by Ian Jack (ed.).
Granta's latest selection of promising young American writers.
In 1983, Granta published an edition entitled Best Young American Novelists. It contained pieces by a number of promising young writers who later went on to become well-respected novelists. This is Granta's follow-up collection.
I have to say, I don't make much time for fiction—life's too short, and there are so many books about real stuff still to read. So I was disappointed to see that Granta had dedicated an entire edition to fiction. I much prefer its usual mix of non-fiction and fiction (in that order).
Having said that, there was some good stuff in this collection. I particularly enjoyed the pieces by Christopher Coake and Jess Row, who, if I were a betting man, would be my personal choices for stardom based on this collection. I won't name the authors whose pieces I skipped after the first couple of pages, but there weren't many.
But don't let my philistinism put you off. If you're into fiction, you should enjoy this collection.