A novel and two poems

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog (L'élégance du hérisson), a novel by Muriel Barbery, translated from the French by Alison Anderson (Editions Gallimard, Paris, 2006; Europa Editions, New York, 2008). 

"Two Creatures," a poem by Billy Collins, from his collection Horoscopes for the Dead (Random House, 2011, pp. 53-54), and originally published in Cimarron Review. 

I also really liked much of Collins' poem "Table Talk" (pp. 60-62, originally in The New Yorker), which aptly, for this post, ended with the words "a hedgehog bristling with quills." 

Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett

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Ship Fever (W.W. Norton, 1996), which won the National Book Award for fiction in 1996, is a collection of eight stories by Andrea Barrett. 

When I first picked up the book, I didn't realize that I'd already read the first story, "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds."  It was originally printed in The Missouri Review, and I'd read the reprint in Best American Short Stories, 1995 (guest edited by Jane Smiley).     

My favorite stories in the collection were "The Littoral Zone" (originally published in Story), "Birds with No Feet," and the rather stunning title story, "Ship Fever."  It, like several of the other stories in the collection, weaves together fiction and scientific or historical record.

Alice Munro, Ellen Bass, Stewart O'Nan

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Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You, a collection of thirteen short stories by Alice Munro (McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1974).  My favorite stories here were "How I Met My Husband" (pp. 45-66 in the paperback Vintage International version from 2004) and "Winter Wind" (pp. 192-206).

Mules of Love, a collection of poems by Ellen Bass (BOA Editions, 2002).  My favorites were "The Thing Is" (p. 72), which I mentioned in a previous post, and "In Which a Deer Is Found in a Bubble Bath, Having Entered the House, Turned on the Faucet, Knocked Over the Bottle, and Stepped In—Not Necessarily in That Order" (pp. 23-24).   

 

The Good Wife, a novel by Stewart O'Nan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).  

Two poems and two books

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"Why I Opted for the More Expensive Oil at Jiffy Lube," a poem by Julie Price Pinkerton, Rattle, Volume 19, Number 2 (Summer 2013).

"On Reading a Newspaper for the First Time as an Adult," a poem by Sharon Olds, from her collection Stag's Leap (Knopf, 2012, p. 71), and originally published in The New Yorker. 

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (Random House, 2011). 

My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather (Knopf, 1926).  

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

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In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W.W. Norton, 2009) is Daniyal Mueenuddin's debut collection, a set of eight linked stories set mainly in Pakistan. Among other things, the book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award finalist, and a New York Times bestseller.

This is a pretty phenomenal collection overall, and it is difficult to single out individual pieces, but my favorite stories were the bookends: "Nawabdin Electrician" and "A Spoiled Man."

He flourished on a signature capability, a technique for cheating the electric company by slowing down the revolutions of electric meters, so cunningly done that his customers could specify to the hundred-rupee note the desired monthly savings.
--From "Nawabdin Electrician," pp. 13-28 in the paperback version, originally published in The New Yorker (August 27, 2007) and later in Best American Short Stories 2008.

There he stood at the stone gateway of the Harounis' weekend home above Islamabad, a small bowlegged man with a lopsided battered face. When the American wife's car drove up, turning off the Murree road, Rezak saluted, eyes straight ahead, not looking at her.
--From "A Spoiled Man," pp. 221-247, originally published in The New Yorker (September 15, 2008).

(If I absolutely had to choose a third, it would be "Our Lady of Paris," pp. 143-168, originally from Zoetrope: All Story, Volume 10, Number 3 (Fall 2006). Sohail and Helen had begun dating two years earlier, at Yale, where she was an undergraduate and he at the law school. After graduating the previous summer he had returned to his home in Pakistan, while she completed her senior year.)

However, the collection is really more than the sum of its parts. "A Spoiled Man" is incredible on its own, but every bit of the story, even of the title, is more nuanced and meaningful when read with the other stories. It was, I thought, a perfect ending to the book.

"Indulgence" by Susan Perabo

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My mother was thrilled to be dying of brain cancer after a lifetime of smoking. She had dodged the bullet of lung cancer after all, she triumphantly announced to me on the phone that summer afternoon. All those years my brothers and I had hassled her, lectured her, begged her, berated her (“Don’t you want to see your grandchildren graduate from college?”)—and for what? Her lungs were fine! . . .

"Indulgence," a short story by Susan Perabo, published in One Story, Issue Number 178 (May 3, 2013). The link has a sample of the story and a Q&A with Susan Perabo. (The editor's notes mention this, but I will, too: there are some spoilers in the Q&A.) This was a really poignant story.

The Spring 2013 issue of the Apple Valley Review (April 2, 2013)

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The Spring 2013 issue of the journal features short fiction by Jessica Rafalko, Daniel Ellis, Scott David, and Paul Pekin; a series of three short essays by Laura Vrcek; poetry by Lyn Lifshin, Sharlene Teo, Priscilla Atkins, Christina Frei, Jada Ach, Iain Macdonald, Claudia Serea, Pádrí Veum, and Gail Peck; and artwork by modern Russian landscape painter Dmitry Levin.

The Apple Valley Review is a semiannual online literary journal. The current issue, previous issues, subscription information, and complete submission guidelines are available at www.applevalleyreview.com.