{"id":14769,"date":"2015-01-02T00:57:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T04:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=14769"},"modified":"2015-01-02T00:57:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T04:57:54","slug":"my-favorite-new-yorker-stories-of-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2015\/01\/02\/my-favorite-new-yorker-stories-of-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite New Yorker<\/em> Stories of 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"NewThere were some great stories in The New Yorker<\/em> this year. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of the stories about childhood, I th<\/span>ought Brad Watson and Thomas Mc<\/span>Guane both hit it out of the park <\/span>(<\/span>with \u201cEykelboom\u201d and \u201cHubcaps,\u201d respectively<\/span>)<\/span>. Both stories deal with <\/span>adults<\/span> <\/span>who <\/span>ignore their responsibilities to children, and how<\/span> in that vacuum, children are<\/span> cruel to other children<\/span>, and how in that vacuum, children are left to deal<\/span> or not deal<\/span> <\/span>with the guilt.<\/span> I thought both of these stories were brilliant, and to a degree it felt to me as if Watson was in conversation with McGuane, although perhaps that was just T<\/em><\/span>he New Yorker <\/span><\/em>placing<\/span> writers in conversation. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s story mirrors McGuane\u2019s: in both, time is a character; in both, there is an animal that speaks to the boys; in both, the parents are pre-occupied; <\/span>in both there is the question of how a child deals with guilt; <\/span>and <\/span>in both there is a damaged boy, a boy whose damage is so profound that he <\/span>cannot survive<\/span> without the <\/span>intervention and <\/span>love of another person.<\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

McGuane\u2019s story, with the parents\u2019 <\/span>drinking and<\/span> the boy with <\/span>something like <\/span>Down syndrome or autism, speaks to me and it will always be with me. But then, Watson\u2019s<\/span> speaks to me as well<\/span>, with the damaged boy as <\/span>outright <\/span>scapegoat<\/span>. <\/span>The latter<\/span> story <\/span>is so very dark<\/span>, though, that it\u2019s hard to revisit. <\/span> <\/span>In McGuane, perhaps because he is of an age (over 70), there is light here and there, and I can bear the darkness. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of stories from abroad, which I always enjoy, I found <\/span>both <\/span>Etgar Keret\u2019s <\/span>\u201cOne Gram Short\u201d <\/span>and <\/span>Haruki<\/span> <\/span>Murakami\u2018s \u201c<\/span>Scheherazade\u201d <\/span>surprising<\/span>. <\/span>Keret<\/span> <\/span>uses <\/span>humor to ta<\/span>lk about the Israeli-Arab divide, but the reader is <\/span>uneasy, as she is <\/span>never far from the politics and history of the situation. In contrast, <\/span>having chosen a much lighter <\/span>subject matter (communication between men and women, rather than between sworn enemies)<\/span>, Murakami is able to provide drop-dead entertainment<\/span>. I <\/span>loved the twisty-twisty <\/span>mystery<\/span> of \u201cScheherazade\u201d<\/span>and loved as well <\/span>its<\/span> in<\/span>quiry into <\/span>men\u2019s compulsion to withdraw and women\u2019<\/span>s<\/span> equal compulsion <\/span>to pursue<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of stories about living with very repressive governments, Llyudmila Ulitskayas\u2019s \u201cThe Fugitive\u201d and Alejandro Zambra\u2019s \u201cCamilo\u201d<\/span> are both powerful, but I fin<\/span>d \u201cCamilo\u201d is the one that stuck, partially because Chile is a fact <\/span>in my life, and also because \u201cCamilo\u201d is<\/span> about living with terror<\/span> after it\u2019s over: <\/span> the<\/span> years <\/span>of lies <\/span>that follow<\/span>, as well as<\/span> divisive <\/span>silences<\/span>, suspicion, mistrust and hatred. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Of the stories about <\/span>the <\/span>mental incapacitation of adults, I thought Donald Antrim and Danielle McLaughlin were <\/span>both <\/span>great. McLaughlin\u2019s \u201cThe Dinosaurs on Other Planets\u201d spoke powerfully about <\/span>how <\/span>age could cause a <\/span>man<\/span> to withdraw into himself <\/span>to the degree that both he and his marriage are a shipwreck;<\/span> at the same time <\/span>the story explores <\/span>how habit could persuade a w<\/span>ife<\/span> <\/span>she ought to stay with him. Antr<\/span>im\u2019s \u201cThe Emerald Light in the Air,\u201d for me, captured the terror and yearning of the psycho<\/span>tic. <\/span>I thought <\/span>the author<\/span> treated the psychotic man with empathy, showing the man\u2019s fears and yearnings<\/span> and the way his damaged mind amplified both<\/span>, and <\/span>showing as<\/span> well the ineffectiveness of the <\/span>available <\/span>treatment. <\/span><\/p>\n

