{"id":10617,"date":"2013-12-28T15:05:56","date_gmt":"2013-12-28T19:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=10617"},"modified":"2013-12-28T15:07:55","modified_gmt":"2013-12-28T19:07:55","slug":"best-new-yorker-stories-of-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/12\/28\/best-new-yorker-stories-of-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Best <em>New Yorker<\/em> Stories of 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Between the two of us (and Betsy is nearly 100%), Betsy and I read and posted thoughts on every <em>New Yorker<\/em> story this year. Here are our six favorites. You&#8217;ll notice Betsy and I diverge quite a bit (and though I didn&#8217;t post on each of her favorites, I have read them all). How on earth, I say, did Betsy leave off\u00a0<em>the best<\/em> story of the year, William Trevor&#8217;s &#8220;The Women&#8221;? Ha! Please let us hear your favorites and tell us where we&#8217;re wrong!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trevor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My picks are probably not surprising to followers of the blog. With the exception of Murakami (that I liked his story surprised me), these are authors I have been favoring for a long time. I did not pick these stories <em>because<\/em> they are by these authors; I honestly feel they wrote the best stories that appeared in <em>The New Yorker<\/em> this year.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/01\/07\/william-trevor-the-women\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;The Women,&#8221; by William Trevor<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/10\/14\/alice-munro-the-bear-came-over-the-mountain\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;The Bear Came Over the Mountain,&#8221; by Alice Munro<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/07\/01\/tobias-wolff-all-ahead-of-them\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;All Ahead of Them,&#8221; by Tobias Wolff<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/09\/16\/tessa-hadley-bad-dreams\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Bad Dreams,&#8221; by Tessa Hadley<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/02\/25\/colm-toibin-summer-of-38\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Summer of &#8217;38,&#8221; by Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/10\/21\/haruki-murakami-samsa-in-love\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Samsa in Love,&#8221; by Haruki Murakami<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Betsy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best <em>New Yorker<\/em> short story of 2013, except that it was published in 1999, is Alice Munro\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/10\/14\/alice-munro-the-bear-came-over-the-mountain\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cThe Bear Came Over the Mountain.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Special Mention: in the marriage and commitment category (about twenty stories), the mind-bending <a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/07\/01\/tobias-wolff-all-ahead-of-them\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cAll Ahead of Them,\u201d<\/a> by Tobias Wolff, rocked.<\/p>\n<p>As for my picks for the six best stories of 2013:<\/p>\n<p>Three of this year\u2019s <em>New Yorker<\/em> stories address how atrocity and betrayal among ethnic or political groups endure in the national memory, sometimes for centuries:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/11\/25\/romesh-gunesekera-roadkill\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cRoadkill,&#8221; by Romesh Gunekesera<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/02\/25\/colm-toibin-summer-of-38\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cSummer of \u201838,\u201d by Colm Toibin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/06\/12\/sherman-alexie-happy-trails\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cHappy Trails,\u201d by Sherman Alexie \u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two stories explored how the neglect and abuse of children results in adults who are frozen in place:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/09\/30\/paul-theroux-im-the-meat-youre-the-knife\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cI am the Meat, You are the Knife,\u201d by Paul Theroux<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/10\/28\/thomas-mcguane-weight-watchers\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cWeight Watchers,\u201d by Thomas McGuane\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The best story investigated the effects of automated war on its participants:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/03\/04\/will-mackin-kattekoppen\/\" target=\"_blank\"> \u201cKattekoppen,\u201d by Will Mackin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I am sure you can see, I selected my \u201cSix Best\u201d for their timeliness, psychology, and vision. <a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/the-new-yorker-fiction-forum\/\" target=\"_blank\">Check out the list of all 52 stories<\/a>. I am sure your short list is just as serious, but different. We would love to hear from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Between the two of us (and Betsy is nearly 100%), Betsy and I read and posted thoughts on every New Yorker story this year. Here are our six favorites. You&#8217;ll notice Betsy and I diverge quite a bit (and though I didn&#8217;t post on each of her favorites, I have read them all). How on earth, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-10617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-2Lf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10620,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions\/10620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10617"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}