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| The Best American Short Stories 2000 (The Best American Series) | 
 enlarge | Creators: E. L. Doctorow, Katrina Kenison
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $12.99 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 508141
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0395926866
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.0108
UPC: 046442926867
EAN: 9780395926864
ASIN: 0395926866
Publication Date: October 19, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
When a great annual collection comes out, it's hard to know the reason why. Was there a bumper crop of high-quality stories, or was this year's guest editor especially gifted at winnowing out the good ones? Either way, the 2000 edition of The Best American Short Stories is a standout in a series that can be uneven. Its editor, E.L. Doctorow, seems to have a fondness for the "what if?" story, the kind of tale that posits an imagination-prodding question and then attempts to answer it. Nathan Englander's "The Gilgul of Park Avenue" asks: What if a WASPy financial analyst, riding in a cab one day, discovers to his surprise that he is irrevocably Jewish? In "The Ordinary Son," Ron Carlson asks: What if you are the only average person in a family of certifiable geniuses? And Allan Gurganus's "He's at the Office" asks: What if the quintessential postwar American working man were forced to retire? This last story is narrated by the man's grown son, who at the story's opening takes his dad for a walk. Though it's the present day, the father is still dressed in his full 1950s businessman regalia, including camel-hair overcoat and felt hat. The two walk by a teenager. "The boy smiled. 'Way bad look on you, guy.'" My father, seeking interpretation, stared at me. I simply shook my head no. I could not explain Dad to himself in terms of tidal fashion trends. All I said was "I think he likes you." The exchange typifies the writing showcased in this anthology: in these stories, again and again, we find a breakdown of human communication that is sprightly, humorous, and devastatingly complete. A few more of the terrific stories featured herein: Amy Bloom's "The Story," a goofy metafiction about a villainous divorcee; Geoffrey Becker's "Black Elvis," which tells of, well, a black Elvis; and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent," a story of an Indian man who moves to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Like the collection itself, Lahiri's story amasses a lovely, funny mood as it goes along. --Claire Dederer
Product Description
Despite increasing competition, this annual collection remains the place to find the most compelling short fiction published in the U.S. and Canada" (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY). To usher in the new millennium, THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2000 brims with a rich variety of lyrical and wise stories about our country's past, present, and future. This year's editor, the best-selling author E. L. Doctorow, has chosen new works by Raymond Carver, Amy Bloom, Ha Jin, Walter Mosley, and Jhumpa Lahiri, among others.
The most popular compendium of its kind, THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES is the only volume that offers the finest short fiction each year,
chosen by a distinguished author.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 WONDERFUL March 11, 2007
--my viewpoint: So many of these are great works--for both mind and the deep heart-of heart that H. Klemp writes about. Wideman is tuned in to the best of this form!
A banner year for the BASS anthology. September 30, 2005
BASS has its ups and downs, since the senior editor shifts every year. Editor Doctorow offers a balanced and canny selection of stories published in 1999. Best news: the Bill Buford-inspired style of "dirty realism" (stories about the grungy underbelly of the world) are starting to fade. Still, these authors aren't all sweetness and light; witness Junot Diaz's "Nilda" (The New Yorker), whose bystander narrator can do nothing to help a woman whose life is spinning out of control. In fact, few stories here have characters living with much control--if the protagonist has any control, it's usually due to bullying (as with Amy Bloom's funny "The Story" [Story magazine, no longer published]). Percival Everett's "The Fix" (New York Stories) is a clever fantasy about a man who can make any broken thing work--a talent that backfires on him. Kathleen Hill's "The Anointed" (DoubleTake) offers a touching view of childhood. Annie Proulx's Wyoming story, "People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water" (GQ), has one of the best last lines I've read in some time. Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent" (The New Yorker) reminded me of Flannery O'Connor, with its grotesque characters at the edge of existence. Doctorow offers an erudite introduction; there's no question he's read a great deal and absorbed it all. Katrina Kenison is a heroine of American letters: she reads upwards of 3000 stories annually to cut the list to 120 for the guest editor. Getting the new BASS anthology is a highlight of my year; this series is a mirror for contemporary life (sometimes in a bathroom, sometimes in a funhouse).
 poop in toilet September 8, 2004
0 out of 10 found this review helpful
everybody does it. why do we all feel like we must share?
99 was a good year March 2, 2002
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Doctorow has excellent taste in short fiction. With only a few exceptions (Junot Diaz and Marilyn Krysl), the stories in this collection are excellent. Amy Bloom's story, "The Story", which i think is a great title, is an interesting story about writing, about the characters in the story, and it is a story about itself.Michael Byers has a great story about obsession and attraction rather than love (though he does go on a page or two too long). Ron Carlson has a wonderful story about about happiness and the ways you can get there. It is one of the best of these stories. There is a story from Raymond Carver, and it is as good as anything he has written. Kiana Davenport's story deals with abuse and family. Everett's "The Fix" is the best story in this anthology, which it's allusion to Christ, in a sort of Kafka-like way. Gautreaux's story about atonement is a winner as always. I remember reading Gurganus' story, "He's at the Office" when it was first published in the new yorker, and i remember thinking at the time that it had to be one of the better stories i'd read that year, so it was a pleasure to see doctorow select it. Aleksandar Hemon and Jhumpa Lahiri both have well told stories about being a foreigner in this country, though one has an uplifting feel and the other is more bleak, but both are a pleasure to read. Annie Proulx's "People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water" is a story you should read. but don't let the title fool you, it doesn't fit the story. Sherwood's story about loss is weak and a better selection could have been made, but it wasn't dull like the two mentioned earlier. i could go on about the stories i haven't mentioned, but there is a space constraint. i've only read best american short stories 2000 and 2001, so i can't say if these selected are better or worse than what is normally picked, but i can say that there are 18 stories here that are fine examples of what a short story should be.
 A Good Year February 20, 2001
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I disagree with many of the reviewers. This is an above average volume. With the exception of a couple of stories, I found the rest all highly readable and some of them truly outstanding. Ron Carlson, Allan Gurganus and Annie Prolux's pieces are gems. Carlson's The Ordinary Son reads like Salinger's the Glass Family, a surreal journey the keeps you turning pages. I was disappointed when it ended. He's At The Office is one of the best short stories I have read in a long time, absolutely engrossing from the begining to end and tragic without the slightest hint of sentimentality. Hard to do. Prolux piece is from her latest collection which has some great stories in it, but this one is a killer. The rest all fall slightly below these in my opinion but they are all good reads without a great deal of blather. Worth the price of admission.
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