American cocktail

THE titles are misleading, as both the anthologies showcase the best short stories originally published in the north American subcontinent from January 1999 to January 2000 and hence, are not exactly stories of 2000. Both the volumes represent the power of the short story in getting the reader engaged and entertained from start to finish. The diverse mix includes selections from writers who are established and well-known and ones unknown but meriting the attention of a wider readership.

Short stories have always charted the smaller movements of individual experience, the changes that occur within a person, and those rare opportunities for transcendence and grace. The variety that the short story as a genre brings out is endless because they mirror the intense awareness of human loneliness. The storyteller, states Dr. Doctorov in his introduction, raises two voices in the lonely universe, the character's and the writer's own. The lonely voice, "is a universal chorus and we are left with the not-terrible truism that the story as a form deals with the human condition".

In both the volumes, the writers drift away from the classic model of the modern short story and abundantly demonstrate the skill, complexity and richness as evidence of their narrative perspective and ability. They are more disposed to the episodic than the epiphanic and quite distant from their denouements. The stories are timeless and essentially communicate the human aspects that do not change and convey the essential aspects of individual life. Hence, they leave indelible impressions on the sensitivities of the reader.

While The Best American Short Stories were selected by the editors, the O. Henry Prize stories were selected by a jury consisting of Michael Cunningham, Pam Houston, and George Saunders. There are 21 stories in the former and 20 in the latter anthologies. It is interesting to find that five of the writers and three stories feature in both the volumes. They are Kiana Davenport ("Bones of the Inner Ear), Nathan Englander ("The Gilgul of Park Avenue"), and Michael Buyers ("The Beautiful Days") and the other two whose stories are different between the collections are Tim Gautreaux ("Good for the Soul" and "Easy Pickings") and one of the most distinguished American short story writer who died in 1988, Raymond Carver with his stories, "Call If You Need Me" and "Kindling".

The stories of Nathan Englander and Tim Gautreaux also featured in The Best American Short Stories 1999, edited by Amy Tan, in which Asian writers ruled the roost! In the current volume, there are only two writers from Asia, Jhumpa Lahiri and Ha Jin, who had also featured in the anthology of 1999. There is a story on a theme that is intensely Asian and that is the fighting in Sri Lanka by Marilyn Krysl, who worked for the Peace Brigade International in Sri Lanka and at Mother Theresa's Kalighat Home for the Destitute and the Dying in Calcutta. Jhumpa Lahiri's story, "The Third and Final Continent", is a very touching and perceptive portrayal of an Indian finding his abode in Boston. The protagonist first lives as the paying guest of a 103-years- old lonely and rigidly orthodox lady who, for 40 years, gives piano lessons after the death of her husband, for a living on Massachusetts Avenue. Later, his Bengali wife Mala joins him and they find their moorings in Massachusetts. It is from the real life experience of the writer's own father that she made a fictional account and wove the fabric of an excellent story.

The story of Marilyn Kryslin is about the fighting in Sri Lanka. It brings out the intense tragedy of human suffering due to the fights, reflecting the deep longing on the writer's part to honour the suffering of the people she worked with, and a "longing to come to grips with the complicated ways that the Western countries have played in that suffering". Her style of narration is forceful and touching. "The green curtain tore. Soldiers cut the coconut trees to use the trunks for bunkers. It felt as though angry speech had shot across the air, cursing whatever lovely thing was in its path. Orchard after orchard all the way back to that first generation fell in this cutting..... The stumps were white shocking.... There was too much sadness in those places." .... Earth and air conspired in the darkness and sweet rain fell in abundance. The golden shower trees across the lane and the flame trees in the back were drunk with it. Tiny birds perched, ruffling their feathers. Rain dripped from their tails. The sand was pounded, washed clean". Even while presenting an enormous tragedy and trauma, the writer uses a lyrical style and communes with nature - a trend hailed by eco-critics.

Ha Jin's story "The Bridegroom" is based on the theme of homosexuality, a challenging and relatively rare subject which took one year for him to finish. The commendable variety of American voices is well represented in the other stories, proving that the story transcends all barriers. They represent the shifting literary demographics (Latino, African American, Israeli, Bosnian, Trinidadian etc.) and the astounding range of human experience and the boiling cauldron that America provides as source material for stories to its inhabitants from various parts of the world.

There are again common threads in the Prize Stories. Stories must connect with the other people and the writer in his solitary pursuit draws upon something greater than him as part of the process. Death and proximity to death are issues that form the core theme in half the stories. The second idea is the determination for personal and spiritual development, whether through a change of life, a new found sobriety, religion or deep understanding of human values. The stories raise an innate concern and alarm about life and its myriad and intricate ways and delves into the complex psyches and multiple and unpredictable systems. Almost all the 20 stories in the anthology of Prize Stories are as good or even better than the best rated three which are introduced eminently by the jury, clearly bringing out the lively dynamic form of American short fiction in its craft, technique, style and narration. They definitely are fitting tributes to William Sydney Porter, who, under the pen name of O. Henry became celebrated and synonymous with the short story after his death and to the legacy of the short story in America and all over the world.

K. KUNHIKRISHNAN

The Best American Short Stories 2000, Editor: El Doctorow, Series Editor: Katrina Kension, Houghton Mifflin Company, $27.50.

Prize Stories 2000 (The O. Henry Awards), Series Editor: Larry Dark, Anchor Books, Random House Inc., $13 (paperback).

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