Two elements make for a powerful collection of short stories. First, you need an editor with literary intelligence, the piercing eye that sees to the heart of a tale regardless of its provenance, and the wisdom to know that writers sometimes fail and that often even their less-than-perfect stories are but rough diamonds. Second you need a criterion, an overarching theme, something that pulls the collection together into a whole even before a book cover is slapped on it. Here the burning literary intelligence of Richard Ford, editor to this fine collection, more than meets the first condition. And the theme of work, in all its varieties, satisfies the second.

There are more than thirty stories in this collection and virtually all of them are excellent in their way. Some are exemplars of the kind of story that is tightly associated with a particular author, such as Richard Yates’ “A Glutton for Punishment” or Junot Díaz’ “Edison, New Jersey” or Ford’s own “Under the Radar”. Some are just stunning tours de force, such as Joyce Carol Oates’ “High Lonesome” or ZZ Packer’s “Geese” or James Alan McPherson’s “A Solo Song: For Doc”. And some I just plain liked, such as Richard Bausch’s “Unjust” or John Cheever’s “The World of Apples” or Edward P. Jones’ “The Store” or Thomas McGuane’s “Cowboy” or Elizabeth Strout’s “Pharmacy”.

The truth is that I liked a great many of these stories. And perhaps you will too. ( )