New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 1998 (Annual)

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: As with all the books in this series, this collection shows how vibrant, diverse and rich the short story form remains in the United States, and how Southerners are pushing the form. Ravenel, who had a lot to do with the short story renaissance during the 1980s as editor of Best American Short Stories, has a truly fine eye. I highly recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to par
Review: I've read 3-4 previous editions of "New Stories From the South", and this was probably my least favorite. There were some good moments, and some good writing, but nevertheless, I got to the end of some stories and thought "Huh?". Then again, as another reviewer says, some of that could possibly be attributed to what's 'hip' in short stories these days. A former co-worker said he thought that some stories being published these days were 'the literary equivalent of modern art'.

Rating:
Summary: Vapid and depressing
Review: This whole thing and its predecessors are mighty depressing. Sometime in the 1960's short story writing slipped out of the hands of adults who had actually gone out in the world and held jobs and had families and thus had something to write about, and into the hands of graduate students. These workshop set pieces are dreadful and depressing and have little or nothing to do with the South, The exceptions -- Ellen Douglas stands out -- are too few and far between to make these books worthwhile. Stock up on Lewis Grizzard or Jeff Foxworthy instead and buy John Cheever's Collected Stories if you really want to see how it's done.