Best English Short Stories II - Hardcover

Twenty-five English-speaking, non-American authors have been selected from a wide range of media for representation in this fifth annual collection. Many of their stories have contemporary political backgrounds or connotations. Among these are "Jump" by Nadine Gordimer, which expresses the claustrophobic feelings of a white man detained as a spy in South Africa, and "Shaking Hands with Theodor Herzl" by Jonathan Treitel, a sardonic sendup of the founder of Zionism's struggle for recognition. All of the tales are sophisticated renderings of human situations. Particularly beguiling because of an indirect, ambiguous unfolding are those relations between the sexes, such as Desmond Hogan's "Affair," the meandering account of an Irish woman who cannot forget her first lover--"There had been a sincerity in him which she had not encountered in her husband or friends." The hospital bed of an AIDS patient who is visited by his lover is the locus of "Baby Clutch" by Adam Mars-Jones. Knowledge of imminent death links a mother and her daughter in Alice Munro's "In Goodness and Mercy"; its violent manifestation marks a young Irish shop boy in David Park's masterful story, 'Oranges from Spain." Others represented are Elizabeth Jolley, Russell Hoban, Jeanette Turner Hospital and Hanif Kureishi.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This collection of 25 short stories written in English by non-Americans represents a wide range of writers working in all genres. Some of these writers are well known and widely published; others have just begun their writing careers. While the subject matter of the stories varies widely, the general tone is the same: depressing. The humor evident in only a few stories is wry and ironic. Grappling with the difficulties of modern life--which range from AIDS to alcoholism, divorce to death--the characters generally cannot resolve their difficulties but only watch and report as they are swept on to their fates. This group of remarkably eloquent writers is notable for clarity and elegance of language; most are prize winners for good reason. Recommended.
- Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Connecticut at Torrington Lib.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.