Graphic Novella 'Stunt' Seeks Escape from Perpetual Entrapment
Like the title letters, the physical format of Michael DeForge's Stunt creates a kind of cage holding the main character inside rigid panels.
09 Sep 2019
Recent
On Helen McClory's Parasocial Love for Jeff Goldblum in 'The Goldblum Variations'
Metatexually dazzling yet absurdly soothing, Helen McClory's The Goldblum Variations will put a dent in your bad vibes.
06 Sep 2019
Cecelia Ahern's 'Roar' Reinforces the Normativity It Attempts to Subvert
Roar's strength is found in its depiction of empowered women, yet Ahern mistakenly centralizes a normative vision of feminism while reiterating the patriarchal control that silences her female characters' voices.
06 Sep 2019
Where He Goes, His Barrio Goes: An Interview with Author Gabino Iglesias
There's a lot to be angry about, these days, and Gabino Iglesias writes a lot about rage.
05 Sep 2019
'Famous People' Splashes in the Puddle of a Shallow Pop Star
When our protagonist is calm and reflective in Justin Kuritzkes' Famous People, there's a sense of potential intelligence beneath the shiny surface.
19 Aug 2019
McGinley's Darkly Comic 'Foggage' Explores Incest in Rural Ireland
As seen in Foggage, Patrick McGinley's fiction reveals a writer whose worth lies in his ability to balance perverse humour and human pathos on the cutting blade of his perfectly turned phrases.
16 Aug 2019
Short Stories: Siblings
Whatever the plot lines of a work of fiction, if it features siblings as important characters, various rich themes are mined. This issue of Short Stories brings forth the sibling-inspired works of Martha Bátiz, K Anis Ahmed, Jenny Zhang, Lidudumalingani, and Kseniya Melnik.
29 Jul 2019
All but One Speak up in Julia Alvarez's ¡Yo!
In a new edition to the sequel to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, ¡Yo!, Julia Alvarez structures the story of a writer and her voice by allowing everybody but the writer herself to have a voice.
16 Jul 2019
A Mother Who Eats Her Young? 'A Prayer for Travelers'
Equal parts gritty and subtly heartening, tragically jarring and emotionally resonant, Ruchika Tomar's debut A Prayer for Travelers is one of the strangest and most enjoyably wrought coming-of-age stories to appear in recent years.
16 Jul 2019
Debut 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' Brims with Emotional Intelligence
Cleverly, Claire Lombardo's novel The Most Fun We Ever Had de-romanticizes motherhood even as it sanctifies it.
15 Jul 2019
'When All Else Fails', Rely Upon Your Wit
Rayyan Al-Shawaf's When All Else Fails is politically complex, and its humor is razor-sharp.
11 Jul 2019
'The Word for Woman Is Wilderness' Is a Call to Subvert Gender Marginalization
In her debut work of fiction, The Word for Woman Is Wilderness, Abi Andrews explores why men can reject society and turn to wilderness survival but women are dissuaded from doing so.
29 May 2019
Ann Beattie's Latest, 'A Wonderful Stroke of Luck' Leaves This Reader Feeling Hapless
Disaffected prep school youth, seemingly from another era, stumble through the immediate wake of a post-9/11 America in Ann Beattie's A Wonderful Stroke of Luck.
14 May 2019
'Article 353' Explores Who Might Mete Out Justice When the Law Fails
Article 353 is Tanguy Viel's politically charged, darkly atmospheric, and cathartic indictment of neoliberal capitalism.
07 May 2019
On John O'Hara's 'Appointment in Samarra', 'Butterfield 8', 'Hope of Heaven', and 'Pal Joey'
Party girls, cads, and hopeless dreamers from a distant but eternally familiar past -- John O'Hara was a writer who deserved his place in the bleacher section of Great American Writers.
06 May 2019
Maylis de Kerangal's 'The Cook' Is a Classic Case of Style Over Substance
There is a lot of enjoyable sleight of hand in de Kerangal's The Cook, but ultimately the author fails to engage with the questions it raises.
03 May 2019
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