2008's Best

Cue the end-of-year best-of and top-ten lists! While the summer season is reserved for round-ups of "beach reads" and bestsellers, the winter season is where critics do all their acclaiming, picking out the best that literary culture has served before us and urging us enthusiastic readers not to let the new year slip by before giving them a look.

The Kansas City Star comes in early with ten panelists choosing ten favorite books apiece, each in a separate category (poetry, regional, and so on). Linda Rodriguez takes up short stories, and her list is an interesting one:

Holding Pattern, by Jeffery Renard Allen. Magical stories buzz with the dark energies of Chicago street life.

Things That Pass for Love, by Allison Amend. Sharp-edged tales of urban and suburban lovers.

My Daughter’s Eyes, by Annoy Baez. Enticing look at the Dominican immigrant experience through the eyes of a set of linked young female characters.

Unending Rooms, by Daniel Chicoón. Down and dirty Chicano stories combine with Borges-like meta-fiction.

Night Train, by Lise Erdrich. This collection is the first by Erdrich, younger sister of novelist Louise Erdrich.

* Based on a True Story, by Hesh Kestin. These three superb novellas by a former foreign correspondent are some of the best short fiction this reviewer has seen in years.

The Theory of Light and Matter, by Andrew Porter. Suburban tales of the role of memory and the struggle for understanding.

Invite, by Glen Pourciau. The author channels some of the quirkiest yet most believable characters of our time.

Legend of a Suicide, by David Vann. Stories set in or near the wilds of Alaska imaginer a father’s suicide in a multitude of ways.

Our Story Begins, by Tobias Wolff. Overview of his life’s work never disappoints with stories that are word-perfect little gems.

I didn't know Lise Erdrich had a book out. I'll admit it: as a fan of her big sister, I'm much more likely to check her collection out.

Meanwhile, three of the books have a Dzanc connection--those by Amend, Chacón and Kestin. And Kestin's? Awarded with an asterisk, it's this reviewers favorite short fiction of the year.

Comments

[Dan Wickett]

I'm obviously a big fan of the Kestin, Amend, and Chacon collections but am thrilled to see them alongside Pourciau, Allen, and Porter, all of which I loved this year.