THE BEST OF THE BEST. 18 NEW STORIES BY AMERICA'S LEADING AUTHORS.

An anthology of eighteen original short stories features contributions by Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, E.L. Doctorow, Lawrence Block, Ed McBain, Erica Jong, and Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

Eighteen original stories (eleven by women) in a celebratory 50th anniversary anthology of Signet authors and the first hardcover in this publisher's history. Signet introduced William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Norman Mailer, Ralph Ellison, Truman Capote, and others to their first publication in paperback. Among their top authors included here are Stephen King (``L.T.'s Theory of Pets,'' a fizzle about a meatpacker's vanished wife and the pet dog and cat they fought over); Joyce Carol Oates (``Color Blind,'' a fair but weakly plotted story about a 32-year-old white virgin's obsession with a handsome 28-year-old black bartender who's studying for a Ph.D. in economics and lives in the apartment above her); and E.L. Doctorow (``Untitled,'' a strong prose poem about Holocaust victims and their artifacts collected by the Nazis). Doctorow's takes the biggest bite and is the most writerly writing here, his bravura piece perhaps heralding some longer work in progress. Also on hand is Erica Jong with one essay and nine new poems (``Songs in the Key of I'') about poetry as the Life Force; the poems are lively, but only ``Creation Myth, with Figs'' is memorable. Lawrence Block's ``Headaches and Bad Dreams'' is a gripping little yarn about a low- paid psychic counselor who happens to help locate a murdered girl, becomes famous, and then must face the consequences. Ed McBain's insightful and intriguing ``Where or When'' tells of an ex- detective turned bank dick after his partner is killed and he himself is wounded when facing two hoods with AK-47s in a bank robbery. Some wavering, but Signet has a winner here overall. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Proving that the term best is subjective, the editors of Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories (BASS) have selected entirely different lists to represent the highest-quality American short stories appearing last year. Only Carolyn Cooke has stories on both lists. Guest editor Proulx has added a new twist to BASS by grouping the stories into four broad categories. Rather than showing us the similarity of the selections, it demonstrates the complexity present in today's literary fiction and how the human concerns that manifest themselves in stories appear unique, owing to each author's voice and perspective. With new editor Dark, Prize Stories has expanded the number of magazines from which it selects, including for the first time Canadian authors and publications. Selected alongside familiar names like Alice Munro and John Barth are exciting new voices like Arthur Bradford and Thomas Glave. Both BASS and Prize Stories belong in most fiction collections. In the Signet title, "best" refers to best sellers, as Signet celebrates its 50th anniversary by printing new stories by blockbuster authors such as Stephen King, Ed McBain, and Erica Jong. As popular fiction is a different animal from literary fiction; only two or three of the included stories would ever be found in a literary journal. Instead, we find diverting stories that easily fit into genres like mystery, suspense, or romance. For popular collections.?Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Idaho Lib., Moscow
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.