Reviews

The Best American Short Stories 2015 by T.C. Boyle, Heidi Pitlor

bufally47's review against another edition

3.0

I’m never sure how to rate collections, as they’re meant to cover diverse styles and topics. The inevitable three stars? Some of these stories reminded me how fresh and insane short fiction can be. I liked that the introduction pointed to Poe’s definition of a short story as “of a length to be read in one sitting, an hour’s entertainment.” That primed me to at least attempt to savor each.

Stories that knocked my socks off: Bride; Kavitha and Mustafa; The Siege at Whale Cay; Jack, July

Knocked my socks half-off: The Largesse of the Sea Maiden; About My Aunt; Sh’khol

Stories that made me remember everything that’s bad about short stories: Motherlode; You’ll Apologize If You Have To; Fingerprints

Aren’t we collectively over stories about road-trips and con men and slightly-unhinged tough guys? Evidently not, unfortunately. However, there was certainly no blatantly terrible writing in the collection, just the occasional trope and occasional dwelling on too-real muck like missing fathers and children in comas. Such muck might be handled with more grace in novel form. For stories, I prefer the outlandish or foreign-and-jarring.

meganmortician's review against another edition

3.0

Placeholder for "Asleep at the Wheel" by T. Coraghessan Boyle, published in The New Yorker Feb 2019

stevemcdede's review against another edition

4.0

Some excellent reads. Only a couple I couldn't get into.

britreads's review

4.0

"I have had massive luck with the short story form lately. First, I read Chimamanda’s stellar collection, The Thing Around Your Neck, which gave me plenty of semi-happy stories. And I just finished reading the 2015 edition of the Best American Short Stories. The only thing I can say after finishing this collection is “Wow!” Of course, it’s not easy being published in the Best American. All of these stories come from some of the best literary magazines like, Granta, One Story, Tin House and The New Yorker. And it’s clear (to me at least) why these stories were able to be published in these magazines."

The full review can be found on my blog, https://mylifeisbooked.com/

chloemakesbooks's review against another edition

3.0

Definitely improved as it went on, although I liked the first story very much! As with any anthology, not every story was a great one, and as with most modern writing, was a little bleak - but definitely good to keep up with recently published short stories and trends.

beth_larter's review against another edition

3.0

Full disclosure, I skipped a few of the stories that I just could not get into, so my rating is a reflection of that. The ones that I did read though, were mostly 5s in my opinion. So if you are willing to be a little shocking and read only part of a book, it can be really a good read.

kathycz's review against another edition

3.0

I've been reading this collection for years. Some are more to my taste than others. TC Boyle and I didn't really see eye to eye this year. This one is a collection of mostly down-and-out stories that, for me, just bled into one another. Of course all of them are well-written, and there are a few standouts. Julia Elliott's "Bride" seems totally fresh, and Denis Johnson's "The Largesse of the Sea Maiden" well worth a second and third read just to figure out what the heck he's up to. But as a collection, not my favorite in this series.

nv6acaat's review against another edition

The Florida one near the end was good. Otherwise; meh.