Contents

The Best American Short Stories 1979 ed. Joyce Carol Oates & Shannon Ravenel (Houghton Mifflin, 1979)

xi Introduction - Joyce Carol Oates - introduction

1 - A Silver Dish - Saul Bellow - New Yorker Sep 25 ’78

28 - An Exile in the East - Flannery O’Connor - South Carolina Review Nov ’78

39 - Home and Native Land - Seán Virgo - Malahat Review, 1978

44 - A Short Walk into Afternoon - Kaatje Hurlbut- The Southwest Review, 1978

56 - Shadrach - William Styron - Esquire Nov 21 ’78

79 - The Wedding Week - Rosellen Brown - Boston University Journal, 1978

84 - A Party in Miami Beach - Isaac Bashevis Singer - Playboy Jun ’78

97 - The Quail - Rolf Yngve - Quarterly West, 1978

102 - Some Manhattan in New England - Peter LaSalle - Georgia Review, 1978

115- Plaisir d’Amour - Lynne Sharon Schwartz - The Ontario Review, 1978

131 - Falling Off the Scaffold - Lyn Coffin - Michigan Quarterly Review Win ’78

150 - Spelling - Alice Munro - Weekend Magazine, 1978

157 - Seasons - Ruth McLaughlin - California Quarterly, 1978

167 - Living Alone - Robley Wilson, Jr. - Fiction International, 1978

172 - The Middle Place - Mary Hedin - The Southwest Review, 1978

184 - The Quarterback Speaks to His God Herbert Wilner · Esquire, 1978

206 - Trip in a Summer Dress - Annette Sanford - Prairie Schooner, 1978

214 - The Eye - Paul Bowles - The Missouri Review, 1978

222 - Paper Covers Rock - Jean Thompson - Mademoiselle, 1978

234 - The Missing Person - Maxine Kumin - TriQuarterly, 1978

243 - Finisterre - Louis D. Rubin, Jr. - The Southern Review, 1978

270 - A Lingering Death - Silvia Tennenbaum - Massachusetts Review, 1978

284 - Home Is the Hero - Bernard Malamud - Atlantic Monthly, 1978

312 - The New Music - Donald Barthelme - New Yorker, 1978

324 - Something That Happened Jayne Anne Phillips Gallimaufry, 1978

The Best American Short Story anthology of 1979.

Just as with the last volume, I’ll give you a little description of the book. It seems that I purchased this volume sometime in 2008. Probably around the same time as the 1978 volume. Most likely from Amazon. I don’t think I was ordering directly from the company ( Better World Books). The book is hardcover and a former library book. This gives further weight to the thought that it is from Better World.

It is in O.K. shape with a plastic dust cover. Opening it, there is the check-out card pocket with dates ranging from Jan 11, 1980 – the first check-out through July of 1990. There is also a UPC sticker attached above this pocket so it is impossible to know the circulation history past 1990...assuming that the UPC checkout system was implemented then.

Between the card and the UPC sticker is the black DISCARD stamp. And above and to the left of that is a green RETURN TO S.L.O. CITY LIBRARY which looks to cover a blue sticker of some sort...but the same shape and size as the green sticker.

S.L.O. Library - San Luis Obispo Library. San Luis Obispo is in California. Looks even distances between San Jose and L.A. This particular book, according to the stamps on the pocket circulated through several branches of the library.

It appears that the book started off at Cayucos Library in 1980 which is north of San Luis Obispo along the California coast.

It appears that the library sits about one block east of the Pacific Ocean.

From there it moves to San Miguel in 1982.

Makes its way over to the Simmler branch in 1983.

Takes a trip on the BookMobile in November of 1983.

Not sure where it lands then but the stamp has now turned green and circulates somewhere from Dec. 1983 – Nov. 1984.

Looks like it was moved to the Shell Beach branch in Dec. of 1984.

There is another stamp color change in ’85 and ’86 with no branch identified.

There is a South Bay branch stamp but it is unclear if the date is 1987 or 1990.

The final stamp does read CITY JUL 90. I take this to mean that it may have reached the main branch and this happens to be where the UPC may have been applied.

After that...circulation unknown. The book appears to be heavily circulated in 1980 with what looks to be 8 checkouts. Curiously there are 10 checkouts in 1984. Where was the book returned after it was taken from the Book Mobile in Nov. of ’83 and then checked out in Dec. of ’83.

