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American Short Story Masterpieces: A Rich Selection of Recent Fiction from America's Best Modern Writers

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This highly Acclaimed collection of short stories by American writers contains only the best literary art of the past four decades. With a bias toward realism editors Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks have selected fiction that “tells a story”–and tells it with a masterful handling of language, situation, and insight.

But what is so special about this volume is that it mirrors our age, our concerns, and our lives. Whether it’s the end of a marriage, as in Bobbie Ann Manson’s “Shiloh,” or the struggle with self-esteem and weight in Andre Dubus’s “The Fat Girl,” the 36 works included her probe issues that give us that “shock of recognition” that is the hallmark of great art—wonderful, absorbing fiction that will be read and reread for decades to come.

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1987

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About the author

Raymond Carver

317 books4,661 followers
Carver was born into a poverty-stricken family at the tail-end of the Depression. He married at 19, started a series of menial jobs and his own career of 'full-time drinking as a serious pursuit', a career that would eventually kill him. Constantly struggling to support his wife and family, Carver enrolled in a writing programme under author John Gardner in 1958. He saw this opportunity as a turning point.

Rejecting the more experimental fiction of the 60s and 70s, he pioneered a precisionist realism reinventing the American short story during the eighties, heading the line of so-called 'dirty realists' or 'K-mart realists'. Set in trailer parks and shopping malls, they are stories of banal lives that turn on a seemingly insignificant detail. Carver writes with meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper. As well as being a master of the short story, he was an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes.

After the 'line of demarcation' in Carver's life - 2 June 1977, the day he stopped drinking - his stories become increasingly more redemptive and expansive. Alcohol had eventually shattered his health, his work and his family - his first marriage effectively ending in 1978. He finally married his long-term parter Tess Gallagher (they met ten years earlier at a writers' conference in Dallas) in Reno, Nevada, less than two months before he eventually lost his fight with cancer.

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5 stars
166 (39%)
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160 (38%)
3 stars
62 (14%)
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22 (5%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Profile Image for Kimber.
211 reviews93 followers
February 3, 2019
Anthologies are always such a hodge podge. My favorites in this one: Sonny's Blues by Baldwin, Weekend by Beattie, Fever by Carver and Shiloh by Mason.

One thing I want to say though: Bobbie Ann Mason amazes me.
Profile Image for Vanessa.
687 reviews98 followers
April 29, 2018
With 500+ pages and 36 stories, you'll get your money's worth (and then some since this is a mass market paperback), but your "masterpiece" mileage may vary. Some of the stories I'd wager were only included because they tinkered with the short story format, but that kind of tinkering is old hat now so the masterpiece mantle doesn't fit very well anymore-see "The Amish Farmer" by Vance Bourjaily.

None of the reviewers can agree on what the best or worst stories were, so here are my random thoughts because random is what I do best.

• Favorite: “Walking Out” by David Quammen. I would never, NEVER have predicted a story by a writer I’d never heard of about hunting of all things would be my favorite, but this story is just about perfect: evocative, absorbing, haunting ending. It was also just turned into a movie of the same name.

• Other top tier stories: “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, “Fever” by Raymond Carver, “The Lover of Horses” by Tess Gallagher, and “Akhnilo” by James Salter.


• Other stories I liked: “Talk of Heroes” by Carol Bly, "Shiloh" by Bobbie Ann Mason, “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud, “Verona: A Young Woman Speaks” by Harold Brodkey, “Weekend” by Ann Beattie, “Rock Springs” by Richard Ford, “Water Liars” by Barry Hannah, “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates (adapted into the movie Smooth Talk), “The Heavenly Animal” by Jayne Anne Phillips, “The Wedding” by Joy Williams, “Redemption” by John Gardner, “Dream Children” by Gail Godwin, and “The Liar” by Tobias Wolff.

