Comments on: Year in Review: The New Yorker Short Fiction of 2009

By: The Mookse and the Gripes » George Saunders: “Tenth of December”

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:30:56 +0000

[...] of one of my favorite Saunders stories of the last few years, “Victory Lap” (my brief thoughts here). In that story, Saunders had us enter the heads of two narrators with distinct (thoroughly [...]

By: Trevor

Trevor — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:59:59 +0000

I’m just not sure what these spam comments that contain no links do. Is it an attempt to get me to approve an author and then deluge me with spam? So far, not the case.

However, Charles, I am going to delete you comment. If you come back, comment again!

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:48:52 +0000

I’m thinking that WordPress is having some problems with its spam filter — or that someone has found a way around it. I too am getting a bunch of irrelvant hits.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:39:56 +0000

Thanks Charles. I have to say, though, despite the lack of links from your comment, it looks an awful lot like the spam comments that get filtered out. Are you really a person Charles? Please let me know, or I might have to block this comment for fear it might allow spam to start leaking into my site.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:13:48 +0000

I think the idea of a thread is perfect, Kevin. Often through the year, because of this posting project, I wanted to see what others thought of the story. I was only satisfied once when John Self was reading the McEwan piece and posting his thoughts on Twitter while he read it. He hated it, by the way. I’m not sure how many people will join the conversations about the pieces, but there’s a good way to find out. Also, I definitely would have wanted to see what people thought about the article on Willingham’s execution. I’m still blown away by the skill with which that important article was written — better than most detective novels, in my book.

Now, how to set up a thread that allows us to post in an organized fashion about multiple articles throughout the year . . . Time to put WordPress to the test.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:41:09 +0000

Sorry, an extraneous post. Can you set up a thread where those of us who do read the magazine (Mrs. Berrett might qualify as well) could drop in a comment or two to be added to your end-of-year post?

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:39:54 +0000

I’m with you, Trevor — the New Yorker stories pique my curiosity (and sometimes satisfy it — Bolano’s story is a good example of that). I think your project shows that the fiction selection is much broader than most people assume and a reliable test. I do read books of stories (just order Meloy’s) but it requires a kind of discipline that I don’t normally possess.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:34:44 +0000

Finally a light break from work to respond to these comments!

Kevin, I do think the Delillo piece is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, but I couldn’t really take this in short-story form, so I’ll leave it to others to judge Point Omega. I also have heard that both David Foster Wallace pieces are excepts from The Pale King. I have no idea how they go together in the same book, but from David Foster Wallace such things don’t seem to matter. And I was so majorly disappointed in the Wild Things excerpt published here that I refused to see the movie when it came out and I can’t help but think those who loved it are wrong. I’m aware that I can’t judge what I haven’t seen, but the bit here was just awful.

Yep, Sherry, I’ve been writing these summaries every week when I finish the article. You can probably go through them and see my busy weeks versus my not-so-busy weeks by their content. And I second your back-up about “A Tiny Feast.” I loved that story. Could have been my favorite this year — but that’s like picking a favorite book. I can get the list narrowed down to a handful, but then it’s impossible.

Tony, I think we have the opposite problems with short stories. I love ‘em, but I rarely work my way through an entire collection in any timely manner. Though this doesn’t always happen, I often kind of get bogged down by all of the new beginnings by the same author. I finish a story and want to move on to someone completely different, making this type of venue perfect for my fickle moods :) .

By: Tony S.

Tony S. — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:48:24 +0000

Excellent idea for a post. I follow the stories that are printed in the New Yorker, but unfortunately don’t read them. For some reason, I only read stories in collections. Perhaps it is because that way I can give myself credit for reading them as a book. Perhaps it is because I need to read several stories by an author before I can appreciate the style of that author. I know that the New Yorker publishes very good writers.

By: Mrs. Berrett

Mrs. Berrett — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:18:32 +0000

I didn’t know you were doing this yet, but I would like to say that of the ones I read (which were admittedly few), I absolutely adored “A Tiny Feast.” I loved the conflict between emotion and reason Titania faces with being a mother.
Also, I’m glad you didn’t like King. I’m just petty enough to get pleasure when arrogance is checked by reality (even if only by others).