Lahiri, Jhumpa

The Namesake: A Novel
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • wow
  • Passive writing
  • Whats in a Name...
  • Great book!
  • New outlook
 The Namesake: A Novel
Jhumpa Lahiri
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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  1. Interpreter of Maladies
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ASIN: 0618485228

Amazon.com

Any talk of The Namesake--Jhumpa Lahiri's follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning debut, Interpreter of Maladies--must begin with a name: Gogol Ganguli. Born to an Indian academic and his wife, Gogol is afflicted from birth with a name that is neither Indian nor American nor even really a first name at all. He is given the name by his father who, before he came to America to study at MIT, was almost killed in a train wreck in India. Rescuers caught sight of the volume of Nikolai Gogol's short stories that he held, and hauled him from the train. Ashoke gives his American-born son the name as a kind of placeholder, and the awkward thing sticks.

Awkwardness is Gogol's birthright. He grows up a bright American boy, goes to Yale, has pretty girlfriends, becomes a successful architect, but like many second-generation immigrants, he can never quite find his place in the world. There's a lovely section where he dates a wealthy, cultured young Manhattan woman who lives with her charming parents. They fold Gogol into their easy, elegant life, but even here he can find no peace and he breaks off the relationship. His mother finally sets him up on a blind date with the daughter of a Bengali friend, and Gogol thinks he has found his match. Moushumi, like Gogol, is at odds with the Indian-American world she inhabits. She has found, however, a circuitous escape: "At Brown, her rebellion had been academic ... she'd pursued a double major in French. Immersing herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge--she approached French, unlike things American or Indian, without guilt, or misgiving, or expectation of any kind." Lahiri documents these quiet rebellions and random longings with great sensitivity. There's no cleverness or showing-off in The Namesake, just beautifully confident storytelling. Gogol's story is neither comedy nor tragedy; it's simply that ordinary, hard-to-get-down-on-paper commodity: real life. --Claire Dederer

Book Description

Jhumpa Lahiri's debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, took the literary world by storm when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Fans who flocked to her stories will be captivated by her best-selling first novel, now in paperback for the first time. The Namesake is a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama that illuminates this acclaimed author's signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the tangled ties between generations. The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of an arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ashoke does his best to adapt while his wife pines for home. When their son, Gogol, is born, the task of naming him betrays their hope of respecting old ways in a new world. And we watch as Gogol stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With empathy and penetrating insight, Lahiri explores the expectations bestowed on us by our parents and the means by which we come to define who we are.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars wow.......2007-06-21

I was so moved by the movie that I had to buy the book. The book was so much better than the movie. The movie I loved but this far surpasses it. I couldn't put it down and when I was done I wanted to start all over again!

3 out of 5 stars Passive writing.......2007-06-21

I haven't read all the other reviews, so I may be repeating what others have said. The plot of this story is interesting, as are the characters. However, the author's writing style creates such a distance between the reader and the story that it's hard to get too connected to it. The story is mostly narrative, with very little conversation. Not much seems to happen directly, it is all told in the passive voice. This makes it really hard to feel for the characters. I would've liked this book much more if the writing style were different.

4 out of 5 stars Whats in a Name..........2007-06-11

This is one of the few books that I have read that did not have to tie the title back into the story as it was inter woven all throughout the book. Its a effortless read and provides quite a bit of insight into struggles of immigrants and provides a very good perspective of understanding completely different priorities through the eyes of 3 completely different persons that share a very strong blood bond.

If you have liked the Kite Runner, Shantaram, The Bee Keepers Daughter, you will definitely appreciate this book.

I would recommend the book, but not the movie, the screenplay does not do justice to the literary content of the book.

5 out of 5 stars Great book!.......2007-06-08

I loved this book. Great look into Indian culture. Couldn't put it down!

