AMERICAN FICTION 3: The Best Unpublished Short...

AMERICAN FICTION 3: The Best Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers edited by Michael C. White and Alan Davis (Birch Lane Press: $14.95; 299 pp., paperback original). This anthology of winning entries in the annual American Fiction competition demonstrates that Raymond Carver’s influence remains more pervasive than the highly touted Brat Pack writers. In “Bookends,” Valerie Hobbs offers a well-crafted portrait of an aging couple linked by emotional bonds they prefer to leave unacknowledged; Thalia Selz’s “Concerto for Piano, Paperweight, and Change Machine” is a bitter portrait of a ruthless young artist undone by greed and ambition. Not all the stories exhibit this degree of polish: The editors include some weak studies of neurotic people reacting to improbable situations, but the level of quality is generally high.