The New Yorker Winter Fiction Issue came in the other day. It has four stories in it.

• “Another Manhattan” by Donald Antrim -Thumbs up. Anxiety producing story of a two New York couples. The husband of one suffers from manic/depressive disorder and wants to buy his wife some flowers. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

• “Some Women” by Alice Munro – Thumbs up. Even though at the end I go “Uh.” Munro’s writing is hypnotic to me. So even though I don’t have the EQ to understand the story I love the writing.

• “Meeting with Enrique Lihn” by Roberto Bolano – Thumbs sideways. I try to read without “rules.” Phrases such as “A good story has to have …” drive me crazy. All that matters is if the story is a good read. That being said I think that it is hard to make a story work that is one sentence and one paragraph for three pages of triple column type.

• “The Gangsters” by Colson Whitehead – Thumbs sideways. I about gave up on this but this story of gangster wannabees of affluent parents in Long Island finally got its act together to make it interesting.