Short Stories:How to classify The Book of Other People? It is a charitable venture in aid of a non-profit organisation, and the list of contributors, topped by its stellar editor, Zadie Smith, reads like a young writers' hall of fame. First and foremost though, it is an anthology of short stories - or, in keeping with the season, something of a literary selection box, with fictional nuggets by 23 of the brightest and most fashionable writers from both sides of the Atlantic crammed into its pages.
As Smith states in her introduction, the idea behind the book was an exercise in character - "the instruction was simple: make somebody up" - and the resulting creations are as varied as you would expect from a line-up that includes Colm Tóibín, Dave Eggers, AL Kennedy, Jonathan Lethem and Miranda July. One could make the point that most short stories tend to centre on character, but Smith's brief does seem to have let some of these writers off the creative leash: there are slumbering mythical giants here, a deranged next-door neighbour, an embittered film critic, a former child actor and a puppy.
Just as intriguing are the different narrative forms the authors commandeer to tell their stories, ranging from Jonathan Safran Foer's affectionate Rhoda, a Jewish grandmother's stream-of-consciousness monologue ("I'll tell you about my heart scan. Have a cookie. I'm not gonna take your time."), to Nick Hornby and Posy Simmonds's book jacket biographies of "J. Johnson". Perhaps, as the editor suggests, the writers were responding to the freedom of writing something wholly unconnected to a larger body of work, and in some cases, dipping their toe in less familiar formal waters, but whatever the reason, there is a springiness to many of these pieces and a sense of unfettered whimsy. Which is not to say that this approach always succeeds. In some instances the results of experimentation are more po-faced than playful, as in Toby Litt's The Monster; and after reading the brittle musings of Nigora, Adam Thirlwell's Uzbekistani protagonist, on her sex life, I'd be happy never to encounter her again (alas not to be - Thirlwell's contributor's note tells us that it is part of a work in progress). Still, in an anthology as freeform as this, it is inevitable that some contributions will succeed more than others, and, happily, the good far outweighs the not-so-good.
The two stand-out stories in the collection come from Colm Tóibín and Smith herself and, tellingly, both not only adhere to a more traditional form, they are also of a piece with their authors' best writing. Tóibín's Donal Webster sees an Irishman in Texas recalling his mother's death six years earlier and, echoing moments in his landmark The Heather Blazing, delves into childhood and memory to explore the distances within families and to make the past chime with the present. In Hanwell Snr, Smith also creates a family history from the life story of an errant and feckless grandfather; as ever, her prose resonates with a clear-eyed emotional intelligence and wry humour. Other highlights include AL Kennedy's portrait of Frank, a man left desolate by bereavement, isolation and a broken marriage, and Miranda July's typically quirky tale of a celebrity encounter. On the clever side, Andrew O'Hagan's Gordonand Aleksandar Hemon's The Liarimagine the lives of existing characters.
ASIDE FROM SHOWCASING some of the best contemporary fiction writers around, this collection also has a real-life purpose in raising funds for 826 New York, a charity set up by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida to help children with their creative writing; as Smith puts it, " The Book of Other Peoplerepresents real people making fictional people work for real people". It is also a handsomely produced book, with the feel of Eggers's McSweeney'smagazines (in keeping with its beneficiary). And while there may be more substantial literary offerings out there, few can match this for variety, currency, star contributors or sheer scope of imagination. Moreover, as something to dip into in the post-prandial Christmas haze, it sure beats a selection box.
Catherine Heaney is a contributing editor to The Gloss magazine
The Book of Other People Edited by Zadie Smith Hamish Hamilton, 288pp. £16.99