The profs convene to discuss the recent on-campus protests, their peer in the center of the students movement.

(from Bobcat and Other Stories)

“Let me put it this way,” he said. “I will be happy if they stop, but I can’t help but be proud of them.

Most of my experience reading this anthology — and I’m closer to the end than the beginning — has left me lacking useful things to say. The stories have been brilliant, and surprising, and sharp, and I can’t seem to find much to tell readers about it except that this collection is one hundred percent worth their time.

Still is. But this time I’m way less wowed by the story at hand, and so I’m at a loss for other reasons. “World Party” wasn’t the tightly wound and wired fiction I’ve come to expect from Lee. Sentences, scenes, things just felt a little off. I dunno. It’s a little too MFA and not enough effin’ A.