At age 67, the perennially youthful John Updike may at last qualify as something of an elder statesman. But the Best American Short Stories annual--whose greatest hits package Updike has now assembled--is almost a generation older, having commenced publication in 1915. This staying power allows the hefty Best American Short Stories of the Century to perform double duty. It is, on the one hand, a priceless compendium of American manners and morals--a decade-by-decade survey of how we lived then, and how we live now. Yet Updike very consciously avoided the sociological angle in making his selection. "I tried not to select stories because they illustrated a theme or portion of the national experience," he writes in his introduction, "but because they struck me as lively, beautiful, believable, and, in the human news they brought, important." In this he succeeded: the 55 fictions that made the grade are most notable for their human (rather than merely historical) interest.

So who got in? There are a good number of cut-and-dried classics here, including Hemingway's "The Killers," Faulkner's "That Evening Sun Go Down," and Philip Roth's acidic spin on religious connivance, "Defender of the Faith." In other cases, major authors are represented by relatively minor works. Yet it's hard to quibble with the inclusion of Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams, J.F. Powers, Eudora Welty--particularly when you take into account that their second-tier creations are fully the equal of anybody else's masterpieces. And the final third of the book really does constitute an honor roll of contemporary American fiction, with brilliant entries by Saul Bellow, Donald Barthelme, Raymond Carver, Tim O'Brien, Bernard Malamud, Cynthia Ozick, John Cheever, and Vladimir Nabokov. (For the latter, Updike actually succumbed to his own idolatry and bent the rules for admission--but nobody who reads the hallucinatory "That in Aleppo Once..." will regret it.) It goes without saying that fiction fans will be complaining about the editor's sins of omission well into the next century. But no matter how you slice it, this remains an elegant and essential advertisement for the short form. --James Marcus


From Publishers Weekly
Updike narrowed down his collection of short stories from 55 to 21 to present this rich, warm voicing of some of the best writing of the 20th century. Whenever possible, it seems, Updike has enlisted living writers to read their own works. It's a pleasure to hear Updike soothe his way through his own "Gesturing" and Gish Jen whir her "Birthmates." Others contributor/readers include Thom Jones, Cynthia Ozick, Lorrie Moore and Tim O'Brien. For writers such as Dorothy Parker, Robert Penn Warren and Raymond Carver, Updike has cleverly paired appropriate readers. He lends his own voice to Sherwood Anderson's "The Other Woman," George Plimpton deftly breathes F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Crazy Sunday" and Jill McCorckle's sharp twang lends a wry rhythm to Eudora Welty's "The Hitchhikers." Each story, sometimes snug with a second, fits neatly on one side of a cassette. Brief interludes of music, when the readers introduce themselves, the stories and the places of original publication, thankfully fade away, leaving the listener with crisp, fresh recordings of these excellent tales. Based on the Houghton Mifflin paperback. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The only author to be included in Best American Short Stories in every decade since the 1950s, John Updike was chosen to select those stories best representing the American century since the series inception in 1915. Being limited to those originally chosen for the annual volumes, Updike admits that past editors may have overlooked some gems. But he makes a valiant effort to include all the masters of the form, from Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald, through Cheever, OConnor, and Malamud, to Carver and Munro. Though one might question whether an individual choice is really one of the best of the century, as a whole the collection presents a microcosm of 20th-century American life: the immigrant experience (many of the early stories), the Roaring Twenties (Fitzgerald), World War II (Roth) and the Holocaust (Malamud and Ozick), 1950s suburban values (Cheever) and their rejection by 1960s youth culture (Oates), Vietnam (OBrien), and AIDS (Sontag and Dark). Many of the stories are famous and easily found elsewhere, but there are some rare surprises like a semi-autobiographical piece by Tennessee Williams. Recommended for most public libraries, and for those academic libraries that no longer hold all the annual volumes.-Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Idaho Lib., MoscowCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Michael Gorra
Finding wonderful stories that you don't already know is one of this collection's great pleasures...


Entertainment Weekly
"...a thrillingly energized argument for the enduring vitality of big ideas in small packages."


The Wall Street Journal
"The short story - not to mention America and the twentieth century - at its best."


The New York Times
"Finding wonderful stories that you don't already know is one of this collection's great pleasures... "


Boston Globe
"A treasure - a one-volume literary history of this country's immeasurable pains and near-infinite hopes."


