I actually read 15 collections in total for Short Story September. I’m finally catching up on reviews, though I’m aware that I’ve missed out on Lisa’s link-up. (My other reviews: Heiny, Mackay, McEwan; the BBC National Short Story Award 2025 anthology; Donoghue, Grass, Isherwood, Mansfield as part of my Germany reading.) To keep it simple and get the basics across before I forget any more about these books, I’ll post some shorthand notes under headings.

 

Cathedral by Raymond Carver (1983)

Why I read it:

• I’d really enjoyed What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.
• This fits into my project to read books from my birth year.

Stats: 12 stories (6 x 1st-person, 6 x 3rd-person)

Themes: alcoholism, adultery, fatherhood, crap jobs, crumbling families

Tone: melancholy, laconic

File under: grit-lit

For fans of: John Cheever, Ernest Hemingway, Denis Johnson

Caveat(s): It doesn’t match What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.

If you read just one story, make it: “A Small, Good Thing”

(University library)

 

A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham (2015)

Why I read it:

• I have a vague plan to read through Cunningham’s whole oeuvre.
• This one is different to his others, and beautifully illustrated by Yuko Shimizu.

Stats: 11 stories (3 x 2nd-person, 8 x 3rd-person)

Themes: coming of age, longing, loss, bargaining

Tone: witty, knowing

File under: fairy tale updates

For fans of: Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman

Caveat(s): For the most part, he doesn’t do anything interesting with the story lines.

If you read just one story, make it: “Little Man” (the Rumpelstiltskin remake)

(Secondhand – Awesomebooks.com)

 

An Oral History of Atlantis by Ed Park (2025)

Why I read it:

• I’d heard buzz, probably because Park was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his novel.

Stats: 16 stories (12 x 1st-person, 1 x 1st-person plural, 1 x 2nd-person, 2 x 3rd-person)

Themes: the Asian American and university experience, writing, translation, aphorisms

Tone: jokey, nostalgic

File under: dystopian fiction, metafiction

For fans of: George Saunders

Caveat(s): There’s more intellectual experimentation than emotional engagement.

If you read just one story, make it: “An Accurate Account”

(Read via NetGalley)

 

Woman of the Hour by Clare Polders (2025)

Why I read it:

• I always like to sneak at least one flash fiction collection in for this challenge.

Stats: 50 stories, a mixture of 1st- and 3rd-person

Themes: childhood, sexuality, motherhood, choices vs. fate

Tone: sharp, matter-of-fact

File under: feminist, satire

For fans of: Claire Fuller, Terese Svoboda

Caveat(s): There’s too many stories to keep track of and not enough stand-outs.

If you read just one story, make it: “Woman of the Hour”

(BookSirens)

 

Racket: New Writing Made in Newfoundland, ed. Lisa Moore (2015)

Why I read it:

• Naomi’s blog always whets my appetite for Atlantic Canadian fiction, but I’m rarely able to find it over here.

Stats: 11 stories, mostly by Memorial University creative writing graduates (7 x 1st-person, 1 x 2nd-person, 3 x 3rd-person)

Themes: mental health, bereavement, tragic accidents

Tone: jaunty, reflective

File under: voice-y early-2000s lit-fic

For fans of: Sharon Bala (her story is among the best here), Jonathan Safran Foer; hockey

Caveat(s): I wouldn’t say I’m now a fan of any of the writers I hadn’t heard of before.

If you read just one story, make it: “23 Things I Hate in No Particular Order” by Gary Newhook

(Little Free Library)

 

Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin (2025)

[Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell]

Why I read it:

• I thought it would be good to add in another title in translation.
• I’d read Schweblin before (but I wish I’d remembered that I rated Fever Dream 2*.)

Stats: 6 stories (5 x 1st-person, 1 x 3rd-person)

Themes: near-misses, grief, memory, suicidal ideation

Tone: introspective, jaded

File under: Latin American weirdness (some mild magic realism)

For fans of: Guadalupe Nettel (The Accidentals is very similar but a bit better)

Caveat(s): A couple of the stories are overlong and none of them are particularly memorable.

If you read just one story, make it: “William in the Window”

(Read via NetGalley)

 

The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams, compiled by Robert Coles (1939)

Why I read it:

• I’m not sure how I came across it; perhaps through another doctor–author such as Gavin Francis or Atul Gawande?

Stats: 14 stories (plus a handful of poems and an autobiographical fragment), all 1st-person

Themes: addiction, childbirth, immigrants, poverty, the randomness of suffering

Tone: hardboiled, dedicated

File under: autofiction, dirty realism

For fans of: Raymond Carver, Gabriel Weston

Caveat(s): The descriptions of immigrants’ appearance/behaviour/speech is not always kind.

If you read just one story, make it: “Old Doc Rivers”

(University library)

 

And a stand-alone story:

“The St. Alwynn Girls at Sea” by Sheila Heti (New Yorker, 2025)

To my knowledge, this is the only short fiction Heti has published. I’m generally a big fan of her bizarre autofiction – though Pure Colour was a step too far for me – and was fascinated to see on Eleanor’s blog that this is historical fiction, a genre Heti hasn’t attempted before. Or is it historical? The students of a girls’ boarding school have been sent out on a ship for their safety during a conflict. With news of a planned meet-up with a boys’ boat for a talent show and calls to knit socks for soldiers, it seems it must be the Second World War. But then there are references to headphones, Prince and Kurt Vonnegut. So it’s an alternative Cold War fantasy? Or a dystopian future scenario with retro elements? As in Motherhood, the characters appeal to an Oracle (here, a photograph of a departed girl called Audrey) when stymied by confusion. But the actual plot is just girls wanting men to love them – Dani obsesses about Sebastien, with whom she’s exchanging letters; Flora can’t stop thinking about her father’s infidelity – a common Heti theme, but the teenage perspective feels glib, indulgent; it’s YA without the heart or commitment. So I was somewhat aghast to learn this is from Heti’s novel in progress.