I look forward to reading the winning 55 Fiction stories every year, but this year they are a sad commentary on the human condition (“Less is more,” July 1). More than half were about death and dying—two of the stories morbidly so. Two of the winning entries slam religious beliefs, and two are somewhat inane. Very few were quite amusing. Such stories as the 55 Fiction entries have  always revealed what we generally think in a larger sense.