Any collection of short stories by different authors is going to have its highs and lows. There are plenty of lows in this, but about one-third of the stories resonated with me. Among my favorites were:

- John Cheever's "Reunion," which managed, in probably only 1,000 words, to give us everything we needed to know about the history between a father and son -- and did so with much humor.
- Tom Franklin's "Grit," which managed to toe the catwalk between darkness and roller coaster throughout its ending -- which, as every good story should be, was shocking yet inevitable.
- George Saunders' rollicking "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline," which reminded me of how a ghost story written in the spirit of Chuck Palahniuk might sound like. This story was unlike any other in the collection and, combined with Richard Ford's spectacular introduction (which lays out a sound philosophy for short story writing), is worth the price of at least the paperback version of this collection.

Other notable stories for me included:
- Bharati Mukherjee's "The Management of Grief" (though that may be because I remember the Pan Am Lockerbie disaster so well);
- Stuart Dybek's "The Palatski Man" (what can I say ... I'm a Chicagoan);
- Tobias Wolff doing what he does best -- writing about childhood -- in "Firelight;"
- Ann Beattie's "The Rabbit Hole as Likely Explanation," where the character comes to grips with her mother's age-induced loss of reality;
- Kevin Canty's edgy "Blue Boy," a coming-of-age tale with a sense of danger that kept me turning pages;
- Jhumpa Lahiri's beautiful "A Temporary Matter," capturing a couple's communication issues in a unique way;
- Nathan Englander's "The Tumblers," showing a fresh take on one sliver of the Holocaust;
- Adam Haslett's quiet, desperate "Devotion," recalling the best moments of the early scenes from Atonement;
- ZZ Packer's "The Ant of the Self," which takes a lot longer than Cheever to build a similar father-son relationship but keeps itself moving briskly; and
- Julie Orringer's "Stars of Motown Shining Bright," which takes the overused trick of adding a gun to the story and really makes it work in its favor.

I've been taking short story writing classes recently and so have been immersing myself in this art, and taking on this book right now -- with all its disappointments and its high points -- has really helped put me in the right frame of mind for the work I'm doing. ( )