This 775-page short story collection is uncommonly good. It has a well-rounded and well-crafted spread of exuberant and surprising stories. I really hate collections that reprint the same twenty stories we've all read before. How many reprints of "Hills Like White Elephants" do we need? It does have its flaws, in my opinion - 3 stories by David Foster Wallace seems like a bit indulgent - but I can think of no other American collection I liked as much as this one. These are nearly all American short stories of course, since they come from a famous American publication. But there is the strange inclusion of Jorge Luis Borges. I took this as a sign that Esquire was just showing off the huge range of classic authors they managed to work into their publication. I would think that this and Esquire's other mammoth compendiums are really marketing tools to continue selling their journal, but that's just speculation.

There's a really stellar story by Antonya Nelson - whom I'd never heard of before - which reminded me of Deliverance. It also brings together masterpieces from Robert Stone, Norman Mailer, Stanley Elkin, Barry Hannah, Joy Williams, Richard Ford, Don Delillo, Philip Roth, Truman Capote, and others in a fairly portable package. It is certainly addictive to encounter so many heart-stopping tales in a row. I would have liked to spend more time with this collection but I couldn't put it down. I pick it up from time to time to sample my favorites. Just about every one of them is a winner. I would recommend this as a gift and for your personal library. Forget those unwieldy Norton Anthologies, this is all you need to get started for some of America's best stories. ( )