The Best American Short Stories of 1943
Edited by
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
$2.75 THE Atlantic Bookshelf
THE recipe reads very much as usual — equal parts of Saroyan, Thurber, Kay Boyle, Irwin Shaw, and their familiar styles, mixed in with equally well-known contemporaries and some lesser names. In such a plentiful and varied concoction there must be something for everyone’s taste — for those who like a touch of war in their stories and for those who do not. One notes w’ith regret that the stories are more often imbued with seriousness than with humor, with atmosphere than with plot. As of yore the neatly turned story has been forsaken for the presentation of a slice of life. It is permissible to question the size and quality of some of the slices, but in such pieces as Rachel Field’s “Beginning of Wisdom,” Mary Lavin’s “Love Is for Lovers,” Wallace Stegner’s “Chip Off the Old Block,” and Thurher’s “The Catbird Seat.,” the fare is most generous and satisfying.
