On the Rocks

A first-rate anthology -- Donner did a brilliant job of selecting the stories. My favorites are "George Lassos Moon," "Mortality Check," and "Kindred." But there are many more that took my breath away. I'm a short story fanatic and I'll say without reservation that this is one of the best anthologies I've read. It's not some knock-off O'Henry or Best American Short Stories. Sometimes they can be good, but sometimes you get the feeling that the editor is influenced by trends. This book isn't like that -- you get the feeling that the editor is just choosing good stories.

The KGB Reader is exactly what you expect: a book full of short stories by some of today's most renowned young authors. And while some of the stories, I found brilliant, well written, captivating and moving a few of the stories, I just couldn't get through, or didn't care to read more than a few pages.The best aspect of this book is that its literally a mixed bag of different stories from a host of voices and styles. All of which are well written (some were not at all my bag). However, if you don't like a story, skip it. I promise that there will be something better a few pages further into the book.I didn't particularly like how the book was edited. I had difficulty with thelike the first two stories -- and didn't think they really set the tone for the rest of the book. But I was persistent, and found some teriffic short stories in the book.It makes for a great read if you're busy and don't have the time to sit down and devour a novel. Or, if you're looking to just get a sample of some different authors and styles, I think its really teriffic.Given that I didn't like some of the stories, I still recommend this book. There are more positives to negatives.

In this concise anthology, we are offered a delicious smorgasbord of twenty contemporary fiction authors, such as Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Philip Gourevitch, and Thom Jones. As documented in the endnotes, they positively drip with prizes or nominations for prizes for their previous work - the National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, O. Henry Awards, New Voice Fiction Award, Guggenheim, Fulbright, etc. Their short stories have been published in, among other places, the Paris Review, Antioch Review, Best American Short Stories of the Twentieth Century, Transition, Tin House, Harpers, Playboy, GQ, Granta, Village Voice, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The Yale Review, New Republic, New York Times, Missouri Review, The Ohio Review, Ploughshares, Mademoiselle, and Rolling Stone. Between them, they have also published dozens of novels.In the past, when I wanted to read fiction, I tended to gravitate more toward novels, so reading "On the Rocks" was something of a departure for me. However realizing it would take me at least a year to encounter these same twenty authors via their full-length books, I decided to taste them morsel by morsel, and was not disappointed. It was like traveling to a country I had never seen -- a new, delicious surprise greeted me every day I opened the book. Who else should read this? Anybody who wants a quick introduction to the first rank of fiction in today's America. And anybody who is turned on by excellent prose.