Speaking of short stories...

I've been reading Roy Kesey's short story collection All Over, and enjoying it a lot. (Here's an interview with Kesey from this past summer. Here's another one.) I know my Short Story Collection Experience is going well when I read a story, think "Well, that's gonna be my favorite story..." read another one, and think the exact same thing.

Scanning the online world for real reviews, "Fontanel" seems to be the one that knocks everyone over (and makes me wince, but in a good-for-the-story way). For some reason, however, I am very partial to "At the Pizza Hut, the Girls Build Their Towers." It's like a contemporary response to John Updike's "A&P," and the last couple of lines...well, slam dunk.  And "Interview" absolutely belongs in the syllabus of American Workplace Fiction.