Best of Times, Worst of Times : : Contemporary American Short Stories from the New Gilded Age / / ed. by Wendy Martin, Cecelia Tichi.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Bender, Aimee,; Bissell, Tom,; Bukowski, Charles,; Díaz, Junot,; Eggers, Dave,; Erdrich, Louise,; Fountain, Ben,; Franklin, Tom,; Hempel, Amy,; Jen, Gish,; July, Miranda,; Lahiri, Jhumpa,; Lethem, Jonathan,; Martin, Wendy,; Mason, Bobbie Ann,; Mosley, Walter,; Packer, Zz,; Percy, Benjamin,; Saunders, George,; Silver, Marisa,; Straight, Susan,; Thompson, Jean,; Tichi, Cecelia,; Updike, John,; Wallace, David Foster,; Wolff, Tobias,
• HerausgeberIn: Martin, Wendy,; Tichi, Cecelia,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2011]; ©2011
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Late twentieth and early twenty-first century America has been labeled as “The New Gilded Age,” a phrase that embodies the glitz and glamour of one of the wealthiest countries in the world but also suggests the greed, corruption, and inequalities teeming just below the surface. Identifying some of the sparkling moments of humanity interwoven between the moments of crisis, Best of Times, Worst of Times features short stories by such renowned writers as Junot Diaz, George Saunders, Jhumpa Lahiri, Tobias Wolff, and many others, whose distinctive authorial voices lend urgency and a sense of heightened awareness to the modern moment. Commenting on and making sense of what is going on in America today, fractured as it is by two ongoing wars, the aftermath of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, these stories speak to some of the most germane issues confronting America today, from race relations, immigration, and social class to gender issues, Iraq, and imperialism. These expertly culled, emotionally powerful stories provide the perfect mirror with which to examine the real state of the union.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- All in the Family -- 1.Your Mother and I -- 2. The Ballad of Duane Juarez -- 3. In the American Society -- 4. Gogol -- 5. Refresh, Refresh -- 6. Smorgasbord -- Shifting Identities -- 7. How to Date a Brown Girl (black girl, white girl, or halfie) -- 8. In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried -- 9. Metamorphosis -- 10. Think -- Locations and Dislocations -- 11. Expensive Trips Nowhere -- 12. Near-Extinct Birds of the Central Cordillera -- 13. Shiloh -- 14. COMMCOMM -- 15. Mines -- Across Divides -- 16. Skinless -- 17. View from a Headlock -- 18. Brownies -- 19. Pie of the Month -- Workdays and Nightshifts -- 20. A Day -- 21. Scales -- 22. Something That Needs Nothing -- 23. Equal Opportunity -- 24. The Passenger -- About the Editors