The Best American Short Stories 1984

Fülszöveg

LITERATURE FPT -
Again, with this 1984 volume, the best continue to select the Best. This year the leading American fiction writer serving as guest editor is John Updike, and his choices reflect the variety and vigor that has returned to the American short story in this decade.
In his introduction, John Updike compares the stories of the 1934 volume with those of 1984 and finds fascinating similarities and some significant differences. He also defines some of his own tastes about short fiction, saying, "A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens." And further, "The good ending dismisses us with a touch of ceremony, and throws a backward light of significance over the story just read A weak beginning is forgettable, but the end of the story bulks in the reader's mind like... Tovább

Fülszöveg

LITERATURE FPT -
Again, with this 1984 volume, the best continue to select the Best. This year the leading American fiction writer serving as guest editor is John Updike, and his choices reflect the variety and vigor that has returned to the American short story in this decade.
In his introduction, John Updike compares the stories of the 1934 volume with those of 1984 and finds fascinating similarities and some significant differences. He also defines some of his own tastes about short fiction, saying, "A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens." And further, "The good ending dismisses us with a touch of ceremony, and throws a backward light of significance over the story just read A weak beginning is forgettable, but the end of the story bulks in the reader's mind like the giant foot in a foreshortened photograph."
John Updike is the author of seventeen books of fiction and the recipient of major literary awards. He lives in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. Shannon Ravenel, who has been editor of this anthology since 1977, lives in St. Louis.
THE FINAL PROOF OF FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCE by Lee K. Abbott THE NAKED LADY by Madison Smartt Bell UNKNOWN FEATHERS by Dianne Benedict IN THE RED ROOM by Paul Bowles THE CURE by Mary Ward Brown CENT by Rick DeMarinis A FATHER'S STORY by Andre Dubus LENA by Mavis Gallant INEXORABLE PROGRESS by Mary Hood THE ARTIFICIAL MOONLIGHT by Donald Justice MORRISON'S REACTION by Stephen Kirk THOROFARE by Susan Minot GLIMPSE INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY by Wright Morris NAIROBI by Joyce Carol Oates ROSA by Cynthia Ozick THE COLD ROOM by Lowry Pei THINGS TO BE THROWN AWAY by Jonathan Penner BRUNS by Norman Rush FOREIGN SHORES by James Salter CADDIES' DAY by Jeanne Schinto
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY © 1984
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