~
John Locke says children don't understand elapsed time,
and when I was a girl it was true
and it remains true--
--From "Essay on 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,'" a poem by Catherine Barnett, The New Yorker (March 19, 2018), pp. 52-53.
Our house, the very clever work of a local architect, consists of five shipping containers raised several feet above the ground. Half of one container functions as a garden office and the other half functions as a covered footbridge over the stream that runs through our land; previously, you had to negotiate a pair of old planks.
--From "The Poltroon Husband," a short story by Joseph O'Neill, The New Yorker (March 12, 2018), pp. 66-70.
The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is, . . .
--From "Red Brocade," a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, from her collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle (Greenwillow Books, 2002) and reprinted by the Academy of American Poets.
He tossed the unfinished coffee into the trash. As he was on his way back to Spice Grill, a Mercedes pulled quickly alongside him, making a wide, sweeping turn into one of Mr. Raj's private parking spots. The Mercedes came to a short stop, and Boss Bhatti, a Spice Grill regular and Raj's business partner, stepped out in a suit and tie. Boss Bhatti called Vikram over to the car. He needed help carrying crates of mangoes into the restaurant. Vikram reached inside the Mercedes and grabbed a stack.
--From "Guerrilla Marketing," a short story by Sanjay Agnihotri, One Story, Issue 236 (December 28, 2017).
Monday, August 27, 2018
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Graphic memoirs by Dominique Goblet, Roz Chast, and Katie Green
~
My father doesn't drink anymore. Not one more drop, supposedly. I haven't seen him in four years. My daughter will be four in July . . . Next month, that is.
--From Pretending Is Lying, a graphic memoir by Belgian artist Dominique Goblet, translated from the French by Sophie Yanow in collaboration with the author (New York Review Comics, 2017). Of the three books, this one is the most unusual, both visually and stylistically.
We drove down Ocean Parkway, the benches, the six-story apartment houses . . . we were in my old neighborhood, then on my old block, and finally, there was the old building where I grew up and where my parents were still living. The cab pulled up. I got out and entered the building, filled with dread, guilt, and a weird kind of claustrophobia.
--From Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?, a graphic memoir by New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast (Bloomsbury, 2014). The subject matter is grim--the aging and death of her parents--but Chast's sensitivity and humor make the book relatable and often funny.
Dear Reader,
You are holding the book I wish had been there for me.
It exists because I wanted nobody else to feel as lost, confused and alone as I felt. I wanted to be honest about how hard recovery is, and how long it takes, at the same time proving that it is possible.
--From Lighter Than My Shadow, a graphic memoir about anorexia and abuse by English artist Katie Green (first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape/Vintage, 2013; first published in the United States by Roar/Lion Forge, 2017). The 500-page memoir is light on text, letting Green's meticulous illustrations bring the book to life.
My father doesn't drink anymore. Not one more drop, supposedly. I haven't seen him in four years. My daughter will be four in July . . . Next month, that is.
--From Pretending Is Lying, a graphic memoir by Belgian artist Dominique Goblet, translated from the French by Sophie Yanow in collaboration with the author (New York Review Comics, 2017). Of the three books, this one is the most unusual, both visually and stylistically.
We drove down Ocean Parkway, the benches, the six-story apartment houses . . . we were in my old neighborhood, then on my old block, and finally, there was the old building where I grew up and where my parents were still living. The cab pulled up. I got out and entered the building, filled with dread, guilt, and a weird kind of claustrophobia.
--From Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?, a graphic memoir by New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast (Bloomsbury, 2014). The subject matter is grim--the aging and death of her parents--but Chast's sensitivity and humor make the book relatable and often funny.
Dear Reader,
You are holding the book I wish had been there for me.
It exists because I wanted nobody else to feel as lost, confused and alone as I felt. I wanted to be honest about how hard recovery is, and how long it takes, at the same time proving that it is possible.
--From Lighter Than My Shadow, a graphic memoir about anorexia and abuse by English artist Katie Green (first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape/Vintage, 2013; first published in the United States by Roar/Lion Forge, 2017). The 500-page memoir is light on text, letting Green's meticulous illustrations bring the book to life.
