Fenway Fiction: Short Stories from the Red Sox Nation

FENWAY FICTION, edited by Adam Pachter Reviewed by Cecilia Tan I read a lot of contemporary fiction. I've got my master's degree in writing, I've plowed through Ploughshares and pushed my way through the Pushcart Prize winners. A lot of what I read fails to move me. That wasn't the case with the anthology of fiction I am reading now. In "Fenway Fiction" editor Adam Pachter has panned pure gold. Every story resonates, doing what fiction does best when it succeeds--which is illuminate the human experience. The Sox have always inspired their share of "literary" nonfiction--John Updike, Roger Angell, Stephen Jay Gould--but it is surprising this is the first collection of Sox-themed fiction as it seems such a natural fit. Perhaps the fact that the truth of what has happened to the Red Sox over the past century seems so unbelievable that fiction could never trump it, which is why these stories succeed best when they intertwine life, love, coming of age, and all the great themes of contemporary fiction with the Red Sox milieu. And the Red Sox are a milieu. They are a setting, a plot, a historical framework, a metaphor, and a creed all at once--a perfect platform for fiction. I admit the main reason I began reading the book is that I have a piece in it myself. I am in a lot of anthologies and most of them if I read one or two stories, that's the max. This time, I found one gem after another and couldn't stop reading. Perhaps most important, this is a book that can be enjoyed whether the Sox are winning or losing, whether they repeat or get booted ignominiously from the postseason. If you don't get it for yourself, get it or a Sox fan in your life; they'll be glad you did.