Today, The Story Prize announced its three finalists:
- The Other Language, by Francesca Marciano
- Thunderstruck, by Elizabeth McCracken
- Bark, by Lorrie Moore
As stated in its announcement (here), these three books were chosen from 129 submitted. The winner will be announced on March 4.
I have read some of the stories in Lorrie Moore’s collection, but that’s it. John Self has a review (here) of Bark and a link (here) to his review of Thunderstruck that he wrote for The Independent.
I’ve read all three of these: ‘Thunderstruck’ I liked quite a bit but seven months on I find I don’t remember the individual stories all that well. ‘Bark’ I’m afraid I really disliked to the point that it was one of my two least-favourite reads of 2014 (out of 130): a book that was nowhere near as funny as it seemed to think it was, full of predictable stories, unengaging characters and tedious one-liners. By far my favourite of the three is ‘The Other Language’ – I read it last May and am still regularly thinking about some of the stories (the woman buying the dress in Venice; the house with the bread ovens; the family’s annual holiday in Greece…). A couple of the stories aren’t quite as good, but I still thought it was a lovely collection.
Thanks, David, The Other Language is the one I know next to nothing about (thanks a lot for not reviewing it, John!) but I’m thrilled to hear that it struck a sweet spot.
What would be your three story collections from last year, were you in charge?
Also, let’s look at this coming year. I see some collections in the mix that I must get my hands on:
-Edith Pearlman’s Honeydew
-Steven Millhauser’s Voices in the Night
-Amelia Gray’s Gutshot
-Thomas McGuane’s Crow Fair
I’m also looking forward to checking out Ann Beattie’s The State We’re In: Maine Stories. Though I’m not a huge fan of her work, I do think she’s an important story writer.
What else?
I plan to read Diane Cook’s “Man v. Nature” and Colin Barrett’s “Young Skins.”
Well, I think I only read seventeen collections that were eligible so not really enough to have an opinion, though I am surprised Phil Klay’s ‘Redeployment’ isn’t a finalist. A few others I rated very highly were J. Robert Lennon’s ‘See You in Paradise’, Kathleen Founds’ ‘When Mystical Creatures Attack!’, Jacob M. Appel’s ‘Scouting for the Reaper’ and from right at the start of last year Elizabeth Spencer’s ‘Starting Over’.
I haven’t really had chance to look what is due out this year yet, but I did notice Charles Baxter has a new collection out next month – I’ve loved both of the collections I’ve so far read by him so I’m quite excited to try the new one.