Harpoon

Editor Norris asked 20 prominent American and Canadian writers to select short stories they felt were their best from pieces published over the last three years. That two of the finest stories are by John Updike (describing a Boston couple's marriage over several decades, and the husband's discoveries about his wife's ebbed faith and his own failures to her) and Raymond Carver (focusing on a man whose life is nervously balanced between the pull of his lover and his mother; in reaction, he erratically picks up and moves from place to place) comes as no surprise. Nor is it surprising that works by Gail Godwin, Richard Ford, Alice Munro and Alice Adams are finely crafted and moving. The bonus is the inclusion of stories by such lesser-known writers as Stuart Dybek, T. Coraghessan Boyle, David Long, Joy Williams and Ernest J. Finney (whose light, humorous story about bravado in an all-night mall store suddenly becomes a thriller). Norris has provided a short afterword to each story, often quoting from the author's comments on how the piece came to be written. (January 20)