I just started reading a novel made up of short stories (or "fiction collection") by the poet Alice Fulton and I can already tell it is going to be very good. Titled "The Nightingales of Troy", it concerns the family Garrahan over the course of a century (the names aren't all Garrahan because it concerns the female members of each succeeding generation). Seems like any novel written by a poet is going to be a good bet. "Pictures from an Institution" by Randall Jarrell is one of my top five funniest books of all time.