The Best of McSweeney's Author:Dave Eggers (Editor), Jordan Bass (Editor) To commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the journal called “a key barometer of the literary climate” by The New York Times and twice honored with a National Magazine Award for fiction, here is The Best of McSweeney’s—a comprehensive collection of the most remarkable work from a remarkable magazine. — Drawing o... more »n the full range of the journal thus far—from the very earliest volumes to our groundbreaking, Chris Ware-edited graphic novel issue to our most popular project yet, the full-on Sunday-newspaper issue known as San Francisco Panorama, The Best of McSweeney’s is an essential retrospective of recent literary history. With full-color contributions from some of the pioneering artists and illustrators featured in our pages over the years (Marcel Dzama, Art Spiegelman, and many more) and a breathtaking array of first-rate fiction (and some incredible nonfiction, too), this is a book to be pored over, and lasting proof that the contemporary short story is as vital as ever.
Introduction / Dave Eggers --
Letters from Mike Sacks [and fifteen others] --
The ceiling / Kevin Brockmeier --
New boy / Roddy Doyle --
Statistical abstract for my hometown, Spokane, Washington / Jess Walter --
Phantoms / Steven Millhauser --
Do not disturb / A.M. Homes --
from the Introduction to McSweeney's 13 / Chris Ware --
from Optic Nerve no. 9 / Adrian Tomine --
The Darlington Sundays / Daniel G. Clowes --
We'll sleep in my old room / Chris Ware --
The fixer / Joe Sacco --
A child's book of sickness and death / Chris Adrian --
They all stand up and sing / Julie Hecht --
Oral history with hiccups ; A mown lawn / Lydia Davis --
from the introduction to McSweeney's 10 / Michael Chabon --
The bees / Dan Chaon --
Retreat ; Retreat #2 / Wells Tower --
Mr. Squishy / David Foster Wallace --
Gentlemen, start your engines / Andrew Sean Greer --
Can a paper mill save a forest? / Nicholson Baker --
The girl with bangs / Zadie Smith --
Bored to death / Jonathan Ames --
There is no time in Waterloo / Sheila Heti --
The double zero / Rick Moody --
K is for fake / Jonathan Lethem --
Further interpretations of real-life events / Kevin Moffett --
Fire : the next sharp stick? / John Hodgman --
Benjamin Bucks / Jennie Erin Smith --
The unwritten stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald : introduction / Michelle Orange --
Peasley / Sam Lipstye --
Girl and giraffe / Lydia Millet --
Stay where you are / Deb Olin Unferth --
Hot pink / Adam Levin --
Four institutional monologues / George Saunders --
How to sell / Clancy Martin --
Fathers and daughters / Lawrence Wechsler --
(Notes from the Middle World) / Breten Breytenbach --
Two by two / Gunnhild Øyehaug --
The bastard / Nyuol Lueth Tong --
S & J / Ellen Van Neerven-Currie --
The new, abridged dictionary of accepted ideas / Edwin Rozic and Aleksandar Hemon --
Twenty-minute stories / by Laird Hunt, Aleksandar Hemon, Glen David Gold, Peter Orner, and Jennifer Egan --
Pantoums / by Jennifer Michael Hecht, Bill Tarlin, and Ben Jahn« less