Wherever it landed, the book became very active for a solid year.

It’s absolutely wonderful to think about where this book traveled and who read it. Couches, beds, desks and toilets. This book has seen it all. In circulation at least until the creation of Better World Books. I can’t thank enough the librarian that had the thought to donate this book to Better World Books.

So, here we are. The novel has finally ended up with me. I’ll have it for some time. I can’t imagine ever selling it or giving it away. Perhaps it’ll stay with me my entire life. Because it is now part of a collection, that collection secures it’s home with me for an extended period of time.

I look forward to reading it. Joyce Carol Oates is the volume editor and I because she is one of my favorite (out of only a few), I can’t imagine that she would or evn could pick a story that I won’t like. Pretty prejudiced already huh?

No, I’m not naïve enough to think that there wouldn’t be a few in there that just wouldn’t measure up...I just feel that she will do a better job than Solotaroff (had to get one last jab in there).

Done – Finally!

15 months...or close to it. That’s how long it took me to get through this single volume.

Reading and posting. How am do I expect myself to get through 30 more years (volumes)?

Time for some math.

Let’s say that there is an average of 17 stories per volume.

17 times 30 equal 510.

510 more stories...today.

Now, let’s say it took me 450 days (15 months) to read one volume.

That is an average of one story every 26.4 days.

So, if we apply my reading habits to future readings, that means it will take me 13,464 days or 36 years to finish just the volumes up to 2009.

Now, if we add 36 years to 2009 (to determine the year that I would finish) that would be 2045.

That means I would be 73 years old when I finish the series up to 2009.

Now, this does not include the years that will arrive while I am reading.

Those would be the years 2010 – 2045.

Another 35 volumes.

Another 595 stories...another 15,708 days or 43 years just to get me to 2045...when I am 73.

I suppose I had better get my ass in gear and read more than one story every 26.4 days. It’s going to be a marathon. I’m up for it. Reading forever!

Weird coincidence I noticed.

I was in my 36^th year of life as I read the BASS for 1978. The same number of years it would take me to finish all the volumes up to 2009. –Huh-

That kinda freaks me out.

I think it means something.

Overall impressions of Best American Short Stories 1978.

I entered into this first volume with such excitement. I saw unknown authors and a couple that were familiar. I was ready to tackle this volume and blast through it while making updates to this journal.

My expectations were shot down early. They began with my problems with Solotaroff. The degree of the problem is evident in the number of times I mentioned his name...and not in praise. Through the whole reading, I just couldn’t get away from him. He left too much of an imprint on the volume rather than the authors contained. It’s their volume not his. Did he ruin it for me?

No.

The experience is what I treasured. What the stories allowed me to discover and think about. So, in a way, they accomplished their objective. They gave me something. Maybe not what they intended...but something.

Time to put 1978 to bed. He will line up to the rest of the volumes and be pulled from time to time as reference. It was a tough 15 months.

I can only hope and work hard to get through 1979.

Please Joyce Carol Oates...give me something to fly through...I trust your judgment!

Staus – Mary Ann Malinchak Rishel

Mary Ann Malinchak Rishel – 1940 –

Researching Mary Ann, and I have found once again how the past is drawing a dotted line to the present. It’s a faint dotted line and one that I really can’t describe.

Mary Ann is a writing teacher in Qatar. She teaches for the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. The photo above shows her has a happy rather youthful looking woman. I’m glad to see that. When I think back to 1978, I sometimes feel as if that time existed in another life. I was 6, and she was probably in her mid 20’s. Seeing where she is now and knowing what she is doing and apparently enjoying herself gives me fresh fuel to add to the fire of the possibilities that still exist in my own life.

The story Staus was one story of 12 that Mary Ann composed as her MFA thesis at Cornell. It was published in The Hudson Review, and pick up by Solotaroff. Further research also states that the story was made into a 10 part television mini-series...this according to the Slovak Studies Newsletter of June 1983.

It was an entertaining story...long, and a struggle for me to get through only because I had to read it in several sittings due to my inability to settle into a time slot for completing it in one session. I don’t think though that splitting the reading had any effect on what I thought of the story/writing.

I am too easily moved by stories and passages about elderly people who are left alone by the death of their spouse. I often place myself into their character and wonder about my future and if it will hold similar situations for me or mine. Do I want to be the one doing the grieving or the one that is grieved over?