4 out of 5 stars New outlook.......2007-06-08

This book wasn't written extravagantly, yet it had such depth. It wasn't a cliff-hanger, but I still couldn't put it down.
Interpreter of Maladies
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Our book club loved this book
  • exquisite writing -- and the only short stories I've ever adored
  • Disappointed
  • Touching tale
  • Remarkable, Insightful and ... Outstanding
 Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 039592720X

Amazon.com

Mr. Kapasi, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's title story, would certainly have his work cut out for him if he were forced to interpret the maladies of all the characters in this eloquent debut collection. Take, for example, Shoba and Shukumar, the young couple in "A Temporary Matter" whose marriage is crumbling in the wake of a stillborn child. Or Miranda in "Sexy," who is involved in a hopeless affair with a married man. But Mr. Kapasi has problems enough of his own; in addition to his regular job working as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language, he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. His fare on this particular day is Mr. and Mrs. Das--first-generation Americans of Indian descent--and their children. During the course of the afternoon, Mr. Kapasi becomes enamored of Mrs. Das and then becomes her unwilling confidant when she reads too much into his profession. "I told you because of your talents," she informs him after divulging a startling secret. <blockquote> I'm tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I've been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better; say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy. </blockquote> Of course, Mr. Kapasi has no cure for what ails Mrs. Das--or himself. Lahiri's subtle, bittersweet ending is characteristic of the collection as a whole. Some of these nine tales are set in India, others in the United States, and most concern characters of Indian heritage. Yet the situations Lahiri's people face, from unhappy marriages to civil war, transcend ethnicity. As the narrator of the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," comments: "There are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept." In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Our book club loved this book.......2007-06-18

Our book club loved this book. We enjoyed comparing the emotions evoked by each individual story and how the stories crossed cultures. Our hostess was very thorough and served Indian foods for an authentic atmosphere. We each had a different favorite story. Some of us read the book sequentially, others picked short stories randomly. We would recommend jotting down your thoughts after each story if you are planning a discussion.

5 out of 5 stars exquisite writing -- and the only short stories I've ever adored.......2007-06-05

I am really not a short story person. I always feel cheated somehow by the lack of chapters and can never immerse myself in the characters because I know the storys ending is imminent. After reading Interperter Of Maladies all I can say is that I would read a thousand short stories by this immensely gifted author. I don't know extactly how she does it (it almost feels like magic the way she lures you in on the first page)and can keep you rivited, sated, and completely spellbound until each luminous tale ends. She is a master of detail, restraint, and while reading her stories I would often have to pause, the way you pause in front of an astonishingly beautiful painting. I couldn't just tear through them. Each sentence is a masterpiece -- not too much, not too little -- and when a story ends it feels like you've just consumed a 5000 page novel. Ms. Lahiri tugs you into her characters lives so competely and skillfully that it seems impossible to believe that you've only been with them for 20 pages. This book deserved to win. It is a treasure and I cannot wait to read more from this fantastically talented writer.

3 out of 5 stars Disappointed.......2007-05-16

After reading the laudatory reviews and seeing that the book won the Pulitzer, I was expecting a book of truly engaging short stories. I'm a short story reader. I was expecting John Gardner or Maugham or Carver, or maybe an Indian version of Angela's Ashes, in short, I expected to be deeply touched, but the problem was that too many of her characters were uninteresting people. I don't know if it was a matter of them being intellectually passive, but the stories seemed to surround people who were morally boring or uncompelling thinkers. I like reading stories about doers of deeds and thinkers of big thoughts, and all of her stories were reminiscent of "American Beauty," if it had been played about by the Indian diaspora, small self-absorbed people with petty concerns, or about people who have attached themselves to small, self-absorbed people with petty concerns. I think I understood the overall themes underlying her muted tones, but there is something prozaic about the sensibilities of her characters that disappoints.

I put down the book thinking, "These are not the kind of people with whom I'd like to spend any serious time, except maybe Bibi."

4 out of 5 stars Touching tale.......2007-05-08

Loved this story. So well written and hard to put down. The reader will become steeped in the culture of India, and feel a connection with self.

4 out of 5 stars Remarkable, Insightful and ... Outstanding.......2007-05-04

In the normal course of our lives, we do and experience many things, some are remarkable whereas some others mundane and trivial. For Jhumpa Lahiri trivialities are not mundane nor is remarkable necessarily so. In her Pulitzer Prize winning compilation of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, she with exquisite clarity captures the essence of many aspects of life that we all see and yet do not.

