Amer Short Story and Its Writer

This is a good collection. It is a text book and has the limitations of a text book (once again we get Metamorphosis, Incident at Owl Creek Bridge, The Tell Tale Heart, The Death of Ivan Illich, and so on). That being said this editor makes a strong effort to include lesser known work and writers from underrepresented groups of people. The chief thing recommending it is the fact that it features commentaries by the writers themselves about fiction and about the process of writing rather than a lot of dull critical analysis. Also the bios of the authors are well written and informative. I recommend this for teachers or for anybody who would like a broad cross-section of short fiction. One other thing worth noting is that the editor seems sincere, down to earth and intelligent rather than academic or pedantic.

I use this text in my American Literature course. It is quite useful because it not only has great stories by great authors, but it also has commentary often by the authors themselves about their work. It also has other great critics commenting on the stories, and the short story in general, in a separate section at the end of the book. even if you are not a teacher or a student, this is a great collection of American short stories to read.

What a great book of short stories. I find myself feeling the lives of each short story.