a replacement for or simulacrum of violence. sortof the soul of america i guess.
• 
  Sidra

  At over 700 pages, I didn't finish every story, but I did read a lot: some old, some new and enjoyed most of them. Including The Yellow Wallpaper by Perkins Gilman--one of my very favs--a holdover from high school (wait, it must've been college--my h.s. wasn't that sophisticated!ha!).
• 
  Peter E. Frangel

  There are some 5 star stories in here, some really talented and incredible writers who make this the almost (but not quite) perfect book of short stories. A huge variety of styles and characters, I highly recommend this to any aspiring writer looking for his or her voice.
• 
  Thekelburrows

  My wife has fleas ... ahem ... am I right folks? Hey, they can't all be winners. Did I mention CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, A Temporary Matter, and People Like That Are The Only People Here? Yeah, game over.
• 
  Ann M

  Many great stories, some okay, but a vastly better percentage than the usual anthology.
• 
  Erin

  Meh. This time through I was not loving this one.
• 
  Lawrence Coates

  A good anthology, though I preferred the earlier edition edited by Ford. I'll be using this to teach Creative Writing at various levels.