Nine stories have numerous characters but one consistent and persistent theme. They all capture the essence of life's diverse shades and hues as witnessed by Indians in US and India. Lahiri writes with subdued passion but an eager eye for detail, a combination likely to enthrall the readers who find life engaging. Minor aspects of the lives of her characters find their way into the hearts of readers via a narrative that does not essentially seek a crescendo or climax but instead relies on the very vitality of the experience.

Indeed a lack of a climax that usually provides a cathartic release is mostly missing in these stories. Remarkably, these stories are outstanding because of this, and not in spite of it. There are moments in which there is an urge to skim towards the end but that will defeat the very purpose of reading Interpreter of Maladies because the essence here is the narrative and not some unusual twist of imagination that would intrigue the reader.

An extremely readable collection of insightful commentaries on everyday life.
Malgudi Days (Penguin Classics)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • One of the best Indian writers
  • India calling
  • Revisiting the old classic.. Nostalgia makes it sweeter
  • Incredible stories!
  • Believe me, the world I left behind is like this
 Malgudi Days (Penguin Classics)
R. K. Narayan
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0143039652

Book Description

<B>Four gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan's centennial</B> <BR><BR> Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India “the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story.” Powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents Narayan's imaginary city in full color, revealing the essence of India and of human experience.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars One of the best Indian writers.......2006-10-11

This book is a collection of short stories written in very simple language. What really makes the difference is the connection it establishes with the readers. Stories are about simple people and simple issues in life. RNK is one of the best authors I have read. He has his own style of writing.

4 out of 5 stars India calling.......2005-11-09

Malgudi Days, a collection of short stories by R. K. Narayan happens to be my favourite book. The book is a compilation of different short stories that covers a plethora of emotions. It is the right balance between humour, and a dose of drama to cater to different moods of the reader. What makes this book unique is the simple, yet artistic narrative style, used by the author. The descriptions make the reader see the setting clearly. Add to it the perfect blend of beautiful Malgudi, with its rural charm and eccentric to ordinary characters, the narrative is complete. Most stories deal with normal people and their lives in a mainly middle class milieu in south India. In reality, Malgudi is an imaginary town set in the southern part of the country. But its description can be traced to any real town.

The tales come with sprinkling of gentle irony along with a humour. The endings are rather abrupt, which leave an indelible impression on the mind. The simple narrative that Narayan uses is his typical style. So, if you want to take a trip down south and explore the colours of India, you must indulge in the book and read it to your heart's content.

The stories deal with normal lifestyle of the middle class people in South India. Actually, Malgudi is an imaginary town in the southern part of India but its characteristics match with any real town. The tales come with a gentle irony and witty humour. The endings are rather abrupt and it leaves an impression in your mind. This way you are bound to think of them even after reading. The simple way, in which the book comes, is typical to Narayan.

So, if you want to explore the colours of India, you must indulge in the book and read them to your heart's content

4 out of 5 stars Revisiting the old classic.. Nostalgia makes it sweeter.......2004-08-25

I reread Malgudi days after 20 or so years! It was a delight just as it was when I read them the first time. Only this time; being in the US, made the Characters more endearing! Looking through the mist of time the village with all its sounds sights and smells looked prettier than a real one. This is a book for you all ex-pats to curl up on a snowy winter day with a hot cup of tea (even better if someone makes hot Pakoras to go with!) and enjoy.
To the non-Indian friends, may be a hot coffee and some chicken nuggets (or soy nuggets!) and winter days.
To the couple of readers who were disappointed! Well the whole point behind these stories is to capture the life as it flows. The climax is in the journey itself.

5 out of 5 stars Incredible stories!.......2004-07-07

Malgudi Days was my introduction to R.K. Narayan and frankly I have been wondering where he's been all my life. These stories are wonderful. They are the kind of stories that will stay with me for several days after reading them. Narayan brings you to a time and a place with each story. His characters are believable, his stories moving, his writing impeccable. Each story is full of humanity. I love this classic author! I really enjoyed this collection and look forward to reading more of his work.

4 out of 5 stars Believe me, the world I left behind is like this.......2004-05-03

Indian village despite its problems of scarcity of drinking water,electricity, poor sanitation, unemployment and lack of health care, holds a charm to all Indians. Mahatma appealed to all Indians to return to villages, Ambedkar asked Dalits to escape them.

