More Stories We Tell : The Best Contemporary Short Stories by North American Women

Rating:
Summary: Benchmark writing from an editor of long standing
Review: The anthologist, Wendy Martin, edited one of the best anthologies of women's writing long ago, in 1990, when Tama Jamowitz still had artistic currency. That book was called, "We Are The Stories We Tell" and it was quite a popular book of its kind. Now, 14 years later, a sequel creeps in with a different cast of characters. It's funny whose writing is now "out" who was once "in." Martin seems determined to give us a different kind of E-Ticket ride this time around, but some of her old favorites have made it back into this book as well. Thus for exanple, both books feature the ubiquitous Joyce Carol Oates, as well as the slightly tarnished Bobbie Ann Mason and Canada's Alice Munro, whose stature has been firmly cemented in the years since WATSWT #1 was launched.

In addition, Ann Beattie is here, even if we haven't heard that much from Ms. Beattie since the glory days of "dirty realism." Her star has been supplanted by younger others, including ZZ Packer, the Bay Area wunderkind who went to Stanford as a Stegner Fellow, and Marisa Silver, whose stories of Hollywood lives are as poignant as anything written by Nathanael West or Dawn Powell. In addition, a fair number of more experimental writers have crept in, thus no more Flannery O'Connor, instead we have the wonderful Amy Hempel and the satisfactory Lynn Freed. The turnover is just beginning. But a woman reviewer might have other things to say, and different social significances to be noted.