Mini-Anthology of the best stories I read last year

It's almost the end of list-making season, so I thought I'd join the fun. Here's a top-of-my-head mini-anthology of great stories I read last year, from any source, new or classic or whatever.

Defender of the Faith, by Philip Roth (O. Henry Prize Stories, 1960 (second place!))
Early in his career, Roth was just as powerful as he is today. This story about an army Sergeant torn between his Jewish identity and his duties in the army is complicated, powerful, and moving. Roth deserves every award in America, and every reader.

Closely Held, by Allegra Goodman (BASS 2008)

Goodman just writes damn well. Like Roth, she touches on normal experiences and expands them into the cosmosphere. This one's about a computer entrepreneur whose company is getting huge, but he just wants to write code. He's also growing distant from his over-worked wife, and almost begins an affair with the only female coder in his office. A beautiful story.

The Fake Nazi, by Aimee Bender (Ploughshares, nos 2 & 3)
Aimee Bender surprised me here. As a modern American, she takes on Nazi guilt, metaphysical ponderings, sibling rivalry, 21st century politics, and delivers a weird, satisfying experience.

Sublime Child, by Gina Berrault (O. Henry Prize Stories, 1960)
This story is a about a married New Yorker whose mistress dies. Her daughter is 19, and out of sympathy at first, he continues to visit her. Then he gets other motives for visiting her. Inappropriate things occur. Choices are made. Ominous and creepy, a demonstration that mature themes don't involve explicit sex.

Cowboys, by Susan Steinberg (American Short Fiction Issue 47)
A poetic short piece about a woman mourning the death of her father and meditating on her own ensuing promiscuity. Stories that wallow in the depths of bad behavior are filled with tripwires that explode in bad fiction, but Steinberg's voice was original and her emotions honest, and it didn't pad or get self-pitying.

Nawabdin Electrician, by Daniyal Mueenuddin (In Other Rooms, Other Wonders)
A great story with an honest voice about corruption, poverty, and justice in Pakistan. These are themes some Americans are afraid to touch without distance and irony, but this story about an aging electrician who gains the respect of his community, and its slow build to a conclusion around the theft of his motorcycle is powerful and elegant, a story that could never take place in America but nevertheless touches universal themes.


Lorelei, by Jerome Charyn (Atlantic Fiction edition)
When I think back on this summer, and the time I spent with this story, I think about homecomings and disappointments, and meditations on how people become the people they are, and how they stay that way despite their own best interests. I loved this story about a con man who returns home to find his first love still tucked into her childhood life, and the reunion that turns to horror, that is also the story of a decaying way of life, a Southern Gothic in a New Jersey hi-rise.

The Kid, Salvatore Scibona (New Yorker summer fiction edition)
Just go read this one. It'll break your heart.

Nobody Said Anything, by Raymond Carver (Will you Please be Quiet, Please)
Carver did so much with so little that a lot of people think he's over-rated. People dismiss him as Bukowski without the sadism, or Hemingway without the macho posturing, or as precursor to minimalist navel-gazing. But he's not that - he's Carver, king of the eighties, and still worth reading. Anyway, this story is about an adolescent kid who plays sick to stay home from school, then goes down to the local stream to fish. When he gets home with his trophy, his parents are fighting, and in the closing moments, as his joy breaks against his parent's heartache, you'll understand what the fuss around Carver was about. Or, if you feel nothing, you'll know you have a heart of stone, and there is no hope for your soul.

The Silence, TC Boyle (Atlantic Fiction Edition)
Wacky, deep satire. Funny, ambitious, crazy. How Boyle tosses off things like this is a mystery. It's about pilgrims in the desert, being stupid. Snark, but snark I like. So I'm complicated. Sue me.

2011 will no doubt take more turns than I can expect. Hang on!