More Indians now leave their villages than ever to come to cities.
However, even if they leave their village, its memory remains with them for rest of their life. People call it by different names. Author R K Narayan calls it Malgudi Days!

A delightful book.
The Namesake: A Portrait of the Film Based on the Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		The Namesake: A Portrait of the Film Based on the Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks)

    Manufacturer: Newmarket
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: 1557047413

    Book Description

    <B>Original essays and glorious photography, stunningly designed in this unique moviebook from the director of Monsoon Wedding and Vanity Fair—a Fox Searchlight release.</B><BR><BR>In her essay "Writing and Film," the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri writes about the experience of seeing her novel "transposed" from paper to film. "Its essence remains, but it inhabits a different realm and must, like a transposed piece of music, conform to a different set of rules….To have someone as devoted and as gifted as Mira reinvent my novel…has been a humbling and thrilling passage." <BR><BR>Mira Nair's essay, "Photographs as Inspiration," begins with the provocative comment: "If it weren't for photography, I wouldn't be a filmmaker." She explains how photographs help her crystallize the visual style of her films and which particular photos influenced her vision for The Namesake.<BR><BR>These two essays, written exclusively for this Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook, introduce an amazing panoply of images of people and places shot mainly in New York and Calcutta during the making of the movie, accented by excerpts from Lahiri's bestselling novel. Six Indian and American photographers' works are represented.<BR><BR>Brilliantly illuminating the immigrant experience and the tangled ties between generations, The Namesake tells the story of the Ganguli family, whose move from Calcutta to New York evokes a lifelong balancing act to adapt to a new world while remembering the old. The couple's firstborn, Gogol, and sister Sonia grow up amid these divided loyalties, struggling to find their own identity without losing their heritage. Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Superman Returns) stars as Gogol.
    The Namesake
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • Missed Opportunities
    • A powerful story of the consequences of one's actions
    		The Namesake
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    Manufacturer: HarperPerennial
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0006551807

    Customer Reviews:

    2 out of 5 stars Missed Opportunities.......2007-02-17

    Despite the conventional wisdom on this novel from the Pulitzer-prize-winning Lahiri, (it has been called "quietly dazzling" by at least one reviewer), I'm afraid I was disappointed. The story of an expatriate Indian couple, and, more specifically, of their son Gogol, is languidly expository for page after page, offering little insight, surprise, or sensation despite so many rich opportunities to do so. At times, the story reads like a diary: "This is what it's like for an Indian couple who has relocated to the U.S. in the 1970s." This is what the house looks like; This is what the husband's career is like; This is what the Indian community does on Saturday afternoons. Larger and more interesting issues such as the social conflicts facing the children, responses to the politics and social mores of the adopted country, and the deep emotional struggles between members of the family, are only scratched at. Time passes quickly, and we get virtually all of the story through the ever-imposing, almost maternal voice of the author, rather than through the thoughts, feelings, actions, and sensations of the characters. As such, for me, the book is lacking in narrative momentum and pretty unsatisfying.

    5 out of 5 stars A powerful story of the consequences of one's actions .......2006-07-16

    The most wonderful thing about this book is the writing style. The book moved along at a strident pace but it did not lack any detail. It was a great story of assimilating into a different country and culture with the yoke of a name (shared by no one) constantly harnessed about himself. The story was lovely and the writing grand. The characters were so well-defined that I felt like I knew them, like I could easily picture them in my mind. I loved the book and look forward to reading her first book.
    The Magic Barrel: Stories
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Book Exactly as Described-Fast Delivery
    • Magic Malamud
    • 50 years later, still relevant
    • Small sad suffering and quiet beauty
    • BORING!
    		 The Magic Barrel: Stories
    Bernard Malamud
    Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0374525862

    Book Description

    Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

    Introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri

    Bernard Malamud's first book of short stories, The Magic Barrel, has been recognized as a classic from the time it was published in 1959. The stories are set in New York and in Italy (where Malamud's alter ego, the struggleing New York Jewish Painter Arthur Fidelman, roams amid the ruins of old Europe in search of his artistic patrimony); they tell of egg candlers and shoemakers, matchmakers, and rabbis, in a voice that blends vigorous urban realism, Yiddish idiom, and a dash of artistic magic.

