My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead

~
It's taken several weeks, but I've finally finished every story in the anthology I've been reading: My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro edited by Jeffrey Eugenides (HarperCollins, 2008).

Intimidated by Eugenides's introductory description of Robert Musil's "difficult and rather punishing 'Tonka,'" I read it last, though I mainly found the story intriguing. There were quite a few familiar stories in the anthology (Chekhov's "The Lady with the Little Dog," Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Nabokov's "Spring in Fialta," Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love") combined with several authors/stories which were refreshingly new, at least to me (Eileen Chang's "Red Rose, White Rose," David Bezmozgis's "Natasha," Richard Ford's "Fireworks," Milan Kundera's "The Hitchhiking Game").

This was a strong collection overall, but my two favorites were "Something That Needs Nothing" by Miranda July and "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro. One other story that stood out in my mind was "Jon" by George Saunders.

Amazon's page for the book includes Q & A with Jeffrey Eugenides, including a note about a story he selected but wasn't able to include ("Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx) and information about the student writing programs offered by 826 Chicago (which will receive all author proceeds from sales of the anthology).