From the NY Times Magazine – In Praise of the American Short Story.
The near-simultaneous appearance of three new literary biographies offers a powerful and concentrated challenge to the habit of undervaluing the short story. The subjects of these lives – Flannery O’Connor, John Cheever and Donald Barthelme – all produced longer work as well, but their reputations rest on shorter work. And this work, far from being minor, is among the most powerfully original American fiction produced in the second half of the 20th century.