Books in Brief

Granta 54, Summer 1996: The Best of Young American Novelists, edited by Ian Jack (Penguin, 320 pp., $11.95)

TAKEN together, these stories represent the worst news for American fiction since William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize and inspired a generation of dreadful imitators. But, like most of the bad news from the front of the culture wars, this must be taken with a grain of salt. Look, for example, at the introduction, which he calls an “Editorial,” by Ian Jack, in which he explains both the techniques of the judging and the outcomes.