Doctorow's Picks

Taken from E.L. Doctorow

Well, I kind of got away from reading the "D" list for a while, but I got back to it with the annual anthology of short fiction, Best American Short Stories, the 2000 collection, edited by E.L. Doctorow. Doctorow, as some of you may know, wrote the famous book, Ragtime. The stories he selected for this volume were mostly enjoyable to read. Some were sweet and uplifting, others kind of depressing, but all were representative of the human condition.

The authors included were: Geoffrey Becker, Amy Bloom, Michael Byers, Ron Carlson, Raymond Carver, Kiana Davenport, Junot Diaz, Nathan Englander, Percival Everett, Tim Gautreaux, Allan Gurganus, Aleksander Hemon, Kathleen Hill, Ha Jin, Marilyn Krysl, Jhumpa Lahiri, Walter Mosley, ZZ Packer, Edith Pearlman, Annie Proulx, Frances Sherwood. Some of these writers were not as famous in 2000 as they would later become. Juno Diaz, for instance, is now well known and the winner of prestigious writing prizes, but in 2000 he had not yet produced a novel. A few others, however, have not gone further in their careers, despite early acclaim. One such writer is ZZ Packer, whose debut short story collection was highly praised. She continues to have difficulty following up that early success.

I read Ragtime and one other book by Mr. Doctorow. Both were very good. I was sad when he died last year from lung cancer.

Now on to the next "D" book, although I'm not sure yet which one it will be.