    The Magic Barrel is a book about New York and about the immigrant experience, and it is high point in the modern American short story. Few books of any kind have managed to depict struggle and frustration and heartbreak with such delight, or such artistry.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Book Exactly as Described-Fast Delivery.......2006-12-02

    I was looking for a hard to find book in large print. I was shocked to see that they were selling a new edition for about $1.57. I was skeptical but for the price took a chance and was amazed to find that I received exactly what was described in perfect brand new condition. The delivery time was also very, very fast. I'll check out their WEB site in the future for more extraordinary values.

    Craig Heard, New York, NY

    5 out of 5 stars Magic Malamud .......2006-12-01

    Malamud does three or four tricks in his fiction well, and here he does each one to utter perfection. And when taken together, this collection of stories almost transcends Malamud's normal limits: the stories are compressed, short, and below the surface, charged with almost unbearable tension. Unlike other collections of stories (or when you read too many Malamud stories) Malamud does not parody himself in the Magic Barrell. Everything is where it is supposed to be, and works like a well oiled machine. It is a shame that (as of writing this) only eight people have reviewed this masterpiece of a short story collection. In Roth's The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman explains that the world's morality has already passed by the E.I. Lonoff's (a character based on Malamud). Seems Roth was correct... and this is true even more today, thirty years after the publication of The Ghost Writer. We no longer live in Malamud's world, and it is a shame.

    5 out of 5 stars 50 years later, still relevant.......2006-03-18

    These stories about New York, even when read fifty years later by someone like me from a totally different demographic, in Los Angeles, are still relevant. There are universal self-loathing themes for all immigrants, at all times. I wouldn't call it immigrant lit, but it's more like human diaspora lit, the transience of people, and how people make sense, however limited, of the world around them. Strongly recommend. Malamud is able to make writing about trash untrashy, but not in a falsely glorifying way, but in a humanizing way. These are real short stories, not failed novellas.

    5 out of 5 stars Small sad suffering and quiet beauty .......2004-10-12

    These stories are pervaded with a certain sadness and disappointment, a sense of life as largely a trial in suffering. They are also however deep in a kind of quiet beauty, a unique language of slightly Yiddishized American colloquial restraint. The title story, and the most famous one tells of the hopes and disappointments of poor Jews seeking to find their ' bashert' their destined mate. It touches upon the world of tormented souls selling illusions to themselves and others. It really moves us with the sense of how the dreams of life turn bitterness into greater bitterness, with longing disappointment beauty. These stories are for those who are willing to read and take inspiration from the sadnesses of life, that nonetheless enrich our human meaning.

    2 out of 5 stars BORING!.......2004-10-06

    I would suggest before sitting down to read this book that you brew a large pot of coffee. Or better yet, don't sit down to read it at all. This is dry stuff!
    El buen nombre/ The Good Name
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		El buen nombre/ The Good Name
      Jhumpa Lahiri
      Manufacturer: Emece Editores
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      5. The Namesake: A Novel

      ASIN: 8495908778
      The Namesake
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        		The Namesake
        Jhumpa Lahiri
        Manufacturer: Books on Tape
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Audio CD

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        ASIN: 0736695303
        The Namesake
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          		The Namesake
          Jhumpa Lahiri
          Manufacturer: Random House Audio
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Audio Cassette

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          2. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

          ASIN: 0739315811
          Release Date: 2004-08-24

          Book Description

          Jhumpa Lahiri's poignant first novel builds on the themes of her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies. In The Namesake, the Ganguli family emigrates from Calcutta to Cambridge to the Boston suburbs at the end of the 1960s, shortly after their arranged marriage. An MIT engineering student, Ashoke is progressive and ready to enter American culture, while his tradition-bound wife, Ashima, desperately misses her Indian home and resists the new world. When their first child, a boy, is born, they give him the pet name of Gogol, after the Russian writer, whose writings Ashoke believes were instrumental in saving his life. This tale of three generations sensitively explores the profound conflicts between cultures and generations, the child's search for cultural identity, and the power of acceptance
          The Best American Short Stories 1999 (The Best American Series)
          Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
          • Both Wheat and Chaff....
          • Black sheep of the family
          • Did I miss something?
          • A fine collection
          • A diverse collection of voices and stories
          		 The Best American Short Stories 1999 (The Best American Series)

          Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Audio Cassette

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          United StatesUnited States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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          Similar Items:
          1. The Best American Short Stories 1998 (The Best American Series)
          2. The Best American Short Stories 2000 (The Best American Series)
          3. The Best American Short Stories 2001 (The Best American Series)
          4. The Best American Short Stories 2002 (The Best American Series)
          5. The Best American Short Stories 2003 (The Best American Series)

          ASIN: 0618013539

          Amazon.com

          A great story gets its hooks into you right from the start; you know you're in the hands of a good writer when the very first sentence transports you wholly into another world. "Mother preferred Zulu servants." "It must be, Ruth thought, that she was going to die in the spring." "Who would have thought that a war of such proportions would bother to turn in its fury against the fools of Chelm?"

          The 21 fictions featured in The Best American Short Stories 1999 have very little in common--but whether they're about ranchers or commuters, romantic seekers or New Age pilgrims, what they do share is a sense of urgency. In each of them, there's a kind of voice that announces its need to be heard. "I'm not a bad guy," pleads the narrator of "The Sun, the Moon, the Stars," and even though he cheats on his girlfriend, by the end of Junot Díaz's story you might be tempted to agree anyway. (Especially considering the charming way he turns Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener into a verb--as in, "A lot of the time she Bartlebys me, says, 'No, I'd rather not.'") "Real Estate," by that master of bittersweet comedy Lorrie Moore, starts by repeating "Ha! Ha! Ha!" for two solid pages but becomes a rueful take on marriage, house-hunting, and even death: "The body, hauling sadnesses, pursued the soul, hobbled after. The body was like a sweet dim dog trotting lamely toward the gate as you tried slowly to drive off, out the long driveway. Take me, take me too, barked the dog."

          Other standouts in this collection include Alice Munro's "Save the Reaper," a kind of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" where no one is killed or saved; Rick Bass's haunting evocation of winter in the north country, "The Hermit's Story"; and Tim Gautreax's "The Piano Tuner," about a manic-depressive Creole princess playing cocktail piano in a motel lounge. (This is one tale that truly does end with a bang, not a whimper.) Taken together, they are ample evidence that the American short story is alive, well, and eminently able to--in the words of guest editor Amy Tan--"help us live interesting lives." --Chloe Byrne

          Book Description

          In making her selections for this year's volume of The Best American Short Stories, Amy Tan was drawn to stories that satisfied her appetite for the magic and mystery she loved as a child. In this vibrant audio collection, fantasy and truth coexist brilliantly in works by veteran writers as well as by accomplished new voices. Each tale, read here by its author, offers a rich journey into a different world.

          Customer Reviews:

          3 out of 5 stars Both Wheat and Chaff...........2004-07-30

          It's probably not good for the anthology that the piece I most enjoyed was Amy Tan's introduction; I thought that by itself was worth checking the book out. The actual stories left me wanting something more, with the exception of "The Sun, The Moon, The Stars" by Junot Diaz, "Real Estate" by Lorrie Moore, "The 5:22" by George Harrar, and an honorable mention to Heidi Julavits' "Marry the One Who Gets There First". These stories all combined great writing with great insight, all in the framework of good narrative flow. The others--and I confess to not reading several--lacked something. Annie Proulx's piece sucked me in, and had vivid, sparkling dialogue and great writing. However, it failed to deliver on story. When I came to the end, enchanted by all the previous elements, I felt cheated and angry at it's sloppy conclusion. Even Stephen Dobyns' "Kansas" left me flat, and Dobyns never fails to impress me. Overall, this is a good collection, just not a great one by any means.

          2 out of 5 stars Black sheep of the family.......2002-06-19

          Every year I anxiously look forward to the arrival of the newest addition to my favorite book series, and every year my patience is rewarded and my appetite for a wonderful collection of short stories is entirely satisfied... that is until this 1999 edition of The Best American Short Stories. The compilation of short stories selected by Amy Tan this year has sadly disappointed me. Furthermore, my disappointment is escalated when one must consider the fact that Amy Tan is among my favorite authors. The combination of my favorite book series and one of my favorite author would presumingly produce a definite great edition yet sometimes the surest things are the most unforeseen.