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
The Spring 2018 issue of the Apple Valley Review
~
The Spring 2018 issue of the Apple Valley Review features short fiction by Mauro Guidi-Signorelli, Joseph Cummins, and Lynn C. Miller; an essay by Robert Radin; prose poetry by Brittany Ackerman; poetry by Katherine Gekker, Christopher Todd Anderson, Simon Perchik, Claudia Serea, Lynne Knight, Ryan Thorpe, and Gabriel Chávez Casazola (translated from the Spanish by Morgan Cayce Harden); and a cover painting by José María Velasco.
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.
The Spring 2018 issue of the Apple Valley Review features short fiction by Mauro Guidi-Signorelli, Joseph Cummins, and Lynn C. Miller; an essay by Robert Radin; prose poetry by Brittany Ackerman; poetry by Katherine Gekker, Christopher Todd Anderson, Simon Perchik, Claudia Serea, Lynne Knight, Ryan Thorpe, and Gabriel Chávez Casazola (translated from the Spanish by Morgan Cayce Harden); and a cover painting by José María Velasco.
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.
Monday, March 26, 2018
Poems by Danusha Laméris, David Lehman, Ada Limón, and Mary Oliver
~
You're beautiful, sister, eat more fruit,
said the attendant every time my mother
pulled into the 76 off Ashby Avenue.
--From "Service Station," a poem by Danusha Laméris, Tin House (March 21, 2018), from Issue 75.
It's June 15, 2017, a Thursday,
fortieth anniversary of the infamous day
the Mets traded Tom Seaver to Cincinnati
You're beautiful, sister, eat more fruit,
said the attendant every time my mother
pulled into the 76 off Ashby Avenue.
--From "Service Station," a poem by Danusha Laméris, Tin House (March 21, 2018), from Issue 75.
It's June 15, 2017, a Thursday,
fortieth anniversary of the infamous day
the Mets traded Tom Seaver to Cincinnati
--From "It Could Happen to You," a poem by David Lehman, The New Yorker (December 4, 2017), p. 54.
The road wasn't as hazardous then,
when I'd walk to the steel guardrail,
lean my bendy girl body over, and stare
at the cold creek water.
--From "Overpass," a poem by Ada Limón, The New Yorker (December 4, 2017), p. 27.
Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
when I'd walk to the steel guardrail,
lean my bendy girl body over, and stare
at the cold creek water.
--From "Overpass," a poem by Ada Limón, The New Yorker (December 4, 2017), p. 27.
Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
--From "Dogfish," a poem by Mary Oliver, from her collection Dream Work (Grove/Atlantic, 1986).
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
"Above the Mountaintops" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Repentance" by Natasha Trethewey, and three other poems
~
Above the mountaintops
all is still.
Among the treetops you can feel
barely a breath--
--From "Above the Mountaintops," a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated from the German by Rita Dove, The New Yorker (November 13, 2017), p. 63.
To make it right Vermeer painted then painted over
this scene a woman alone at a table the cloth pushed back
rough folds at the edge as if someone had risen
--From "Repentance," a poem by Natasha Trethewey, The New Yorker (November 20, 2017), pp. 66-67.
Near a recently thawed pond, within a long
channel of construction, a man holding a sign.
One side says slow, the other stop.
Joy and sorrow always run like parallel lines.
--From "Signs for the Living," a poem by Didi Jackson, The New Yorker (October 2, 2017), p. 42.
Tonight I found out that I am divorced.
My second try at marriage, and it's through.
Relief is what I feel most, mixed with pain, of course,
remorse, and just plain grief, which makes me think of you,
you who knew such sorrow in your life
and all the ways that love can come undone,
who was the first to call yourself my wife . . .
--From "News of My Divorce Reminds Me of Your Death," a poem by Taylor Mali, Rattle (December 7, 2017).
The media loves pitting women against women: how do you feed your baby, why don't you fit in that dress, disposable diapers last 8 billion years even in the guts of sharks, gold digger, cougar, jailbait, cat fight. On Coney Island, Miki Sudo downed 38 hot dogs in 10 minutes for the national crown.
