Commentary |
on Lost and Wanted, a novel by Nell Freudenberger
“Maybe in Nell Freudenberger’s universe it is eternally the pre-lapsarian summer of 2001, except with better computers …”
Commentary |
on Instructions for a Funeral, stories by David Means
“A Means story is a literary equivalent of zooming in to view a picture on your phone: a concentrated gesture that allows the eye to examine myriad details otherwise overlooked.”
Commentary |
on Excess — The Factory, poetry by Leslie Kaplan, translated from the French by Julie Carr and Jennifer Pap
“In Kaplan’s work, there’s a parallel between the assembly line and the poetic line. For her, we’re born into the factory of language, and we learn how to make it come together.”
Commentary |
on All Happy Families, a memoir by Hervé Le Tellier, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter
“Pulsing under the satirical monologue is a humming hurt, not silenced so much as parked outside the theater, the engine running.”
Commentary |
on Women Have Always Worked: A Concise History by Alice Kessler-Harris
“Had I read Kessler-Harris’s book early in my career, I might have had a clearer view that my own struggles were not unique and become more aware of the barriers that have faced workers throughout history.”
Commentary |
on Dolefully, A Rampart Stands, poems by Paige Ackerson-Kiely
“Her sentences demand — require — the reader’s attention at every turn, making us complicit even as we are aware of how all too quickly we want turn from what’s insidious …”
Commentary |
on The Condition of Secrecy, essays by Inger Christensen, translated from the Danish by Susanna Nied
“The convergence of two desires: the first, to resist the given so as to be free to create significance – then, to recognize the substance of what is actually there and felt”
Commentary |
‘Loguerhythms’ : on the Selected Poems of Christopher Logue
“To ignore a poet as multifaceted as Logue is to essentially overlook many of the more interesting developments in late 20thcentury British poetry …”
Commentary |
on Hear Our Defeats, a novel by Laurent Gaudé, translated by Alison Anderson
“Gaudé updates the terms of France’s querulousness over Déclinisme in the new millennium: La Patrie is regressing but its immigrants are committed to helping her strive on.”
Commentary |
on Rag: Stories by Maryse Meijer
“In Meijer’s fiction, any struggle between control and surrender will leave tragedy, monstrosity, or at the very least, disruption in its wake …”
Commentary |
on Binstead’s Safari, a novel by Rachel Ingalls
“Is it a contemporary fable about feminism and anti-colonialism, or an elaborate joint hallucination of a couple whose marriage is falling apart?”
Commentary |
on Bijoux in the Dark, poems by John Yau
“Diverting, mocking, amusing, critical, cool and oddly companionable — Yau’s poems – in their range of materials, attitudes, and quipping address – appeal to and privilege the reader’s experience, not conclusions.”
Commentary |
on The Barefoot Woman, a memoir by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Jordan Stump
“Among those killed in Rwanda was her mother, Stefania, who gives this book its title and animating force. ‘My sentences weave a shroud for your missing body,’ Mukasonga writes.”
Commentary |
on After the Afterlife and Eon, poetry by T.R. Hummer
“the personal crosses over to the universal, particulars grow immense, irony disarms sobriety, erudition underpins inspiration, and pathos infuses narrative …”
Commentary |
on Invasive species, poems by Marwa Helal
“Even after the attainment of that hard-won green card leading to naturalization, she continues to second-guess the decision to return to ‘a country that ensures we are harassed …'”