short stories
Antonio Tabucchi’s fluid style moves easily from realism to surrealism, banal conversation to poetic free association, reportage to allusion.
Read MoreBook Review: Donald Antrim’s “The Emerald Light in the Air” — Unabashedly Gorgeous
The Emerald Light in the Air is important reading for those interested in the state of the American short story, or of American fiction in general.
Read MoreBook Review: “The Old Priest” — Exquisite Stories About Being Human
This small but important book is a collection of stories about being human. It explores, even probes, the inner recesses of its characters without pretense or flamboyance.
Read MoreBook Review: “How Literature Saved My Life” — Maybe
Notwithstanding all that David Shields writes about the books and authors he loves, both classic and contemporary, he announces that today he can’t bear to write or read novels or even short stories in their old familiar forms and structures.
Read MoreGrappling with one’s identity — complicated by the relationships between tradition and modernism, cultural history and the process of assimilation — is central to most of Sherman Alexie’s stories, and his exploration of these complexities is compelling and illuminating.
Read MoreThe stories of Israeli writer Etgar Keret are diverse, one-of-a-kind safety nets, spun out of humor, tenderness and wild imaginings.
Read MoreFiction Review: “So There!” — Nicole Louise Reid’s Poetic Chick Lit
“So There!” comes off as a poetic species of chick lit, its female characters desperate to break deadly dull routines, longing for more (not even sure what), but generally expecting the doorway to redemption —- a passage figuratively filled with light in their imaginations -— to be a man.
Read MoreBook Interview: S.T. Joshi on Ambrose Bierce — The Underappreciated Genius of Being Grim
Bierce proffers a satiric temperament gone wild and woolly, partly propelled by a revulsion at the criminal vulgarity of the Gilded Age. Given the current triumph of the 1%, his fury at power mad corporations is worth an admiring look.
Read MoreDavid Green’s stories make for compelling literature—the kind of reading which poses a challenge today because of its exploration of psychological complexity, enigma, confusion, and suspense. The Garden of Love and Other Stories, by David Green. The Pen & Anvil Press, $14.95 Reviewed by Christopher M. Ohge. The romantic poetry of William Blake first came…
Read MoreBoston Noir: A Grimy Ride Through the Dark Side of Beantown
This enjoyable anthology of crime stories proffers a grimy ride through the murderous and creepy side of Beantown. Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane. Akashic Books, $15.95 Reviewed by Kate Vander Wiede In the introduction of Boston Noir, editor, contributor. and best-selling novelist Dennis Lehane explains that while Aristotle “mandated that a tragic hero must…
Read More- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3