--From "Mother's Day," a poem by Karen Skolfield, Waxwing, Issue XIII (Fall 2017).
Above the mountaintops
all is still.
Among the treetops you can feel
barely a breath--
--From "Above the Mountaintops," a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated from the German by Rita Dove, The New Yorker (November 13, 2017), p. 63.
To make it right Vermeer painted then painted over
this scene a woman alone at a table the cloth pushed back
rough folds at the edge as if someone had risen
--From "Repentance," a poem by Natasha Trethewey, The New Yorker (November 20, 2017), pp. 66-67.
Near a recently thawed pond, within a long
channel of construction, a man holding a sign.
One side says slow, the other stop.
Joy and sorrow always run like parallel lines.
--From "Signs for the Living," a poem by Didi Jackson, The New Yorker (October 2, 2017), p. 42.
Tonight I found out that I am divorced.
My second try at marriage, and it's through.
Relief is what I feel most, mixed with pain, of course,
remorse, and just plain grief, which makes me think of you,
you who knew such sorrow in your life
and all the ways that love can come undone,
who was the first to call yourself my wife . . .
--From "News of My Divorce Reminds Me of Your Death," a poem by Taylor Mali, Rattle (December 7, 2017).
The media loves pitting women against women: how do you feed your baby, why don't you fit in that dress, disposable diapers last 8 billion years even in the guts of sharks, gold digger, cougar, jailbait, cat fight. On Coney Island, Miki Sudo downed 38 hot dogs in 10 minutes for the national crown.
--From "Mother's Day," a poem by Karen Skolfield, Waxwing, Issue XIII (Fall 2017).
Sunday, October 29, 2017
A Life of Adventure and Delight and other fiction
~
I've been waiting a while to read A Life of Adventure and Delight, a collection of short stories by Akhil Sharma (W. W. Norton, 2017), and it was worth it. Even the stories I'd read before knocked me out all over again. (Some, if not all of them, have been revised since the original publications.) David Sedaris wrote a couple of lines about the book that were included on the dust jacket of the hardcover: "There's a great duality to these stories: simple but complex, funny enough to laugh out loud at but emotionally devastating, foreign yet familiar. What an exciting and original writer this is, and what a knock-out collection." This really does sum it up.
A little after ten in the morning Mrs. Shaw walked across Gopal Maurya's lawn to his house. It was Saturday, and Gopal was asleep on the couch. The house was dark. When he first heard the doorbell, the ringing became part of a dream. Only he had been in the house during the four months since his wife had followed his daughter out of his life, and the sound of the bell joined somehow with his dream to make him feel ridiculous. Mrs. Shaw rang the bell again. Gopal woke confused and anxious, the state he was in most mornings. He was wearing only underwear and socks, but his blanket was cold from sweat.
--From "Cosmopolitan," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 13-45. "Cosmopolitan" was first published in The Atlantic (January 1997).
One August afternoon, when Ajay was ten years old, his elder brother, Birju, dove into a pool and struck his head on the cement bottom. For three minutes, he lay there unconscious. Two boys continued to swim, kicking and splashing, until finally Birju was spotted below them.
--From "Surrounded by Sleep," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 47-67. An earlier version of "Surrounded by Sleep" was first published in The New Yorker (December 10, 2001). (It shares a lot of details with Family Life, but even though I'd read that first, the story still had impact.)
The side of the police van slid open, rattling, and he was shoved inside. There were seven or eight men already sitting on the floor in the dark, their wrists handcuffed behind them. Nobody said anything. The van started with a jerk, then picked up speed. His legs were stretched out in front of him, and he tried to use his cuffed hands to balance himself, but the plastic cuffs tightened, and he and the other men went rolling across the floor like loose bottles.
--From "A Life of Adventure and Delight," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 127-145. "A Life of Adventure and Delight" was first published in The New Yorker (May 16, 2016).
We lived frugally. If somebody was coming to the house, my mother moved the plastic gallon jugs of milk to the front of the refrigerator and filled the other shelves with vegetables from the crisper.
