More Stories We Tell: The Best Contemporary Short Stories by North American Women

Wendy Martin set out to create a glimpse into the complex lives of women with More Stories We Tell, and has accomplished it with resounding success. This collection of tales covers the range from poignant to alarming, the varying styles blending to form what any editor of an anthology hope to achieve: a collection that coherently illustrates the full depth and artistry of each of the authors, highlighting their ability to create emotionally charged and engaging prose. The culturally diverse nature of the writing, jumping from the African-American experience to white middle-class suburbia to Asian and beyond. It transcends cultural differences through the choice of stories that at their hearts and souls convey some universal message, while simultaneously opening the readers' eyes to varied cultures. From the family relationships shown in the works of Stephanie Vaughn, Mary Gaitskill, and Grace Paley, to the love relationship stories by Margaret Atwood, Sandra Cisneros, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Andrea Lee, the many facets of womanhood today are given their time in the spotlight. Each author offers her own gem of wisdom about life, and the collection is as a vibrant multicolored string of beads, each contributing its own beauty to the whole. It is a must read for any woman who wishes to find herself in the pages of a book, or for any man who wishes to learn a little about the women of today.

This is a pretty fantastic anthology of recent short fiction by American women. I used it for a women's writing class I taught a couple of years ago without having first read it through and I found it as funny, strange, wild and exciting as my students did. A book club might not like this book, but Female undergraduates (and male), English majors especially, like it immensely, at least that was my experience of using it as an academic text. I'm about to adopt it for another course (a couple of years after first teaching with it)-- that's the extent of the impression it left on me. The stories are not dull, in the least. HIGHLY recommended, even for the reader who just wants something he or she can dip into from time to time.

The anthologist, Wendy Martin, edited one of the best anthologies of women's writing long ago, in 1990, when Tama Jamowitz still had artistic currency. That book was called, "We Are The Stories We Tell" and it was quite a popular book of its kind. Now, 14 years later, a sequel creeps in with a different cast of characters. It's funny whose writing is now "out" who was once "in." Martin seems determined to give us a different kind of E-Ticket ride this time around, but some of her old favorites have made it back into this book as well. Thus for exanple, both books feature the ubiquitous Joyce Carol Oates, as well as the slightly tarnished Bobbie Ann Mason and Canada's Alice Munro, whose stature has been firmly cemented in the years since WATSWT #1 was launched. In addition, Ann Beattie is here, even if we haven't heard that much from Ms. Beattie since the glory days of "dirty realism." Her star has been supplanted by younger others, including ZZ Packer, the Bay Area wunderkind who went to Stanford as a Stegner Fellow, and Marisa Silver, whose stories of Hollywood lives are as poignant as anything written by Nathanael West or Dawn Powell. In addition, a fair number of more experimental writers have crept in, thus no more Flannery O'Connor, instead we have the wonderful Amy Hempel and the satisfactory Lynn Freed. The turnover is just beginning. But a woman reviewer might have other things to say, and different social significances to be noted.