We Monks and Soldiers – Lutz Bassmann
Gloom and ambiguity blend to work the reader into a wonderful confusion. But it’s a useful confusion, one that expresses something fundamentally true about the world.
Swim for the Little One First – Noy Holland
Holland’s stories do not indulge in easy emotions, even if the bleak emotional atmosphere in many of them can be chilling.
Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt – Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco
As tragically optimistic as Hedges seems to be about the direction of the Occupy movement, it’s disheartening that he doesn’t seem to have as much faith in his previous arguments or in his audience’s ability to absorb them.
Care of Wooden Floors – Will Wiles
“A room is a manifestation of a state of mind . . . We make our rooms, and then our rooms make us.”
Promising Young Women – Suzanne Scanlon
Scanlon implicates the reader in the same system that has produced these “promising young women,” “career patients” seen by their doctors as projects, fodder for academic papers, or books.
The Obscene Madame D – Hilda Hilst
This publication of Hilst’s THE OBSCENE MADAME D may just be the literary miracle of 2012.
The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira – César Aira
What does writing have to do with saving the dying?
To make such critiques work in a novel, you should be equally as rigorous about your aesthetics as you are about your morals.
Stein has written a novel that re-shapes itself upon each reading depending solely on the reader’s tack.
Safe as Houses – Marie-Helene Bertino
The stories in SAFE AS HOUSES read as a combination of rough sandpaper and its smooth result.