I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. I was amazed at how quickly I became immersed in each story. They were delightfully weird with very interesting characters. As a fan of Lauren Groff, I was not disappointed. This was the first BASS collection I read. I now intend to read previous collections edited by other favorite authors.

I always look forward to this anthology every year. I don’t think all stories are perfect by any means, but I think there is plenty for everyone to find and enjoy.

Another iteration of the Best American Short Stories, this one of mixed quality. One of my favorite parts of BASS (as compared to Best American Essays) is the precis each author gives explaining the genesis of their work.

Below are brief thoughts on each story included in the anthology. The ratings do not necessarily speak to the definitive quality of the work, as much as to my own particular enjoyment and appreciation of it. Note that these ratings contain spoilers.

The Magic Bangle: ★★★. A gay man goes to Delhi and pretends to be a tourist. He cruises a bangle seller. The story was okay but forgettable; it felt like derivative Jai Chakrabarti, but less morally interesting.

Jewel of the Gulf of Mexico: ★★½. A Black man with a good relationship with his wife goes on his striving father-in-law's recently purchased slave boat. I read this story twice and unfortunately found it somewhat incoherent.

Viola in Midwinter: ★★★. A story imagining the banalities of immortality through a woman who became immortal in her middle age: perimenopause forever! This was just okay.

Blessed Deliverance: ★★★½. Boys in Brooklyn track the changing of their city and their relationship with a homeless man hired by a rabbit shelter, "Headass." Jamel Brinkley has a fantastic understated prose style, but i found the message of this particular story about the importance of names / naming to be a bit obvious. Maybe another Brinkley story might have been better for the collection?

Phenotype: ★★★★. A story told from POV of white woman who gets into a relationship with a korean grad student. This story was utterly delightful, surprising, funny, and immersive. The voice was so unique.

Evensong: ★★★½. An upper-middle class woman in the 70's (?) has an affair and goes to church. I remember reading this one in the new yorker. A lovely story, a bit simple / on the nose with the final sentence though.

The Happiest Day of Your Life: ★★★. A drunk man attends a wedding, gets drunker, and has a good time. Well written, but not particularly interesting or memorable.

The Bed & Breakfast: ★★★½. A girl's family moves to Italy from North Carolina. Her father intends to open a bed and breakfast. They have a testy relationship with their next-door italian neighbor. Not bad, but this didn't really feel like a short story; it felt like the chapter of a novel shoehorned into a short story excerpt.

Dorchester: ★★★★. A vietnamese-american poet writes righteous poetry, is in a BDSM relationship, and he has a secret: his mother lied about being a refugee! I found this story fun, voicey, unique, and very thought-provoking. An excellent piece to be included in this anthology.

Seeing Through Maps: ★★★½. A woman and her ex live in separate shacks in the boonies. Her ex mangles his hand and they go to the hospital and ponder their estranged son. The voice is striking, but I didn't love the ending, which felt somewhat neat / sound-bite-y. (This is the only story in BASS also printed in the 2024 O Henry anthology.)

Democracy in America: ★★★½. A fun, picaresque, modern-day reimagining of Alexis de Tocqueville. Unusual and fun, though I felt much of it flew over my head and I imagine I would have enjoyed / appreciated it more if I had more than a cursory understanding of Alexis de Tocqueville.

Engelond: ★★: A woman goes to a sketchy ranch in Texas to escape her life, chaos ensues. I did not enjoy the whole intentionally-weird "Engelond" thing. Not necessarily bad, but this one was not for me.

P's Parties. ★★★. An Italian man goes to parties held by his wife's old roommate, "P". He becomes interested in another woman he sees there--a foreigner. A quiet story, somewhat banal. Didn't really hold my attention.

A Case Study: ★★★★. An aspiring doctor goes to a psychologist, who years later asks to write a case study on him. A simple, but forceful, interesting, well-written, and thought-provoking story that read very quickly.

Just Another Family: ★★★½. A lesbian goes back to her mother's home to attend to funereal matters when her father dies. The family is EXTREMELY dysfunctional. This story was by far the longest one in the anthology. The writing is excellent, but the story itself I feel could have been shorter. To its credit, the story got better as it progressed, and I appreciated the ending.

Privilege: ★★. A work of historical fiction about some dam bursting. I found the amount of detail to be excruciating and, frankly, boring. This story was clearly heavily researched and had a lot of that research material stuffed into the story. I can see how a certain type of reader might enjoy this story, but it was not for me.

Baboons: ★★★. A woman goes to Kenya with her relapsed boyfriend and daughter. The best part of the story by far was about the narrator's relationship with her daughter, but this story felt like derivative Jennifer Egan.

Extinction: ★★½. A woman who keeps saying she is narrating the story from the dead talks about a research trip she took to Europe. I didn't get this story. The end about her disappearing (and its mechanics) didn't really make sense, especially considering how much she insists upon narrating this from the dead.

Mall of America: ★★★★½. A Mall AI makes a case for why its memory should not be "wiped" of its data: it has befriended an old chinese man, who was murdered by mall security. This was probably my favorite story in this anthology--I loved what it had to say about love, memory, capitalism. I loved the voice. It wasn't perfect--I thought that a 1-page lyrical segue about all the beautiful things the "mall AI" had been taught by the old man was a touch overdone and not in the "AI" voice--but all in all, this story was utterly unique and fresh, and also felt perfectly suited to the short story form.

Valley of the Moon: ★★★★. A man in the Korean war escapes and lives in a "timeless" valley. An omniscient-ish, 3rd person narrator. The writing in this story was lovely and captivating, though I wasn't entirely sure what it was about.

Collections of short stories are one of my most recommended books to family and friends. When asked for author recommendations, I always offer up the numerous collections in my personal library, as this is where I find so many wonderful authors that I would never have chosen. Short stories require an author to flex their writing skills, capturing readers in fewer pages than many chapters in a novel. They must immediately immerse readers into a story in progress and bring the characters to life so quickly, all the "meat" of the story is revealed in just a few pages. This collection includes the best of the best and will be appreciated by my reading circle as we choose new books to share.

It took me a long time to finish this collection, so I would say they are not the best short stories.

Thanks for the review copy. This is a nice collection of short stories. The best ones were by Yoon and Lahiri.

I’m torn here. There were some short stories that I really liked, but there were more than a few others that I either actively disliked or wondered why they were included in a best of anthology.

I liked “The Best Short Stories 2024” more than this collection of American stories. Still, there are some stories in here that are worth your time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.