For topicality, I thought Victor Lodato\u2019s \u201cJack, July\u201d<\/span> w<\/span>as a meth trip from the other s<\/span>ide of the television powerhouse of Breaking Bad<\/em>, <\/span> but for the sheer ordinariness of the way drugs call to us\u00a0<\/span>Greg Jackson\u2019s \u201cWagner in the Desert\u201d spoke to me. <\/span> <\/span>These two were the American drug culture from either <\/span>end of the class spectrum. <\/span> <\/span>For topicality, however, nothing could beat Kirsten Valdez Quade\u2019s \u201cOrdinary Sins,\u201d about a broken priest<\/span> and an unmarried <\/span>girl<\/span> pregnant with twins<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Of stories that were <\/span>short, <\/span>clever<\/span>, <\/span>arch and funny, I loved Robert Coover\u2019s \u201cFrog Prince\u201d and also his \u201cThe Waitress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of stories that <\/span>had titles that didn\u2019t work, I would cite David Gilbert\u2019s \u201cHere\u2019s the Story\u201d and Kevin Canty\u2019s \u201cStory, with Bird.\u201d Too arch, really, <\/span>too clever. <\/span>Too bad, too, because I liked the stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I did not love the story, <\/span>Shirley Jackson\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d story was of great interest, <\/span>simply <\/span>because Shirley Jackson is of great interest. The same is true of Louise Erdrich. I enjoyed the cool artistry of Maile Meloy in \u201cMadame Lazarus,\u201d and the weirdness of Rebecca Curtis\u2019s \u201cThe Pink House,\u201d and the spot-on observation of Allegra Goodman\u2019s \u201cApple Cake.\u201d But why do these all feel like lesser stories? I wondered<\/span>, for instance,<\/span> if I could trust Maile Meloy\u00a0in that her main character was French, <\/span>a <\/span>gay<\/span> man<\/span>, and elderly, none of which she probably is. I did take it as a great story <\/span>by <\/span>a woman <\/span>who <\/span>was telling me about how she perceives such a man.<\/span> The fact that Nuruddin Farah\u2019s \u201cThe Start of the Affair\u201d was a similar story <\/span>but written from a <\/span>male point of view<\/span> (as Lily pointed out<\/span>) <\/span> brought<\/span> <\/span>Meloy\u2019s<\/span> story into perspective. <\/span> <\/span>Farah\u2019s story benefitted<\/span>, I thought,<\/span> from the added elements of class and colonialism. <\/span>The main character was no deeper, but the situation involved far starker gulfs of money and privilege. <\/span><\/p>\n

In several of these paired stories, I felt <\/span>the emphasis on the ways writers<\/span> often revisit the same <\/span>situations. <\/span> Even so, none of these stories felt like a crude copy-book exercise<\/span> done for class.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Antonya<\/span> Nelson\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Primum<\/span> Non Nocere\u201d required the reader to read between the lines. You had to hear the teenager talking about her mother, father<\/span>, <\/span>brother and patient with an adult ear. Ki<\/span>rsten Valdez Quade\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Ordinary S<\/span>ins\u201d worked in much the same way and derived much of its pleasure from the reader teasing out what was really being said. <\/span> Both stories had an innocent, na\u00efve main character, both with sim<\/span>ilarly idealized names: Jewel <\/span>and Crystal. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of stories with outsize ambition, Denis Johnson\u2019s \u201cThe Largesse of the Sea Maiden\u201d<\/span> is the stand-out<\/span>. <\/span>A man seems to be at a point where he is realizing the tremendous distance he puts between himself and other people. <\/span> This <\/span>story <\/span>one rewards patience — its <\/span>fragmented <\/span>structure is<\/span> extraordinarily complicated<\/span>, <\/span>it covers a very big time-span, <\/span>it has a<\/span>n off-putting <\/span>main character, and it is inconclusive. This is a great, great story<\/span> <\/span>of<\/span> <\/span>extraordinary richness. One of the story\u2019s facets is the way it explores t<\/span>he <\/span>role of art in life. Another is<\/span> <\/span>its interest in <\/span>the<\/span> human <\/span>need for<\/span> empathy<\/span>, <\/span>the need for instruction in empathy<\/span>, and the half-way accommodation we make to <\/span>meet <\/span>both those needs.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Of whether The New Yorker<\/em> published the best fiction<\/span> (a frequent topic in our pages)<\/span>, one only need look at Best American Stories of 2014 to see there are other publishers doing great work: <\/span> Granta<\/em>, <\/span>McSweeneys<\/em>, <\/span> <\/span>The Paris Review<\/em>, and Zoetrope<\/em>, from <\/span>the <\/span>names I know<\/span>. The Virginia Quarterly Review<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and The Iowa Review<\/em> are familiar University presses, and The Idaho Review<\/em> from Boise State is a welcome surprise from the state college level. Five Points<\/em>, Image<\/em>, Conjunctions<\/em>, and Glimmer Train<\/em> all\u00a0<\/span>warrant looking into. Obviously, there are other great small presses. A good place to get that list is the index of submissions to the Best American Short Stories. <\/span> <\/span>Gr<\/span><\/em>anta<\/em> looks like a <\/span>good <\/span>place to begin, but <\/span>maybe a better idea would be to locate one of these <\/span>presses <\/span>a month. <\/span> And if that resolution fails, there is always Best American Short Stories of 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/span>So these are my <\/span>picks<\/span>, with no regard for variety,<\/span> for the four<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>best <\/span>New Yorker <\/span><\/em>stories of the year (links to the original post)<\/span>: <\/span><\/p>\n