Especially liked Jhumpha Lahiri's "Nobody's Business" and Alice Mattison's "In Case We're Separated". ( )

I have never been impressed by this series. The stories all come off pretentious and overblown. And there are much better collections out there (Best Non-Required Reading comes to mind) that are worth my time However, I set those prejudices aside when I noticed some of the authors included – Michael Chabon, E. L. Doctorow, Alice Munro, Arthur Miller. These are names that will make you stand up and take notice. So, with that promise, I dived into this collection with more relish than I might have in the past.

And I dove myself into more of the same inanities and self-smug banalities I’ve grown to fear from this collection. (Why did I bother if I so hate this collection? Because I bought it a while ago, and I refuse to let a book go unread.) Slices of life that mean nothing, unbelievable events that are passed off as profound, remembrances that no one cares about. This is a collection that is not worth the time.

Oh, there are still good ones. Doctorow’s “A House on the Plains” (about a widower and her son who are more culpable than it first appears) almost makes the collection worthwhile on its own. And some others have interesting aspects. But very often, even the interesting die some death at the end which makes it all fall flat.

Not a fan of whatever this style of fiction may be. And if this is true art, if this is what lit-rah-chur is supposed to be, then I will go back to the pulps for good readin’. ( )

The stories here are strong stories, but if you read them all together as a book, they tend to get somewhat repetitive in theme and character. And, this time, very few of them stood out as anything that would draw me back for a second read or even more serious consideration. ( )