The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even – Chris F. Westbury
Imagine Duchamp’s The Large Glass if the bachelors and bride had transcended their respective glass panels, and were living happily ever after in Philly. I don’t know if I’d travel to Philly to see that.
While I hope that in the sequel the characters devote their lives to some kind of fight for social justice, this story itself, told by a woman, about women, is refreshing.
Beautiful Soul, in its scrupulous attention to phrase and image in almost every sentence, could be called an attempt to bring the characters and their milieu to life through the vigor of the words on the page.
The Albertine Workout – Anne Carson
Following the tracks Carson leaves in the language is a little like getting to be a dog for an hour, for a day.
My Struggle (Books 1–3) – Karl Ove Knausgaard
Telling the truth at this length seems to ask in the starkest way possible why writers turn to fiction to give shape to experience.
Last Words from Montmartre – Qiu Miaojin
While Last Words from Montmartre can at times read as an outpouring of undirected and incoherent desire, it would be wrong to take it as the document of an emotional breakdown.
Shane Jones’ writing does not fit into any of the genres by which we sort the books on our shelves. Unless you have a bookshelf specifically for Weird, Delightful, and Sometimes Painful.
Vian peppers this Elysium with small, threatening glimpses of the world in which they live and to which they remain oblivious.
Zündel’s Exit bursts, then fades, refusing to become complete, to reach firm grounding.
House of Deer – Sasha Steensen
I’m always happy to see the I get up and perform. I have a weakness for confessions of hatred. And Steensen can be pleasingly disagreeable.