The Other Woman: Stories of Two Women and a Man. Edited by Susan Koppelman. The Feminist Press, 1984. 384 pages. Susan Koppelman begins her introduction to The Other Woman with, “All the stories in this collection are about women—both wives and other … Continue reading
The Portable Dorothy Parker with an introduction by Marion Meade. New York: The Penguin Group, 2006. 656 pages. As I read The Portable Dorothy Parker, I thought of the short stories of John Cheever. Although many of their stories are set in … Continue reading
The Literary Lover: Great Contemporary Stories of Passion and Romance. Edited and with an introduction by Larry Dark. New York: Penguin Books USA, 1994. 368 pages. ISBN 0140171649. From the young to the old, the sanctioned to the illicit, the … Continue reading
The Collected Stories by Paul Theroux. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1998. 660 pages. ISBN 0140274944. Recommended. From troubled marriages (“World’s End,” “You Make Me Mad”) and families (“After the War”), from Africa to Malaysia to London, The Collected Stories by Paul Theroux covers … Continue reading
The Strange History of Suzanne LaFleshe {and Other Stories of Women and Fatness} edited by Susan Koppelman. Foreword by Alix Kates Shulman. Recommended. In this anthology about “women and fatness,” fat women eat, exercise, laugh, cry, love, give birth, and are abused … Continue reading
The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre. Edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Morrison and Chris Baldick. Highly recommended. With the shift from agriculture to industry and advancements in technology and scientific understanding, the 19th century was one … Continue reading
100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg. Recommended. Like other tales, ghost stories set a tone that may be terrifying, mournful, moralistic, thought provoking, whimsical, or even humorous. In this anthology, ghosts appear for … Continue reading
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories edited by Al Sarrantonio and Martin H. Greenberg. Highly recommended. The best horror fiction is subtle. This point is missed by the producers of today’s horror films, in which blood and gore—and the anticipation thereof—have become a … Continue reading
The Oxford Book of Short Stories ed. by V. S. Pritchett. Recommended. In his introduction to The Oxford Book of Short Stories, V. S. Pritchett discusses the short story’s “relatively new and still changing form,” an odd statement since one could make a … Continue reading
Neurotica: Jewish Writers on Sex edited by Melvin Jules Bukiet. Recommended. “Witness the people of the book, in bed.” Thus editor Melvin Jules Bukiet invites the reader into the intimacies of Neurotica: Jewish Writers on Sex. In this collection, everyone from Saul Bellow, … Continue reading