          The Best American Short Stories has always been a reliable and constant supplier of great contemporary work and uniquely distinctive tales. Stories that are far from typical but pleasantly uncanny and sometimes pleasingly bizarre. Stories that do not have a simple introduction, climax, and then resolution but stories that create their own course. Stories that you find yourself still thinking about days later in the shower, still trying to understand what exactly you comprehended. Yet instead what I found was a pretty traditional and conventional assortment of stories. I am not saying that these stories are particularly bad stories because they are not, it is just the straightforward fact that they are not as daring or come near to being as refreshing as their predecessors. I found many of her selections boringly light even when dealing with subject matters that are all but light. They tell their story and that is all. Everything felt so laid out and revealed that there was no room for analyzing or dissecting. Many of the stories were exactly as what appeared and nothing else, nothing left underneath to discover. They reminded me of the stories the entire class would read as one in the eighth grade and everyone would reach the same obvious conclusion of what the moral and purpose of the story was as the teacher nods her head to provide assurance.

          There is still a couple of decent stories in this entire book (such as Pam Huston's The Best Girlfriend You Never Had) that renders the two stars given but in no way is that an endorsement to spend your money on two short stories. Instead, I recommend you simply visit you nearest bookstore, lean against a bookshelf and spend 15 minutes reading those two stories. Once you are done, place that book back on the self because that is where it belongs. I never thought I would be saying that about a book from this series but hopefully this is the first and last time I will have to. And hopefully this is just the black sheep in this family of over-achievers.

          P.S.
          In the end, I simply realized that perhaps a great novel writer should stick to novels and not picking short stories.

          2 out of 5 stars Did I miss something?.......2001-02-19

          I am a big fan of the Best American Short Stories series, but this one was a huge diappointment. I like stories that have some meat; they should resonate with depth a long time after being read. This collection offers few such stories. Then again, I wasn't expecting much more from Amy Tan. Try '98 or '00 instead.

          5 out of 5 stars A fine collection.......2000-10-20

          I found this to be an excellent, thoughtfully assembled collection of stories. I must especially disagree with the reviewer who felt that having a b writer like Pam Houston in a collection with Rick Bass ammounts to a literary injustice. Quite to the contrary, Houston's story is the best in the book and bears re-reading. (And, if you've checked out John Updike's Best Short Stories of the Century, you'll note that her story was one of the few tales from the nineties to be included.) This is a slow, collection, certainly, which may turn off some readers. But I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

          3 out of 5 stars A diverse collection of voices and stories.......2000-09-08

          Amy Tan has done a good job selecting 1999's batch of stories for "Best American Short Stories"; I've read better volumes, but I've also read worse. My favorite story was Tim Gautreaux's "The Piano Tuner," a hilarious, unnerving tale about the advantages and disadvanages of "fine-tuning" another person's character through the use of drugs or other modern methods. The next-best story, in my opinion, was Chitra Divakaruni's delightful and wistful "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter," another story about trying to change one's character in order to fit in with difficult surroundings, and the limits on one's ability to do so. Finally, my third-favorite selection was Rick Bass's "The Hermit's Story," a tale of rugged individualism and survival in a winter setting that ends with a wonderful image involving fire and a frozen lake, an image I won't spoil for you here.

          This volume is certainly the most diverse edition of the series so far in terms of its authors' racial and cultural backgrounds--at least a third of the stories are by non-white authors or have non-white main characters. As Amy Tan notes, however, what matters more than racial or cultural diversity is diversity of voice and experience. I found more in common, for example, between "The Piano Tuner" and "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter," in both stories' focus on the theme of changing one's character and learning to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings, than I did between "The Piano Tuner" and, say, Annie Proulx's more impressionistic "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World" (another story about rural Americans); or between "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter" and Jhumpa Lahiri's ominous "The Interpreter of Maladies" (another story about Indian families). In any event, this year's edition provides plenty of diversity of both background and voice, and is a solid addition to the "Best American Short Stories" series.

          Authors:

          1. Lamb, Charles
          2. Lamb, Wally
          3. Lamming, George
          4. Lamott, Anne
          5. L'amour, Louis
          6. Langland, William
          7. Langton, Jane
          8. Lanier, Sidney
          9. Lansdale, Joe R.
          10. Lanyer, Aemilia

          Authors

          Authors