The Best American Short Stories 2006

by Patchett, Ann

• ISBN13: 9780618543526
• ISBN10: 061854352X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-11
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

"While a single short story may have a difficult time raising enough noise on its own to be heard over the din of civilization, short stories in bulk can have the effect of swarming bees, blocking out sound and sun and becoming the only thing you can think about," writes Ann Patchett in her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2006. This vibrant, varied sampler of the American literary scene revels in life"s little absurdities, captures timely personal and cultural challenges, and ultimately shares subtle insight and compassion. In "The View from Castle Rock," the short story master Alice Munro imagines a fictional account of her Scottish ancestors" emigration to Canada in 1818. Nathan Englander"s cast of young characters in "How We Avenged the Blums" confronts a bully dubbed "The Anti-Semite" to both comic and tragic ends. In "Refresh, Refresh," Benjamin Percy gives a forceful, heart-wrenching look at a young man"s choices when his father -- along with most of the men in his small town -- is deployed to Iraq. Yiyun Li"s "After a Life" reveals secrets, hidden shame, and cultural change in modern China. And in "Tatooizm," Kevin Moffett weaves a story full of humor and humanity about a young couple"s relationship that has run its course. Ann Patchett "brought unprecedented enthusiasm and judiciousness [to The Best American Short Stories 2006]," writes Katrina Kenison in her foreword, "and she is, surely, every story writer"s ideal reader, eager to love, slow to fault, exquisitely attentive to the text and all that lies beneath it."

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. xv
Once the Shore	p. 1
from One Story
Awaiting Orders	p. 20
from The New Yorker
The Ambush	p. 30
from Tin House
Secret	p. 43
from Ploughshares
Dominion	p. 60
from TriQuarterly
So Much for Artemis	p. 70
from One Story
Refresh, Refresh	p. 91
from The Paris Review
Self-Reliance	p. 105
from Lake Effect
The View from Castle Rock	p. 112
from The New Yorker
Tattooizm	p. 143
from Tin House
Cowboy	p. 163
from The New Yorker
The Dog	p. 173
from The Paris Review
After a Life	p. 191
from Zoetrope
The Conductor	p. 204
from The New Yorker
Today I'm Yours	p. 221
from Zoetrope
How We Avenged the Blums	p. 237
from The Atlantic Monthly
Grandmother's Nose	p. 252
from Daedalus
A New Gravestone for an Old Grave	p. 259
from Zoetrope
The Casual Car Pool	p. 291
from Ploughshares
Mr. Nobody at All	p. 310
from McSweeney's
Contributors' Notes	p. 359
100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2005	p. 370
Editorial Addresses of American and Canadian Magazines Publishing Short Stories	p. 374
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Introduction The short story is in need of a scandal. The short story should proclaim itself to be based on actual events and then, after a series of fiery public denials, it should hold a press conference in Cannes and make a brave but faltering confession: None of it actually happened. It was fiction all along. Yes, despite whats been said, it has always been fiction and it is proud to be fiction. The short story should consider staging its own kidnapping and then show up three weeks later in The New Yorker claiming that some things happened that cannot be discussed. Or perhaps the short story could seek out the celebrity endorsement of someone we never expected, maybe Tiger Woods, who could claim that he couldnt imagine going out to the ninth hole without a story in his back pocket. They are just the right size for reading between rounds of golf. It doesnt really matter what the short story chooses to do, but it needs to do something. The story needs hype. It needs a publicist. Fast. I can speak to the matter with great authority because Ive been reading a lot of short stories lately, and the very large majority of them have been shockingly good. They are better than the novels Ive been reading. They are more daring, more artful, and more original. Yet while I know plenty of people with whom I can discuss novels, there are only two people I know with whom I can swoon over short stories: Katrina Kenison (more on her later) and my friend Kevin Wilson, a young writer who reads literary magazines the way other people read pulpy spy novels, the kind of friend you can call in the middle of the night and ask, "Have you read the latest issue of Tin House?" As valuable as these friendships have been to me, I am sorry to say they are not enough. Since I have recently given my life over to short stories I need to find a larger audience than two. I have the zeal of a religious convert. I want to stand in the airport passing out copies of One Story and The Agni Review. I want to talk to total strangers about plot and character and language, about what makes that Maxine Swann story so moving and the David Bezmozgis so surprising. How did that Kevin Moffett story manage to lull me into such a trance? Im more than willing to take the message to the people, but the short story is going to have to work with me here. It needs to be a little less demure. The first thing the short story needs to think about is casting off the role of The Novels Little Sidekick, the practice run, the warm-up act. I was extolling the virtues of a particularly dazzling short story to an editor friend recently when she cut me off in mid-sentence, said she didnt want to hear it. "Ill only fall in love," she said bitterly, "and then I wont be able to buy the book, and if I do buy the book I wont be able to sell it." Short stories, it seems, are a dead-end romance in publishing. In the rare instance when a house finally does break down and buy a collection, the

---

Excerpted from The Best American Short Stories
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.