--From "The Well," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 185-199. "The Well" was first published in The Paris Review (Fall 2016).
This is going to be--no, I don't want to be categorical--this could be the start of a virtuous circle. My psychologist has told me that I need to say positive things to myself, only I don't want to be too positive, as that might just make things worse. But I can say this: My life is a mess and I'm going to try to sort it out, starting with the small things. Then, later, I'll be able to deal with bigger, more complicated things; buying blinds is a lifeline that's been thrown to me from dry land as I flail and flounder in the waves, I muse, and I park the car outside IKEA.
--From "Nice and Mild," a short story by Gunnhild Øyehaug, from her collection Knots, translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), pp. 3-12. I first read Øyehaug's story "Two by Two," Knots pp. 142-164, in The Best of McSweeney's, a collection edited by Dave Eggers and Jordan Bass (McSweeney's, 2013). It was previously included in Issue 35 of the magazine in a section dedicated to Norwegian fiction.
I've been waiting a while to read A Life of Adventure and Delight, a collection of short stories by Akhil Sharma (W. W. Norton, 2017), and it was worth it. Even the stories I'd read before knocked me out all over again. (Some, if not all of them, have been revised since the original publications.) David Sedaris wrote a couple of lines about the book that were included on the dust jacket of the hardcover: "There's a great duality to these stories: simple but complex, funny enough to laugh out loud at but emotionally devastating, foreign yet familiar. What an exciting and original writer this is, and what a knock-out collection." This really does sum it up.
A little after ten in the morning Mrs. Shaw walked across Gopal Maurya's lawn to his house. It was Saturday, and Gopal was asleep on the couch. The house was dark. When he first heard the doorbell, the ringing became part of a dream. Only he had been in the house during the four months since his wife had followed his daughter out of his life, and the sound of the bell joined somehow with his dream to make him feel ridiculous. Mrs. Shaw rang the bell again. Gopal woke confused and anxious, the state he was in most mornings. He was wearing only underwear and socks, but his blanket was cold from sweat.
--From "Cosmopolitan," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 13-45. "Cosmopolitan" was first published in The Atlantic (January 1997).
One August afternoon, when Ajay was ten years old, his elder brother, Birju, dove into a pool and struck his head on the cement bottom. For three minutes, he lay there unconscious. Two boys continued to swim, kicking and splashing, until finally Birju was spotted below them.
--From "Surrounded by Sleep," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 47-67. An earlier version of "Surrounded by Sleep" was first published in The New Yorker (December 10, 2001). (It shares a lot of details with Family Life, but even though I'd read that first, the story still had impact.)
The side of the police van slid open, rattling, and he was shoved inside. There were seven or eight men already sitting on the floor in the dark, their wrists handcuffed behind them. Nobody said anything. The van started with a jerk, then picked up speed. His legs were stretched out in front of him, and he tried to use his cuffed hands to balance himself, but the plastic cuffs tightened, and he and the other men went rolling across the floor like loose bottles.
--From "A Life of Adventure and Delight," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 127-145. "A Life of Adventure and Delight" was first published in The New Yorker (May 16, 2016).
We lived frugally. If somebody was coming to the house, my mother moved the plastic gallon jugs of milk to the front of the refrigerator and filled the other shelves with vegetables from the crisper.
--From "The Well," a short story by Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight, pp. 185-199. "The Well" was first published in The Paris Review (Fall 2016).
This is going to be--no, I don't want to be categorical--this could be the start of a virtuous circle. My psychologist has told me that I need to say positive things to myself, only I don't want to be too positive, as that might just make things worse. But I can say this: My life is a mess and I'm going to try to sort it out, starting with the small things. Then, later, I'll be able to deal with bigger, more complicated things; buying blinds is a lifeline that's been thrown to me from dry land as I flail and flounder in the waves, I muse, and I park the car outside IKEA.