• Story I begrudgingly liked: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. Maybe she was a lovely woman, but I can’t shake the feeling that O’Connor was a sanctimonious asshole. All of her stories are about people with moral failings who end up getting maimed or killed in some spectacular fashion, their comeuppance often highly disproportionate to their misdeeds. The schadenfreude is not cute. Having said all that, this is probably one of her best.

• Stories I didn’t like: “A Poetics for Bullies” by Stanley Elkin, “Letters from the Samantha” by Mark Helprin, and “The Misfits” by Arthur Miller.

• “You could have picked any story by {writer} and THIS is the one you picked?” stories: The Ursula K. Le Guin (“Ile Forest”) and John Updike (“The Christian Roommates”) were both just fair. If you were going to go with ONE Le Guin story, I cannot imagine why you’d chose anything other than “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.”

This collection was edited by Carver and Tom Jenks. It’s maybe a bit unusual that a writer would select a story by himself and his girlfriend/later wife (Tess Gallagher) in an anthology they were editing, but Carver and Gallagher also had two of the best stories in the bunch. Jenks explains in the preface that they excluded writers who were included in the Short Story Masterpieces anthology, which somewhat explains the gaping abyss left by not including John Cheever.

(And, how is there no Truman Capote?)

The fact that there is almost no agreement on what stories were good or bad would make this great classroom discussion material, although some of the stories are too explicit to ever fly at the high school level.
Profile Image for Rachel.
95 reviews14 followers
August 16, 2008
I loved reading this book. I'm sad that it's over. I always forget how much I like short stories, so I don't read enough of them. This was a fun collection because it's filled with 20th-century American stories, most of which I'd never read in an anthology before.

Some that I really enjoyed:
Midair (Frank Conroy)
The Fat Girl (Andre Dubus)
Dream Children (Gail Godwin)
Christian Roomates (John Updike)
A Poetics for Bullies (Stanley Elkin)
Fever (Raymond Carver)
Rock Springs (Richard Ford)

and the one that I can't get out of my head (though I didn't think I'd like it much when I started) is Walking Out (David Quammen).

Anyway, I highly recommend the collection. It's great for a straight read-through or sporadic reading.
Profile Image for Jess.
Author 21 books90 followers
July 19, 2008
Jenks is the master. Read and learn.
Profile Image for Joey Brockert.
292 reviews3 followers
January 3, 2023
James Baldwin – 'Sonny's Blues' - This is a great story! It seems to have the experience of American blacks told. It gives the nuances of what it is like to grow up knowing the injustice that may befall them at any moment; the bleakness of the future as a high school students; the escape into drugs; etc.

Harold Brodkey, 'Verona: A Young Woman Speaks' – a young girl on a trip with her parents riding a train through Italy, and having the time of her life. Throughout the story she she is inundated with experiences, mostly at the behest of her dad. At the end, though, she marvels at her Mother being so wonderful She is growing up to see her parent as different people, as well as how wonderful life can be.

John Updike, 'The Christian Roommates' – one fellow comes from bum-fornication-South Dakota, the other from Oregon. They do not clash, but, as roommates will, they do not really get along. Orson is in pre-med, his roommate, Hub, is who knows what major. There are other freshmen at Harvard who are a part of this all. This story focuses on the freshmen year of school, but it does gibe the development of the others mentioned in the story. The funny thing about this story is that Orson follows his life path, as he predicted, except....

Bobbie Ann Mason, 'Shiloh' - Leroy was a truck driver until he had that accident, no he stays at home flailing about a bit for something to do. His wife finds him underfoot, so to get away, I guess, she starts night school. He lights upon building her a log cabin to live in, so he starts to plan for it, with little hope of actually building it. Her Mother suggests they go on a trip to Shiloh, just o get away, as she had done on her Honeymoon But that is when, after relaxing, the undercurrent comes out.
Profile Image for Joseph Riden.
Author 7 books8 followers
August 25, 2018
An excellent source for writers looking for stories against which to gauge their own work; also for any enthusiast of short stories who hasn't read some of the stories included in this collection. I found some to like and some that I didn't care for. This kind of reading helps me in so many ways with my own writing, from setting standards, to simply broadening my horizons. There is something here for everyone who likes short stories. I doubt I will ever be "done" with reading these stories.

