'Best American' writing in comics, stories, more
The Best American Short Stories 2014
Jennifer Egan, editor
Mariner, 325 pp.
*** out of four
Perhaps it won't surprise a modern reader to discover that the world of the contemporary short story is a grim one. And yet the serious reader may even be cheered by this state of affairs. Who wants lollipops and puppies? Although two standout stories here do involve canines, one menacing, one fanciful. Karen Russell displays the greatest leap of imagination in "Madame Bovary's Greyhound," which movingly anthropomorphizes Emma Bovary's once-devoted companion. More alarming is the terrifying dog in Joyce Carol Oates' "Mastiff," a story about an unsettled romance, a theme that also occupies Joshua Ferris ("The Breeze"). And there are several stories involving complicated relationships between mothers and male children ("The Judge's Will" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and "Long Tom Lookout" by Nicole Cullen). Lollipops, indeed.
— Jocelyn McClurg
The Best American Comics 2014
Scott McCloud, editor
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 361 pp.
***
The latest compilation of the top comic books and great stuff from the graphic-novel medium is culled by well-known author Scott McCloud, who also helpfully categorizes the best of the best. Do you dig "Strange Adventures"? Then sample the sci-fi brilliance of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' "Saga." For teens, there's Raina Telgemeier's coming-of-age "Drama" and more in "Raising Readers." McCloud devotes a whole section to the most iconic names in comics, such as Charles Burns ("The Hive"), Gilbert Hernandez ("All the Marbles") and R. Crumb ("High Road to the Shmuck Seat"). Some of it is racy, a lot of it is strange, yet it all keeps raising the bar for comics as art form.
– Brian Truitt
The Best American Mystery Stories 2014
Laura Lippman, editor
Mariner, 354 pp.
*** ½
Best-selling writer Laura Lippman and her henchman, series editor and Mysterious Press founder Otto Penzler, have taken a wide view of what makes a mystery story. That means few cops, and not always a straight-out crime but rather unexplained circumstances. The result, however, is a satisfying sampler of strong voices describing fully imagined worlds. For Gone Girl-style psychological suspense, there's Megan Abbott's "My Heart Is Either Broken," which centers on a missing child. If you're feeling noir-ish, "A Good Marriage" by Ed Kurtz is just black as all get-out. Ernest Finney's "The Wrecker" is pure cynical delight. Daniel Alarcon's "Collectors" is surprising not for any crime twist (though there are some good ones elsewhere in the book) but for its love story.
— Martha T. Moore
The Best American Travel Writing 2014
Paul Theroux, editor
Mariner, 298 pp.
**½
Plenty of fine, evocative writing resides in this annual collection, as usual, but god, it can be depressing. Guest editor Paul Theroux's introduction surveys the world's troubled spots (and notes that one of the contributors died at 39 while on assignment in Uganda, probably of heat stroke) and the first three articles deal with, respectively, kidney disease in Croatia, a pregnant prostitute in Cuba, and memories of war-torn Sarajevo. If you skip ahead to the piece by humorist David Sedaris, you find it's about the suicide of one of his sisters. British essayist A.A. Gill's spirited defense of America's cultural values lifts the mood, as does a gonzo piece on riding Greyhound, but then it's back to Somali prisons, drug trafficking and goat-slaughtering. We get it that travel isn't always about leisure, and you can't really know the world until you've thrust yourself into the maw, etc. But sometimes travel is about relaxing graciously, and a little more refreshment here would have been nice.
— Jerry Shriver