Welcome to the fifth seasonal Collaborative Summer Special Personal Anthology, with a batch of summer-themed (though not necessarily sunny) short stories picked and introduced for your reading pleasure – by contributors past and, hopefully, future.
What a great list and so many I haven’t read -- i was sure someone would choose the Swimmer by Cheever but I have read about that story enough so I am not sad it didn’t get yet another shout out.
None more, but equalling Cheever's story on six times are:
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado
The Dead by James Joyce
Bliss by Katherine Mansfield
Smote, or When I Find I Cannot Kiss You In Front Of A Print By Bridget Riley’ by Eley Williams
Car Crash While Hitchhiking by Denis Johnson
What a great list and so many I haven’t read -- i was sure someone would choose the Swimmer by Cheever but I have read about that story enough so I am not sad it didn’t get yet another shout out.
Ha! Well The Swimmer has been picked six times as part of people's Personal Anthologies over the years - not for a Summer Special, though. The Cheever story that HAS been picked for a Summer Anthology is 'The Seaside Houses': https://apersonalanthology.com/2021/07/02/the-seaside-houses-by-john-cheever/
Wow, six times. Actually I am not surprised. Has any story been picked more?
Some other stories I considered:
* The Pool Sharks, Ursula Curtiss (menacing without actually bursting into violence you expect)
* The Summer People, Shirley Jackson
* The Death of the Right Fielder, Stuart Dybek (the existentialism of childhood baseball)
* The Adventure of the Bather, Italo Calvino (every swimmer’s worst nightmare -- well, more like second worst)
* No Place for You, My Love, Eudora Welty (sets standard for stories of illusory love)
* The Steppe, Chekhov (ok it’s really a novella, not a short story, but a highly under-appreciated work, IMHO)
* A Long Fourth, Peter Taylor (actually never read this one, an embarrassing omission given that I’m a Taylor fan)