From AudioFile
[Editor Note: The following is a combined review with THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 1999.]--Each year a guest editor carefully selects the best stories from the nation's literary magazines to be published together in The Best American Short Stories. One does not envy John Updike the agonizing task of choosing the best of the best--the most enduring stories from the 84 annual volumes published through 1999. Happily, he ably fielded the challenge, selecting the work of authors running the gamut from F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sherwood Anderson to Tim O'Brien and Lorrie Moore. Late authors are read by other writers; living authors read their own works. Cynthia Ozick's 2,000-word masterpiece of the Holocaust, "The Shawl," combines stark brutality with story elements that border on magical realism. Ozick's flat, unrelenting reading, in a tone that echoes the very experience of physical and spiritual starvation, sears this story into one's soul. Rosellen Brown, who often writes of love and dysfunction in family life, reads "How to Win," a mother's perspective on her clinically hyperactive child. (Anyone thinking of becoming a new parent should either avoid this story--or listen to it right away.) Brown reads with the intensity of one trying to bridge the unfathomable distance among us all--even mother and child. It's always an ego boost when several of one's own favorite stories over the year make it into the next Best American anthology. The Best American Short Stories 1999, a not-to-be-missed collection, features Rick Bass narrating his luminous winter tale, "The Hermit's Story." His reading adds a hypnotic dimension to this story-within-a-story. In contrast, Junot Díaz's raw reading of "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars" captures all the macho vulnerability of the young New Jersey Latino whose girlfriend is breaking up with him. Chitra Divakaruni's lilting narration of "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter" spins an unhappy tale of clashing cultures with a surprising ending that lifts the heart. Writing and literature teachers eager to use these stories in the classroom will need to screen them--as some of the language, while accurately reflecting character and setting, is not appropriate below the college level. E.K.D. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
"Best" is, of course, a subjective labeling, but this anthology certainly brims with significance. The estimable Best American Short Stories series has been going on nearly as long the century, and from each year of its existence series editor Kenison and guest editor Updike have culled a monumental assemblage of superior short story writing. And what would a century's end gathering be without Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, John Cheever, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver? But wonderful writers too much forgotten by today's reader will ignite interest in their work, or so it is hoped; those writers include William Saroyan, Jean Stafford, J. F. Powers, and Martha Gellhorn. An anthology all fiction collections should be blessed with. Brad Hooper


Review
"...a thrillingly energized argument for the enduring vitality of big ideas in small packages."


Review
"...a thrillingly energized argument for the enduring vitality of big ideas in small packages."


Book Description
Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the short story in our national literature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY brings together the best -- fifty-six extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed achievements in this quintessentially American literary genre. This expanded edition includes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 to round out the century, as well as an index including every story published in the series. Of all the writers whose work has appeared in the series, only John Updike has been represented in each of the last five decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his most recent, in 1998. Updike worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison to choose the finest stories from the years since 1915. The result is "extraordinary . . . A one-volume literary history of this country's immeasurable pains and near-infinite hopes" (Boston Globe).


Card catalog description
The Best American Short Stories of the Century brings together the best of the best - fifty-five extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed accomplishments in this quintessentially American literary genre. Here are the stories that have endured the test of time: masterworks by such writers as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Saroyan, Flannery O'Connor, John Cheever, Eudora Welty, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Cynthia Ozick, and others. These are the writers who have shaped and defined the landscape of the American short story, who have unflinchingly explored all aspects of the human condition, and whose works will continue to speak to us as we enter the next century.


About the Author
John Updike is the author of numerous books, including the acclaimed Rabbit novels, Couples, In the Beauty of the Lilies, and Bech at Bay. His novels have won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics' Circle Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recently he received the 1998 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Katrina Kenison has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 1990. She currently resides in Massachusetts.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the short story in our national literature. Now The Best American Short Stories of the Century brings together the best of the best--fifty-six extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed accomplishments in this quintessentially American literary genre. This expanded edition includes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 to round out the century, as well as an index including every story published in the series.

Of all the writers whose work has appeared in the series, only John Updike has been represented in each of the last five decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his most recent, in 1998. Updike worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison to choose the finest stories from the years since 1915. The result is "extraordinary ... A one-volume literary history of this country's immeasurable pains and near-infinite hopes" (Boston Globe).

FROM THE CRITICS

Deirdre Donahue - USA Today

Absolutes are always a dangerous territory. But the deft John Updike and co-editor Katrina Kenison have managed to assemble a provocative collection that offers readers enough offbeat selections so that the collection doesn't bore....Do not skip Kenison's foreword or Updike's excellent introduction to the 55 stories....If you like brief, intense encounters with other lives, this is a wonderful companion for your fin de siècle bedside table.

Chicago Tribune

Revelatory.

Wall Street Journal

Splendid...[these stories] surely represent the short story — not to mention America and the 20th century — at its best.

Michael Gorra - The New York Times Book Review

Finding wonderful stories that you don't already know is one of this collection's great pleasures....But much of the book's interest lies in seeing how little has changed since the series began in 1915....Short stories speak to those aspects of experience in which ...loneliness seems most acutely felt...

Boston Globe