I find myself thinking of this rather often.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing and the story of Staus. I read it as it being the future of “everyman”. Tending the grave of the deceased wife, living on, dealing with relatives and the internal conversations one has with oneself after the loss of your external ear (wife). The cultural atmosphere of the story should not be overlooked. I enjoyed seeing some parallels between the story’s and where I have lived.

Score 8 out of 10.

The Return of Service – Jonathan Baumbach

Jonathan Baumbach – 1933 –

Badass!

This was my first reaction to discovering a little bit more about Baumbach through my research.

First, his photo. Check that dude out. Just looks like an author.

Next, his work outside of writing. Co-founder, 1974, co-director, 1974-78, and currently member of the Board of Directors, Fiction Collective.

Instructor, Stanford University, 1958-60; instructor, 1961-62, and assistant professor, 1962-64, Ohio State University, Columbus; assistant professor, New York University, 1964-66; associate professor, 1966-70, 1971-72, and since 1972 professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Visiting professor, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, 1970-71; University of Washington, Seattle, 1978-79, 1985-86; Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1994.

Woah! And...he married his fourth wife in 2004. Do the math from his birthday, and you’ll see he’s still kick’in it! -Nice-

The story – I remember reading this and learning that it was another short story with tennis in it, I came into it feeling a little –blah-.

Pleasantly though, I really enjoyed this short. It’s simply a tennis match between a father an son. Well, not simply. Of course, the author just uses this to show the relationship between the two...and the relationship they have within themselves to their own selves. As a literate person, I don’t think we would expect that an author would just write a simple story about a tennis game. It seems a bit predictable that he would lay the “relationship” theme underneath it all. He does though and he accomplishes it well. I think we can all see a bit of the relationship we have with our parents in this story. Wonderful last sentence.

“ Waiting for the ball’s arrival – it is on the way, it has not yet reached me – I concede nothing. “

And here is a nice quote by Baumbach

"We are trained to think that personal matters are less important than the global, but in fact the world tends to be too much with us and only of the moment. The personal, which is where we begin and end, is about everything."

Score 9 out of 10

Update on securing BASS volumes

So close but still out there.

So, for my birthday I requested the final four volumes of BASS missing from my collection.

Well, some of them arrived today. If you take a quick peek at the list, you will see that I have updated the statues list to show that 1980, 1981 and 1985 have been added to my collection. What about 1982? Well, the well meaning folks at Better World Books sent the wrong volume. I suppose that it must have had something to do with their internal coding of their holdings. They sent along 1999.

I sent them a nice email explaining their mistake, and I am awaiting their reply.

Alas, completion is still a few days away.

In Miami, Last Winter - James Kaplan

James Kaplan 1951 –

It’s funny. When I read this story I felt as if it had to be created by an old soul. There was a certain depth to the writing that really gave it the weight of experience. Turns out that the writer of the story was very young...late 20’s.

The story is a look into the life of a young man and his battle with his own identity reflected through the battles he engages in with chess...in particular, an opponent named Harry Urbanic.

This was a long story, and I did feel at times that it could have been shortened.

Kaplan did a wonderful job and bringing the intensity of a heated chess match to the page. The clicking of the chess clock, the lighting and the smells...wonderful atmosphere.

Growing up, and into my mid to late 20’s, I wanted to master chess. I even played it on my fathers Apple...he had a special program that would tutor you in all the attacks and moves. Got me nowhere. Wait...now that I have opened that little memory hole, I remember sitting in the guest room...which had become my room after college and playing chess on that computer and getting buzzed off of Vodka. I’m sure I had some early 90’s music on and it was probably around 1:30 in the afternoon. I’m sure that the game quickly became boring for me and I wandered into other buzzed pursuits. Writing letters, looking at magazines, listening to music or riding a bike.

You know, when I look back on that time, and question the year or more I spent in that room...I learn that the time spent there was really well spent. I learned more about myself then, when I needed it the most...it was the beginning of the education into the exploration of my inner self that continues through to this day. I could go on and on about this, and I am sure I will but I have hundreds of other stories to pull out memories. I’ll let them assist in further entries.

Look at that. All of the above rambling stirred from the discussion of Kaplan’s short story. Thanks James...you done good.

That’s what it’s all about – right?

Score 8 out of 10