Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Best New American Voices 2004 by John Kulka, Natalie Danford, John Casey ISBN: 0-15-600722-3 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 06 October, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Wonderful Collection of New Writers
Comment: The Best New American Voices 2003 is a superb collection of stories from new writers working in graduate writing programs, arts organizations, workshops and summer conferences. The stories stretch over a wide variety of subjects representing areas from many different cultures. In "Good" a woman named Jeanie has a confusing affair with a man she meets while visiting her dying mother in the hospital. "The Storekeeper" tells the story of Hays, a sharpshooter performing an illegal mission in operation Desert Shield. The collection ends with "The Good Life" the story in this collection that dips the most into a surreal tone where a couple's new perfect home literally disintegrates before their eyes. They all focus intensely on a central character whose perspective largely dominates the story. As Joyce Carol Oates comments in her excellent introduction, "the dominant mode is psychological realism." She goes on to suggest interesting ways in which writers emerge as writers and how the discipline of writing as a formal practice has swiftly developed in America. Many of the stories have a peculiar ability to haunt you with their distinctive tone as in the stories "Who is Beatrice," where a woman is strangely disengaged from her life and wanders continuously through used book stores; "Chickensnake," where snakes demonstrate their ravenous ability to consume things whole; and "Everything Must Go," where a grieving wife is attempting to forge a new life for herself in New Hampshire with her son. The dead or dying play a major role in many of the stories. Nevertheless, the stories each feature many moments of uncommon humor and uplifting sentiments. This collection can serve as an introduction for people who want to be writers to understand the predominate contemporary "voice" and form of American fiction today. Equally, it is a treat for passionate readers to enjoy short glimpses of powerful new talent and learn names to watch for in the new releases section of bookstores. It is a wonderful and diverse collection of stories to own.
Rating: 5
Summary: The book delivers what it promises
Comment: This book delivers what it promises: interesting, innovative, new stories from what should be the literary stars of tomorrow. I highly highly recommend it. The opening story "Good," by Cheryl Strayed, is stunning in its poignancy; and it has a climax that's both surprising and yet psychologically real. The story "Peace," by Dylan Tai Nguyen, is a rueful but powerful meditation on what happens to language in totalitarian regimes, and on what happens to families when the forces of history invade and sever. It's a sad, but deeply affecting piece. I'd buy this book for Christmas--to give to anyone interested in the landscape of serious literary fiction in America.
Rating: 2
Summary: Hors de combat
Comment: This is the fruit of an annual story competition. The Series Editors say, "Awfully good stories. More than that, we cannot say." The Guest Editor says, "This is not an apologia for creative writing workshops." You know you're in for it, but the first story is OK, it's all jokes and jokes are rudiments of art, but there's no inspiration and the stories are all about writing and things without being things written themselves.
 |
Title: The Best American Short Stories 2003 by Walter Mosley ISBN: 0618197338 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003 by LAURA FURMAN ISBN: 1400031311 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: How to Breathe Underwater: Stories by JULIE ORRINGER ISBN: 1400041112 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
 |
Title: The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003 by Zadie Smith ISBN: 0618246967 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: The Best American Essays 2003 by Anne Fadiman ISBN: 0618341617 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
