Seiobo There Below – László Krasznahorkai
The existence of this book suggests art represents a chance worth taking.
The Mehlis Report – Rabee Jaber
Some critics suggest that Jaber, who writes prolifically, needs to slow down or submit himself to an editor’s scissors. But The Mehlis Report makes for a glorious ramble, a leaping of the lines between investigation and gossip, between present and past, between life and death.
More watching than touching and as much mourning as loving, Love Dog is about love but because of that it is about everything.
Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail – Kelly Luce
I would happily suggest that Luce contributes as much to the contemporary renaissance of the short story in her first work as Russell, Aimee Bender, and George Saunders have with their recent masterpieces.
Hawthorn and Child – Keith Ridgway
Hawthorn and Child is a fundamentally conventional work of fiction, with arguably the imposed tension between reading it as a novel and reading it a series of short stories the sole adventurous feature.
Imagine the George Saunders’ Band covering a song by the Thomas Pynchon Orchestra and you have a pretty good idea of what sort of book The Facades is.
One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses – Lucy Corin
What does the apocalypse mean for narrative?
Hill WIlliam – Scott McClanahan
An attempt to physically break the memories out from the lockbox in his head, pain be damned.
The poorest, youngest, least-defended bodies are handed around, back and forth.
They Dragged Them Through the Streets – Hilary Plum
The message these mourners and friends struggled so desperately to express echoes emptily. It’s almost as if their pain had never been.