Also, any non-writers who love stories will undoubtedly find things to like here.

There is a second Editor who was not mentioned in this listing: Tom Jenks, Author of "A Poerics of Fiction," a very respectable craft book for advanced writers. in this book, he has authored what some may consider the definitive work on fiction craft. It's claimed to be the equivalent for a full MFA in Creative Writing. Judge for yourself if you can justify the cost which is around $250 per copy; like a very deep and detailed, respected specialty textbook. Who knows? I can't afford it yet. But back to my point: he's a respected Editor and mentor of Editors. No doubt his contribution to this story collection affected the quality of the selections.
Profile Image for Brian Page.
Author 1 book9 followers
February 24, 2024
Once upon a time it was fashionable to write stories with no definite ending. And that’s what you mainly get from American Shorty Masterpieces. So, if you expect a story to have a protagonist who encounters a challenge to which they finally overcome or succumb to, then this anthology is not for you. What you do get are tales with character development, as if that’s an exercise in a creative writing class. The characters get developed, but some of the stories in which they’re entombed are so bad as to be unintentionally humorous. I realize that it’s unfair to criticize a work for what it is not intended to be. So this isn’t a criticism. It’s simply a warning. But if you persevere and wade through the first 413 pages, you might discover that the editors suddenly realized that it would be a nice idea to have a few real stories in their book. Had the entire book raised to level of the final six stories, this might deserve the appellation Masterpieces.
47 reviews
August 12, 2019
I read this book on and off for over a year. The book, itself, was well put together with short stories written by masters. The story selection and authorship was diverse and interesting. I did, however, discover that I am not really fond of the 'short story'. I do not like being left hanging, which so many short stories seem to do, just drop off. Unlike in a conversation where one might be telling a story -as in any of these short stories- and then just drop off, the listener could ask, "What happened then?" When getting dropped off the end of a short story, the author just leaves us hanging. Nearly all of these short story masterpieces were like that for me. I appreciated the excellent and varied writing styles, which is what keep me reading; otherwise, it was relatively unfulfilling reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Oliver Kim.
176 reviews47 followers
Read
June 7, 2021
Great and varied collection. My favorites were:
- Weekend, by Ann Beattie
- Fever, by Raymond Carver
- Midair, by Frank Conroy
- A Poetics for Bullies, by Stanley Elkin
- The Ledge, by Lawrence Sargent Hall
- Letters from the Samantha, by Mark Helprin
- Shiloh, by Bobbie Ann Mason
- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, by Joyce Carol Oates
- The Heavenly Animal, by Jayne Anne Phillips
- Walking Out, by David Quammen
- The Conversion of the Jews, by Philip Roth
- The Christian Roommates, by John Updike
Profile Image for Janet.
238 reviews8 followers
January 19, 2018
This is a dense collection and it takes perseverance at times to make the switches between stories. I found so many gems believing as I read I’d found my “favorite” but the last (“The Liar”) was indeed the one.
Profile Image for Laura Helle.
128 reviews2 followers
April 5, 2018
I like reading short story collections when life is crazy and I don't have the endurance for anything more. Some of the stories were misses for me, but enough hits to recommend it wholeheartedly. Thanks mom and dad for a great Christmas present!
105 reviews1 follower
February 5, 2019
Collection of literary short stories that give a "shock of recognition that is the hallmark of great art." By accomplished writers from 1948-1984. Well worth reading over again. Many great examples of the literary short story form.
112 reviews1 follower
May 12, 2017
an astoundingly good collection of short stories, my husband and I discovered this awesome little book right at the beginning of our marriage and immensely enjoyed reading thru these
14 reviews
October 27, 2022
I read these because I was recovering from surgery & was bored. They're terrible. Definitely NOT masterpieces. Some don't even make sense.
Profile Image for Jeff Hobbs.
1,044 reviews30 followers
Want to read
December 27, 2023
Read so far:

