Reaching Inside: 50 Acclaimed Authors on 100 Unforgettable Short Stories

Fiction authors weigh in on their favorite short stories in these soulful reflections, collected by novelist Dubus (Gone So Long). The contributions meditate on literature and its purposes; for instance, Ann Patchett finds at the heart of James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” the message that “life is hard,” but “in art at least the pain could be put to use.” Meg Wolitzer considers how James Joyce’s “Clay” and Mary Robison’s “Yours” showcase the power of fiction to “stop time” by telling stories that linger on moments of epiphany. Several contributors consider the catharsis afforded by literature, as when Lois Lowry suggests that Raymond Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing” and Bharati Mukherjee’s “The Management of Grief,” both about grasping for comfort in the face of incomprehensible grief, exemplify how putting pain into words can “keep the fraught heart from breaking.” The contributors’ list contains an impressive roster of talent—Michael Cunningham, Junot Díaz, Emma Donoghue, Lauren Groff, and ZZ Packer, to name a few—and the pensive selections offer revealing insight into how they think about literature. Bookworms will want to dig into this. (Apr.)