The Penguin Book of Modern American Short Story – 4/5 Stars Its important to emphasize that this is a collection from about 1970 on, so while it’s “modern” it means contemporary and while it’s contemporary, it’s decidedly more recent than the normal break in American lit at WWII. This is important because it means that a lot of very well-known and established short-fiction writers like John Cheever, Donald Barthelme, John Updike, Flannery O’Connor, and Bernard Malamud are not considered. Otherwise it would seem to me […]