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The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012 do what any good anthology does: present a selection of some of the best stories of the year that cover all genres and styles. The selections were mostly impressive, but a few stood out as exceptional such as Slouka's The Hare's Mask, Li's Kindness, Sneed's The First Wife, and Ruddick's Leak. Of all the stories, Wilson's A Birth in the Woods left the strongest impression on me and caused me to marvel at the craft of writing short stories. Also, there were a fe...
On the whole, I found this year's collection to be full of staggeringly good writing, made all the more compelling by a common theme the stories seem to share: nearly all focus on characters or settings from other cultures. As a result, the pieces hang together almost like a little book. Delightful, and masterfully written.
I thought this picked up nicely after a rough start - detailed comments (with possible spoilers) on individual stories posted at A Just Recompense
I really enjoyed the stories in this anthology. Every story was thought provoking and layered and some I even went back to read twice, just to get the nuances that I missed the first time. Although this was a book that I got from the library, it is one that I would buy to keep, the stories are fabulous. If you are a fan of fiction, words, and the magic of storytelling, this is the book that you want to read. There is not a single story that I found disagreeable.
A couple of misses but plenty of hits. This anthology introduced me to Alice Munro and Anthony Doerr. Thank you Danyal Mueenuddin for guest editing this book. I wouldn’t have picked it up had I not seen your name on the cover.
I am not happy to say that I was not at all impressed with this year's selection of the Pen/O'Henry Stories for 2012. There are twenty stories selected for this collection and, of those, I enjoyed five of them. That's 25% - not very good odds overall. The stories that spoke to me were Leak by Sam Ruddick, The First Wife by Christine Sneed, A Birth in the Woods by Kevin Wilson, Rothko Eggs by Keith Ridgeway and The Deep by Anthony Doerr. The rest just didn't grab me tightly and I have trouble eve...
The stories are not bad, but they do feel a bit samey. I suppose that partly depends on the personal preference of the selecting committee/editor, but I do wonder if there is a certain style of short story writing which is currently fashionable and appeals to magazines (all of them had been previously published in prestigious literary magazines).I have to admit, I didn't 'get' many of the stories either. It felt like there was no point to them, no nice structure or start and finish. Or else the
All the stories in this collection were well worth reading. Below are my brief notes on the ones that stood out and what I took from them.Several stories concerned relationships and the flings that threaten them. Alice Muttison's "Leak" portrays the jealousy and dissatisfaction of infidelity. Christine Sneed's 13-part "The First Wife" exposes celebrity culture from an insider's perspective, watching the inevitable disintegration of a movie star's marriage. I loved how it showed the pain and loss...
I don't read a lot of short story collections normally, but I sort of feel like I should. My colleague had this book in our office, and it's technically a library book that is seriously overdue. Anyway, it's good for me to read short stories so that I can recommend them to our speech & debate students as possible prose pieces. And outside of work, it's pleasant to be able to read a whole story in one sitting.I'm unfamiliar with this publication in general, so I can't speak to how this particular...
I am using this as my primary textbook for my upcoming Craft of Fiction class, so I won't write much here in case my students check into my Goodreads (hey, students!). But, as always, there are some wonders in this collection, and some stories that left me a little cold. Two of my favorites are Alice Munro's story, because, well, she's Alice Munro and amazing, and covers so many years with such ease. And the other favorite was Kindness by Yiyun Li is more like a Novella, and is simply stunning.
It took me months to get through this collection of short stories, and though there was great variety of voice, style and subject matter, I was disappointed that so few of these stories really resonated with me. However, I discovered Anthony Doerr, whom I had not read before, and now I'm looking forward to reading more of his work. His story "The Deep" was just amazing! Vivid, lyrical, meaningful. Five stars for his contribution to the collection.Other stories that I enjoyed:"The Hare's Mask" by...
Read more short stories - The Pen/O.Henry Prize Stories 2012 -- and the one that stays with me, haunts me, is "Kindness" by Yiyun Liu, almost novella length about a young girl, a soldier, then teacher in China, someone who has chosen not to love another or live, really. The writer, from Beijing and a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, with a slew of other awards, says that "I hope that by speaking to one person in her mind, my narrator, in the end speaks to many." Actually, one of the best p...
I skipped around, reading these out of order, thinking that I'd just skim through the stories that didn't grab me right away. But then they each grabbed me and I realized that the PEN/O. Henry stories are rich collections with diverse stories and writers. Jim Shepard's 'Boys Town', 'The Hare's Mask' by Mark Slouka, 'Kindness' by Yiyun Li and Millhauser's 'Phantoms' each haunt me still in their own ways. I can't wait to go back and read the past O. Henry collections at my library. Awesome short s...
The thing with reading a collection of short stories, especially one by different authors, is that there is usually such a wide range of emotions associated with it. For example, I might really love a short story from this collection, and recommend it to a dear friend, and I might also heavily detest some short stories, and refuse to read another word by their writers ever again in my life. It makes reviewing such books even more difficult, as if it wasn't difficult enough already.Also, sometime...
Liked most of the selections. The ones that stood out the most were “Kindness” and “A Birth in the Woods”
This series has consistently excellent stories, but this was still one of my favorite years. There were a few that stood out and that I'd like to reread, esp. "Corrie" by Alice Munro and "Things Said Or Done" by Ann Packer, and "The Deep" by Anthony Doerr.I have to say that the pacing for many of the stories felt similar, which might have been why the collection seemed so cohesive. If you're looking for more variety, the Best American series is generally curated a little more eclectically. (In g...
I usually don't read short stories, but this is a superb collection. Especially enjoyed "Kindness" by Yiyun Lee - it's a wonderful story. "A Birth in the Woods" by Kevin Wilson and "Things Said or Done" were also very good ("A Birth in the Woods" was especially chilling). There were a few stories I didn't quite connect with, but overall I highly recommend this collection. Wouldn't read the entire thing over again, but there are stories I'd love to revisit.
I'm giving this two stars not because all the stories are bad, but because the collection as a whole is disappointing. I've read through a couple PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories books in the past and been impressed with its creative selection of stories. Sure there would be some stories I didn't care for as much, but I appreciated them for making the rest stand out all the more. Here, most of the stories have a similar feel and are mostly unmemorable. The stories I enjoyed the most were those that con...
About 16/20 stories here are well written but so devoid of a voice or emotion they could have been by the same person despite the contributor being of very different races, religions and sexes.The editors seemed to greatly admire form over style, and despise imagination. Thankfully, a couple late entries that felt completely out of place from the rest of the works came the rescue from a one star review in the end, but I am no longer taking the PEN/O. Henry Prize as a positive endorsement of lite...
This collection contains a few that I will definitely revisit. "The First Wife" by Christine Sneed, "The Vandercook" by Alice Mattison, "Corrie" by Alice Munro & "Things Said or Done" by Ann Packer were standouts. The favorite (for it's seemingly ordinary, simple & uneventful narrative) is "Kindness" by Yiyun Li. Of the twenty short stories included, all had merit & there were some very original (" Boys Town", "Phantoms" & "A Birth in the Woods") ones that have peaked my interest in the authours...