The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction

various authors

There s definitely a lot of amazing writers in this anthology, and it could ve been a great gateway to get readers interested in contemporary short stories, but their choice of Joyce Carol Oates who has very dark sensibilities as an editor makes this collection wallow way too much in disturbing subject matter Almost every story involves some kind of grisly murder, or rape, or even babies in dumpsters.Not that there weren t some highlights Some Terpsichore by Elizabeth McCracken was one of the b [...]

What a monster This anthology had plenty of amazing stories, and a few not so amazing ones some of which I skipped I anticipate that I will have my students read The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexia, The Hermit s Story by Rick Bass, Off by Aimee Bender, Son of the Wolfman by Michael Chabon, Night Women by Edwidge Danticat, Aurora by Junot Diaz, Disaster Stamps of Pluto by Louise Erdrich, Old Boys, Old Girls by Edward P Jones, Once in a Lifetime by Jhumpa Lahiri, Cowboy by Thomas Mc [...]

I read another review that said you can tell these stories were selected by Joyce Carole Oates, and I completely agree A good chunk of the stories are about death murder rape other depressing disturbing things like that, and that really strikes me as JCO s style There is some pretty good stuff in herebut then there s other stories that I wondered why they were chosen Those I particularly liked were Lavande, Off, A House on the Plains, To Those of You Who Missed Your Connecting Flights Out Of O H [...]

As with any anthology, there are good stories and bad stories Some reached me in a visceral way, others left me flat But the main thing I took away from this collection is the stagnant sameness of contemporary literary fiction As a reader, I crave fiction that is daring Fiction the plays with form and themes While there is some evidence of that here, I ended with the overall impression of a ton of first person narratives, a lot of pretentious, repellant, or otherwise uninteresting protagonists, [...]

If every Aimee Bender story were as great as Off, I d go live in her home.Very creepy to read Mary Gaitskill gang rape story I swear I remember reading many years ago on a plane, like in Esquire or something, then being permanently traumatized Did not realize it was written by a woman, and certainly no idea who Gaitskill was at that time.First thing I ve read by Jhumpa Lahiri and liked it Cannot read fiction about immigrant groups with cuisine I like though, since it makes me too hungry when the [...]

Of the 48 stories in this collection selected by Joyce Carol Oates, 7 are fabulous those by Bausch, Danticat, Davis, Doctorow, Erdrich, Johnson and Lahiri Oates selected these stories because they were published in the 21st century, and because they represent the variety of the genre, including abrupt and edgy openings and traditional stories, beautifully written She says that despite the lack of experimentation though DFW is included here , all of the fiction is unsettling.I would have preferre [...]

An excellent short fiction collection There are is a huge selection of varied, talented, interesting writers contained in this book I only disliked one Double Exposure by Greg Johnson but I enjoyed all of the rest of the stories featured in this volume Ten of them I thought were especially phenomenal, including Michael Chabon s Son of the Wolfman , Disaster Stamps of Pluto by Louise Erdrich, and Elizabeth McCracken s Some Terpsichore I would recommend this book to anyone, whether you have read a [...]

Finally made it through this 750 page fatty Some wonderful stuff in here, of course Richard Bausch s 1 900 was hilarious Ann Beattie s Lavande and E.L Doctorow s A House on the Plains reminded me how fantastic those two writers can be The latter was my favorite story in the book until I hit Lorrie Moore s Paper Losses nobody does funny sad Lorrie Moore Annie Proulx s People In Hell Just Want a Drink of Water was terrific, too Hmm Interesting that all but one of those writers are females And Alic [...]

This has a lot of great stories from mostly currently working American authors It s nice to have a compilation of people who aren t dead yet, and are actually writing about the world we live in The range of the pieces is pretty broad though, so some doozies ended up in the book like a story that takes place entirely via a 900 number call, which obviously feels dated, and isn t that good , but on the whole, this is a great anthology It s also a good way to get used to short stories, since most of [...]

I like anthologies their heft and their variety For the most part, I like this anthology among my favorite selections are E.L Doctorow s A House on the Plains, William Gay s The Paperhanger, and Joyce Carol Oates Landfill which one should not read before bed, as I did, should one want to avoid nightmares of being killed in a trash compacter A few selections puzzled me the stories selected to represent Amy Hempel, Lydia Davis, Lorrie Moore, and Aimee Bender are not what I consider these authors b [...]

I am not a Joyce Carol Oates fan, so was worried and rightly so about an anthology of stories that she had selected To me, Oates is heavy handed, looks at the world from a morbid and sinister perspective, and always goes for the tawdry and degrading detail Unfortunately, that is also true of most of the work she collected here Besides the stories by Lorrie Moore and Antonya Nelson, which I will always happily read, the only two I really liked were Ranch Girl by Maile Meloy and Bullet in the Brai [...]

Wonderfully written short stories Lovers of contemporary American short fiction and aspiring writers will love the ones in this book I used this book for my Creative Writing Fiction class last year and I really enjoyed examining different authors writing styles The stories I read for my class were great and helped me in writing some of my own work, drafting out plots, and creating characters The stories in this book are some of the most masterful pieces of short fiction I have ever read.

Real stand out collection of stories Especially enjoyed The Hermit s Story by Rick Bass for evoking an icy world where dogs and humans survive but only just and nature is majestic in its grandeur and capacity to destroy.Still half way through I am taking my time because story seems to merit the time put into it.

I agree with some of the other reviews there s a lot of dark material in this collection But I enjoyed many stories including The Hermit s Story by Rick Bass, Mercy by Pickney Benedict, A House on the Plains by E.L Doctorow, Cowboy by Thomas McGuane, and Leslie and Sam by Douglas Unger.

SO much fun highly recommend I haven t had such a good time reading in years It was wonderful to get a fairly large sample of authors through this book I have a tendency to stick with the same authors and genres for long periods, but after reading this I have so many can t wait to reads to look forward to.

The curatorial touch of Ms Oates leans heavily on the darker side of things Some disturbing stories in this collection, but a great range of American lit Nice primer for those looking to delve deeper into short stories.

Well, I finished it the first story is actually probably my favorite, or at least way up there Lots of really great ones JCO is a subtle person I think she s spent her life sexually repressed too

Worth reading, each successive story linked to the one before it with a theme, idea, or obscure word, and I discovered some great authors that I didn t know about There is, however, a glut of graphic descriptions of gay sex and pregnancy, most of which made them both seem exceptionally unpleasant

pretty amazing collection but weirdly dark, does every marriage have to be awful, and every kid killed or scarred in some way also there are at least two Mac grads included Tim O Brien and Charles Baxter and lots of MN references.

Some great stories, some good stories and some not so good or great stories A good selection overall.

Doctorow and Rick Bass stories are standouts among an excellent collection.

Fantastic collection.

Ugh This just increased my mental to read list by a million If anything, read Off by Aimee Bender Best opening two sentences ever.

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Best story so far is The Hermit s Story by Rick Bass Also a great Ann Beattie story called Lavande Only 9 stories into the 48 in the book.

the kind of book that makes you want to scribble pretentious things in the margins, even if the stories themselves weren t too good

I LOVED this book

not my cup of tea.

My new favorite anthology for teaching beginning fiction writing Great range.