Update from the Star-Studded World of New Yorker Fiction

The New Yorker has been publishing top-notch fiction left and right over the last two months- worthy of a post on this site to keep track of all the recent short story brilliance.

First, there was Joshua Ferris’ “The Dinner Party.” An other-worldly account of marital problems bubbling to the surface over the course of one inebriated evening. Ferris is best known for his novel Then We Came to the End, which The New York Times Book Review named one of the best books of 2007. That novel, a dry and witty account of a marketing firm during multiple rounds of lay-offs, reveals Ferris’ skill over hundreds of pages. “The Dinner Party” is a quick dose of the same stuff.

Then there was Tobias Wolff’s “Awake.” Wolff needs little introduction, and “Awake” is nothing less than what you’d expect from such a seasoned writer.

Most recently, in the September 22nd issue, Aleksandar Hemon’s “The Noble Truths of Suffering” offered a gem of writing-for-the-writer. His first-person narrator, a Bosnian writer and resident of Chicago, returns to his native country only to meet and entertain an American who has just won the Pulitzer Prize. Don’t miss it.