Sonny's blues / James Baldwin --4
*Weekend / Ann Beattie --
*The bystander / Gina Berriault --
Talk of heroes / Carol Bly --2
The Amish farmer / Vance Bourjaily --3
1/3, 1/3, 1/3 / Richard Brautigan --
Verona : a young woman speaks / Harold Brodkey --2
*Fever / Raymond Carver --
The fisherman from Chihuahua / Evan S. Connell --2
Midair / Frank Conroy --2
*Willi / E.L. Doctorow --
The fat girl / Andre Dubus --3
A poetics for bullies / Stanley Elkin --2
Rock springs / Richard Ford --2
*The lover of horses / Tess Gallagher --
Redemption / John Gardner --2
Dream children / Gail Godwin --3
The ledge / Lawrence Sargent Hall --3
*Water liars / Barry Hannah --
Letters from the Samantha / Mark Helprin --3
*Ile forest / Ursula K. Le Guin --
The magic barrel / Bernard Malamud --2
Shiloh / Bobbie Ann Mason --4
*The story of a scar / James Alan McPherson --
*Murderers / Leonard Michaels --
*The misfits / Arthur Miller --
Where are you going, where have you been? / Joyce Carol Oates --3
A good man is hard to find / Flannery O'Connor --4
*The used-boy raisers / Grace Paley --
The heavenly animal / Jayne Anne Phillips --
Walking out / David Quammen --
The conversion of the Jews / Philip Roth --2
Akhnilo / James Salter --
*The Christian roommates / John Updike --
*The wedding / Joy Williams --
*The liar / Tobias Wolff--
Profile Image for Juliet.
294 reviews
March 17, 2017
Actually, I'm not sure I'll ever be finished reading this -- in a good way. I pick this up when I'm between novels, open randomly and flip until I find a story I haven't read yet and read that. Some of the stories are good and some are phenomenal. The phenomenal ones I've read several times, and I expect I'll read them several times more. Tip top favorites include:

"Sonny's Blues" - James Baldwin - guy picks up his brother from jail after being arrested for heroin
"Walking Out" - David Quammen - kid goes on hunting trip w/ father, accidentally shoots father
"The Magic Barrel" - Bernard Malamud - rabbi-to-be hires a matchmaker to find him a wife
"Redemption" - John Gardner - kid accidentally kills his brother & family tries to get past it

Also in here is "The Misfits" by Arthur Miller. I absolutely love that movie (Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift). I didn't know it had been a short story first. It's pretty cool to compare the two, see how they decided to expand it for the movie.

This is a never-ending resource of good stuff.
Profile Image for Lon.
260 reviews16 followers
October 25, 2013
Of all the great stories in this anthology, it's hard to beat Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find." I'd forgotten how delightful the writing is. Her ability to vivify these characters with so few strokes of the brush is sheer magic. We meet a mother "whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like rabbit's ears." Does it get better than that?

Another favorite is John Gardner's Redemption, for its pathos and for the language.

It's a cliche to say that the stories were uneven in quality, so I won't. I'll just say that about one-third were unforgettable, and I'll return to them time and time again.
Profile Image for Jennifer.
650 reviews23 followers
July 17, 2011
"Masterpieces" sets the bar pretty high, but this anthology has enough variety and quality to merit it, I believe. There's a certain level of macho aesthetic permeating the collection that got a bit wearying after a while (Men Battle the Elements and Confront Death Stoically; Women Face Life with Resignation and/or Nag Men), but that's probably an inescapable result of the time period being sampled from. And some of them are truly luminous--James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" is worth four stars all on its own. The tone ranges mostly from ironic to nihilistic, so don't read this anthology if you need an emotional pick-me-up.
238 reviews5 followers
May 2, 2010
masterpieces: baldwin's sonny's blues, conroy's midair, roth's the conversion of the jews, elkin's a poetics for bullies, brautigan's 1/3 1/3
1/3

