Day 698, Quasi-Quarantine: A Dark Melancholy And Fatalism Pervades "Best American Short Stories 2018"

"I am not avoiding reality when I read fiction; I am strengthening my ability to cope with reality."

Featuring guest editor Roxane Gay (her words above), this collection is most embodied -- perhaps unsurprisingly based on the timeline -- by an overall darkness. The 20 short stories touch on themes of loss of innocence, the role of faith, and the pervasiveness of racism.

"In this very balcony he had sat, not so long ago, with his eyes closed, pretending not to hear as his wife and children gathered around the kitchen table to discuss the problem of his continued existence." ~Yoon Choi, "The Art of Losing"

"You pressed slightly on the world and it showed its odd corners, revealed its dim and helpless desires. It seemed insane at first. And then, like other jokes, it became curiously possible the more she referred to it in her own mind, the uncomfortable edges softening into something innocuous." ~Emma Cline, "Los Angeles"

"The guards think: The smaller the box, the  more we can control them. But everyone else knows: The smaller the box, the more out of control people become." ~Cristina Henriquez, "Everything Is Far from Here"

The highlights include:

• "The Art of Losing," by Yoon Choi
• "Unearth," by Alicia Elliott
• "Boys Go to Jupiter," by Danielle Evans
• "A Big True," by Dina Nayeri
• "What Terrible Thing It Was," by Esme Weijun Wang

"A grand empty washed in sand and mottled with vegetal scrub under the unchanging, unforgiving dome of the desert sky. Their house, a lone outpost built up against the edge of a wasteland, fortified with rust and steel and magic and blood and hate." ~Matthew Lyons, "The Brothers Brujo"

Gay set out to curate stories that were captivating but difficult, and the result is a set of tales that is challenging -- yet important -- to read. While the experience can be devastating, there are messages to be found in the blend of disturbing poignance that marks this collection.

"Yas, I know the Internet isn't some deity. I know it's made up of people trying to inscribe the void, to mark the very either with what they've lived and what they know. Thank you for etching me a corner in that vast, unfathomable place." ~Dina Nayeri, "A Big True"