Book Review: O. Henry Short Stories

Doubleday, Page and Co. began publishing the O. Henry Prize stories in 1919.  This wonderful collection of short stories has appeared annually since then.  The 2015 O. Henry Prize Stories  (Anchor Books, 2015), edited by Laura Furman, is a collection of 20 short stories gleaned from American and Canadian periodicals during that year.

The current collection is a bit uneven, with some stories having a relatively flat effect, and far too many stories deal with divorce and death – heady subjects for sure, however, subjects any writer must hit a home run with for the story to be successful, largely because the subject matter has been dealt with so often before.

The stories I found to be the most interesting in the collection were all off beat and thoughtful, stories that required the reader to deal with new subject matter, place, point of view and pace, rather than the shopworn psychologies of divorce and death.

(Audio from Dr. Greer’s radio review, including his favorite selections, is posted below.)

Robert Greer M.D. reviews the 2015 O. Henry Award stories

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