OCTOBER 2008

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A Review of Best of the Web 2008
By Jason Jordan, Aug 20, 2008

Guest edited by Steve Almond and introduced by Series Editor Nathan Leslie, Best of the Web 2008 collects the best prose and poetry published on the Internet from October 2006-07.

What’s great about the book? It’s always pleasant to see Elizabeth Crane in an anthology—this time it’s “Promise” from Failbetter.com. Also, while I typically avoid reading anything with an overly medical nature (it freaks me out, man), Richard Jespers’s “Basketball Is Not a Drug” from Blackbird is phenomenal. Yeah, the length is disconcerting at first, but the story’s a surefire winner. It was nice to see a piece from Chatham MFA alumni Amy L. Sargent, whose poem “Shotgun” first ran in Wheelhouse. The collection itself looks great, too, and is easy to navigate. I like how all the pieces have the publication listed, right under the title, in which their work first appeared. Otherwise, it’d be difficult to keep it in mind. Furthermore, on a practical level, if you have any reservations about buying the book, you can look up virtually any story or poem that’s in it because they’re all online (presuming that no included magazines have gone under since publication). It’s cool, too, that there’s a shortlist to highlight work that didn’t quite make the cut.

Aside from minor errors here and there (misspelled word, missing word, etc.), I felt that poetry was underrepresented, as much of the book is devoted to prose. Still, the poetry that is featured is quite good. Additionally, I didn’t care for the interviews that followed a few pieces, because I’d rather see more actual work make it in, even though the book is well over 300 pages. And while the Best of the Web 2008 title doesn’t inherently disqualify lengthy, scholarly pieces, I didn’t care for Garth Risk Hallberg’s “The One That Got Away: Why James Wood is Wrong About Underworld (and Why Anyone Should Care)” from The Quarterly Conversation nor for Michael Wood’s “The Mystery of Henry’s Bicycle” from Konundrum Engine Literary Review simply because I’m not that interested in the subject matter of either. Plus, with the web as large as it is, it’s unsurprising that Dzanc missed some publications. But, with all the legwork that BotW requires—especially for a small staff—there are some inevitabilities.

Even so, Best of the Web 2008 is certainly worth reading, and I anticipate purchasing future installments. Dzanc, with several releases to its name along with imprints such as Monkeybicycle and Other Voices, is quickly becoming the press to watch.

decomP Editor-in-Chief Jason Jordan is a writer from New Albany, Indiana, who always says he's from Louisville, Kentucky, because people actually know where that is. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in THE2NDHAND, Beeswax Magazine, Hobart, Keyhole Magazine, Monkeybicycle, Pindeldyboz, Storyglossia, Word Riot, and many other publications. He is currently in the MFA program at Chatham University, in Pittsburgh, where he is working on his first novel. Visit him at his blog.

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