Since I began commenting each week on the fiction in the New Yorker, at year's end I have come up with a "Story of the Year." Once again, I will let readers vote from a list of finalists, which I will determine from my own preferences and the nominations of readers.
To see a discussion of last year's winner (Claire Keegan's "Foster"), go HERE.
All you have to do to nominate is to leave a comment here on Perpetual Folly with the name of your choice. I will then compile a list of the top stories and create a poll. All very simple.
Forgot about the stories? No problem. Review them all by browsing through the posts from the whole year: New Yorker 2011.
16 comments:
Coover's "Going for a Beer"
The Other Place - Mary Gaitskill
Ben Marcus' "What Have You Done?"
Alice Munro, "Leaving Maverly," does what good fiction should -- keeps you in its world after you've read it.
"U.F.O. in Kushiro" by Haruki Murakami
"Town of Cats" by Haruki Murakami
I see that some wise person already nominated "What Have I Done" by Ben Marcus--which kicked ass.
I also loved "Home" by George Saunders. (Can I nominate more than one?)
Dog Run Moon
When I looked over the list, I remembered this one.
But there were others I liked almost as well. "Going for a Beer" was one.
George Saunders, "Tenth of December"
Hello, Clifford, I am Zin! I began reading New Yorker stories religiously (in addition to the other sources I read) last January because of this poll, because I wanted to put in my favorites! And now I can! Thank you for the inspiration!
I hated "Tenth od December" when I first read it, I gave up about two pages in! But then I read a review on Mookse and Gripes and realized I had missed it entirely, so went back and now it is one of my favorites! So that is what blogging stories does for me! It helps me pick up things I would have missed!
Most of my favorites have already been mentioned so I will just add this one. If I can add a second nomination, it would be Robert Coover, "Matinee."
M. Gaitskill, "The Other Place"
R. Rash, "The Trusty"
D.F.Wallace's "Backbone" was very memorable!
"Homage to Hemingway," by Julian Barnes.
First of all, your link to browsing all the stories was a great help.
"An Anonymous Island" by Yi Mun-Yol is the one that I remember the most.
If I can get a 2nd vote I vote for Julian Barnes "Homage to Hemingway"
I'm torn between "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" and "Miracle Polish." But--I'll have to go with "What We Talk About, etc."
"Reverting to a Wild State" by Justin Torres
hands down
Thanks all for your nominations. Many of you have identified stories that were already on my preliminary list of 14 favorites, although you've added 8 more. So now I'll whittle those 22 (plus any special stories that appear in the next 2 weeks) down to 10 for voting.
The Murakami UFO story first appeared in TNY in 2001, so I might exclude it because of that. And his "Town of Cats" is a novel excerpt, so I might leave it off, too. And there are multiple Alice Munro, George Saunders, Ben Marcus, and Robert Coover stories among the 22, so I might pick just one from each of those authors.
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