--From "Nice and Mild," a short story by Gunnhild Øyehaug, from her collection Knots, translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), pp. 3-12. I first read Øyehaug's story "Two by Two," Knots pp. 142-164, in The Best of McSweeney's, a collection edited by Dave Eggers and Jordan Bass (McSweeney's, 2013). It was previously included in Issue 35 of the magazine in a section dedicated to Norwegian fiction.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
A poem by Stephen Dunn and short fiction by Rebecca Lee and Etgar Keret
~
You shouldn't be surprised that the place
you always sought, and now have been given,
carries with it a certain disappointment. . . .
--From "The Inheritance," a poem by Stephen Dunn, The New Yorker (September 4, 2017), p. 28.
It was the terrine that got to me. I felt queasy enough that I had to sit in the living room and narrate to my husband what was the brutal list of tasks that would result in a terrine: devein, declaw, decimate the sea and other animals, eventually emulsifying them into a paste which could then be riven with whole vegetables.
--From "Bobcat," a short story by Rebecca Lee, in Bobcat & Other Stories (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013), pp. 1-30. "Bobcat" was originally published as a chapbook with Madras Press, 2010.
This old house, belonging to my friends Lesley and Andy, had been built in 1904 in a neighborhood that pretended it was on solid ground--old, Victorian homes with pillars and porticoes--but if you stepped through the screen door into the garden out back, you could feel the sand under your feet, and despite Lesley's beautiful mazes of trees, you could tell the ocean had been here not long ago, and would be again.
--From "Settlers," a short story by Rebecca Lee, in Bobcat & Other Stories (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013), pp. 195-209.
Dad wouldn't buy me a Bart Simpson doll. Mum actually said yes, but Dad said I was spoiled. "Why should we, eh?" he said to Mum. "Why should we buy him one? All it takes is one little squeak from him and you jump to attention." Dad said I had no respect for money, that if I didn't learn it when I was young when would I? Kids who get Bart Simpson dolls too easily grow up to be louts who steal from kiosks, because they're used to getting whatever they want the easy way. So instead of a Bart Simpson doll he bought me an ugly china pig with a flat hole in its back, and now I'll grow up to be OK, now I won't be a lout.
--From "Breaking the Pig," a short story by Etgar Keret, translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu, in The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories (Riverhead Books, 2015), pp. 27-30. "Breaking the Pig" was first published in Hebrew in Missing Kissinger (Zmora Bitan, 1994).
You shouldn't be surprised that the place
you always sought, and now have been given,
carries with it a certain disappointment. . . .
--From "The Inheritance," a poem by Stephen Dunn, The New Yorker (September 4, 2017), p. 28.
It was the terrine that got to me. I felt queasy enough that I had to sit in the living room and narrate to my husband what was the brutal list of tasks that would result in a terrine: devein, declaw, decimate the sea and other animals, eventually emulsifying them into a paste which could then be riven with whole vegetables.
--From "Bobcat," a short story by Rebecca Lee, in Bobcat & Other Stories (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013), pp. 1-30. "Bobcat" was originally published as a chapbook with Madras Press, 2010.
This old house, belonging to my friends Lesley and Andy, had been built in 1904 in a neighborhood that pretended it was on solid ground--old, Victorian homes with pillars and porticoes--but if you stepped through the screen door into the garden out back, you could feel the sand under your feet, and despite Lesley's beautiful mazes of trees, you could tell the ocean had been here not long ago, and would be again.
--From "Settlers," a short story by Rebecca Lee, in Bobcat & Other Stories (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013), pp. 195-209.
Dad wouldn't buy me a Bart Simpson doll. Mum actually said yes, but Dad said I was spoiled. "Why should we, eh?" he said to Mum. "Why should we buy him one? All it takes is one little squeak from him and you jump to attention." Dad said I had no respect for money, that if I didn't learn it when I was young when would I? Kids who get Bart Simpson dolls too easily grow up to be louts who steal from kiosks, because they're used to getting whatever they want the easy way. So instead of a Bart Simpson doll he bought me an ugly china pig with a flat hole in its back, and now I'll grow up to be OK, now I won't be a lout.
--From "Breaking the Pig," a short story by Etgar Keret, translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu, in The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories (Riverhead Books, 2015), pp. 27-30. "Breaking the Pig" was first published in Hebrew in Missing Kissinger (Zmora Bitan, 1994).
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