the best short stories 2021 the o henry prize winners

While staying at a friend’s house in Connecticut, he finds out that Don DeLillo, author of the novel White Noise, lives next door, and as his days of freedom are about to come to an end, he imagines how he could adapt White Noise into a film.Īlthough many literary sources are listed in the back of the book, the twenty stories in this volume only come from ten different publications, especially The New Yorker and Granta.Īnd now I feel compelled to say a few words about some of those other magazines. It is a character study of Harvey Weinstein just before his sexual harassment sentence was announced. This all sounds like it has the makings of another tragedy, but Doerr rises above this by unexpectedly forging a strong relationship between father and son that helps them endure their hardships and make sense of their world.Īnother unlikely story that turned out to be strangely absorbing is “White Noise” by Emma Cline. He eventually marries an alcoholic woman, and they have a son together. “The Master’s Castle” by Anthony Doerr concerns a somewhat mediocre man who becomes an optometrist and bounces from Bakersfield to Hawaii to Eugene to Pocatello. These stories are all beautifully told, but they all leave readers in a dark pit of despair.Īs I said, it wasn’t until I was about halfway through the book that I came across a story that supercharged me, imbued me with its energy, and reminded me why I read short stories. “Scissors” by Karina Sainz Borgo tells of starving women at a border crossing who have to sell their hair so they and their children can eat. “From Far Around They Saw Us Burn,” based on a true story, tells of a fire in an Irish orphanage that costs the lives of many children. “Malliga Homes” by Sindya Bhanoo tells of a retirement home for the upper middle class in India, and how the elderly are abandoned there by their offspring. There’s enough tragedy in the real world in literature I expect to read about the negative things, sure, but I also look for transcendence, for creative moments that help me rise above the vast darkness around us.

Not that the stories were all bad, but in the first half of the book they are almost all depressing tragedies, so much so that I almost set the collection aside. It got off to a slow start, in my estimation. Appreciation for short stories is subjective, of course, but for me these selections ranged from knock-it-out-of-the-park brilliant to barely readable.

I knew it was likely to be a mixed bag, and that’s exactly what it was.

I was in the mood for reading some short fiction, and so I searched for the newest literary collection the library had.

The best short stories 2021 the o henry prize winners