good: andre dubus' the fat girl, oates' where are you going, where have you been

worthwhile: ann beattie's weekend, richard ford's rock springs, john gardner's redemption, barry hannah's water liars, james salter's akhnilo

mediocre: grace paley's the used boy raisers, tobias woolf's the liar

bad: jayne ann phillips' the heavenly animal
Profile Image for Michael.
160 reviews13 followers
May 1, 2013
This is a great collection of stories if you are teaching a college or advanced high school English class, or I suppose if you just like well-crafted stories. But the majority are within the "MFA tradition", with exquisite langauge and description and literary devices that bear more weight than the actual story. Don't get me wrong, there aren't any postmodern or experimental head-scratchers, but still, a simple mystery wouldn't have killed anyone.

Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin, and The Lover of Horses, by Tess Gallagher, are my faves.
Profile Image for Monte Dutton.
Author 11 books9 followers
August 20, 2014
The short stories included are breathtakingly beautiful. Some made me laugh. None made me cry, but a few made me sad. Only a few had I read before.
Not that it's breaking news, but "A Good Man Is Hard to Find " is among the best pieces of writing I've digested. It's hard to excel so completely in tragedy and comedy within the confines of one story, however brilliant it may be. "Tragicomic" exists on account of Flannery O'Connor.
Profile Image for Gerald Hickman.
Author 11 books43 followers
February 15, 2016
Raymond Carver grew up in South Central Washington State. His first short stories concerned the local folks from and around his town near Yakima, WA. One of his critically acclaimed stories is printed in this edition. He is also a poet and several small towns along the Yakima River are very proud of the fact that Raymond is a product of the area.

I recommend that you check out some of his work it has an interesting small town flavor that you will enjoy.
Profile Image for Susan.
240 reviews9 followers
August 15, 2010
These short stories are great to pass the time. You'll start to learn to appreciate different types of stories, too.

My ratings from what I've read:
(Note: * is what I read in Newark Academy)

*A Good Man Is Hard to Find- 5/5
*A Poetics For Bullies- 3/5
Fat Girl- 2/5
Fever- 2/5
The Story of a Scar- 4/5
*Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been- 5/5
Profile Image for Lyuba.
155 reviews
March 14, 2016
This review and rating is only for the four short stories I read from the collection:
"Walking Out" by David Quommen
"The Fat Girl" by Andre Dubus
"Where are you going, Where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates
and "A good man is hard to find" by Flannery O'Connor.

All four are outstanding - dark and intense, with characters so fully developed in just a few pages. True masterpieces.
Profile Image for Katie.
13 reviews5 followers
September 14, 2020
- The Amish Farmer by Vance Bourjaily
- The Fat Girl by Andre Dubus
- Rock Springs by Richard Ford
- Redemption by John Gardner
- The Ledge by Lawrence Sargent Hall
- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates
- A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor
- Akhnilo by James Salter
Profile Image for Troy Soos.
Author 22 books84 followers
January 21, 2011
An excellent collection of modern American short stories, with fresh perspectives and insightful writing. My favorites: Stanley Elkin's "A Poetics for Bullies," Andre Dubus's "The Fat Girl," and John Updike's "The Christian Roommates."
Profile Image for Mackenzie Mackling-Eynon.
11 reviews3 followers
December 13, 2012
Overall, a solid collection of stories. I read a bit over one third of them for my college English class. My favorites were Walking Out, The Story of a Scar, and Dream Children. I wasn't fond of Rock Springs or The Bystander.
Profile Image for Aragorn.
77 reviews
July 1, 2015
While many of these stories were clearly standouts in their time, many of them have also aged rather poorly.

Some of the current standouts include:

1/3 1/3 1/3
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Walking Out
Profile Image for Laurie.
340 reviews2 followers
June 7, 2016
A book of short stories was on my reading challenge this year and this is the one I selected. I would randomly select a story when I was in-between other books I was reading. Several were good stories...others were rather dark and depressing. I must admit that I did not read all of the stories.
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