A slight improvement

 kw: book reviews, short stories, mainstream fiction

In spite of repeated disappointment I still, on occasion, will read a "best of" volume of short stories that are not (primarily) science fiction. The most recent is The Best All-American Short Stories, edited by Andrew Sean Greer. It represents a series I have not encountered before, so I can't be sure what I see in it is characteristic of any trend in mainstream fiction as a whole. I am optimistic that the small uptick in the quality of ideas in this volume is a positive sign.

Firstly, in a volume of 20 stories, while there were only two stories I marked with ++, and five others I gave just +, there were "only" five I marked "gn", meaning "goes nowhere", and only two that I stopped reading almost immediately because they were going into territory I don't wish to visit. One story had a Voodoo basis, and while I finished reading it, I don't think I should have. Eight stories that I did finish reading, I didn't like or felt were at best so-so. I recent years, there are a number of volumes I haven't reviewed at all because, after four or five "unfinishable" stories in a row, I discarded them; and there were a few that consisted of more than 50% "gn" stories (skillful writing that is worthless, in other words).

I will comment on what I actually liked.

• 
  "The Beyoǧlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra" by Kenan Orhan: The genre is magical reality in a totalitarian setting in an exaggerated Istanbul. I generally don't care for fantasy, but this is very well done, and portrays a stark view of people trying to be themselves in spite of pervasive oppression. The "detention facility", rapidly growing to engulf the city, in which, finally, the guards are incarcerating one another, is a fitting symbol of the goal of the totalitarian impulse.
• "The Sins of Others" by Héctor Tobar takes the trend of shifting blame to an extreme. The protagonist is a "designated replacement" for an entitled person who has committed a crime, and serves time in his place. Need I mention that the "replacement" is a minority? This and the prior story got my ++. The next 5 were +.
• "A Ravishing Sun" by Leslie Blanco: The outward story is recovering from trauma. The story being told is what happens inside. Ordinarily I disdain stream of consciousness. Here, it is the right tool for the job, handled very well.
• "Detective Dog" by Gish Jen: In the face of CCP's pervasive surveillance a woman manages to tell family truths to a teen. It's hard to say more than that without giving too much away.
• "The Meeting" by Alix Ohlin: Company acquisition/merger. The story dwells on the tension between the dramatically different styles of the founder and the purchaser. It ends in disaster, but not what you might expect.
• "The Ghost Birds" by Karen Russell is set soon after the extinction of the last birds. Some people can see bird ghosts (second sight isn't mentioned) carrying out their seasonal migrations.
• "Mr. Ashok's Monument" by Sanjena Sathian: Mr. Ashok doesn't obtain a monument, but becomes one. More magical reality, with a message in metaphor.

Seven out of 20 isn't too bad a record for a modern collection of mainstream fiction.