The Blog

Rahul Mehta's QUARANTINE

Theodore Wheeler

In his convincing debut collection of short fiction, Quarantine (Harper Perennial 2011), Rahul Mehta chronicles the lives of openly gay Indian-American men, their disappointments and betrayals, and the hard-earned personal connections they come to cherish. In an intimate, confessional style, Mehta’s characters dwell on botched relationships, on their romantic, familial, and cultural failures, and on the difficulty of sharing space with another person. Most of the stories focus on Western-born children and young adults bored by Indian social and religious traditions—rich kids, overfed on pop culture, who have trouble connecting with those around them, whatever their ethnicity. For his part, Rahul Mehta is a technician of the first order.

James Grinwis’s EXHIBIT OF FORKING PATHS

Micah Bateman

“...[W]hile in transit, // things glitter.”
—James Grinwis, from “Inupiat,” Exhibit of Forking Paths

Every time the bucks went clattering
Over Oklahoma
A firecat bristled in the way.
Wherever they went,
They went clattering,
Until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the right,
Because of the firecat.
Or until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the left,
Because of the firecat.
The bucks clattered.
The firecat went leaping,
To the right, to the left,
And
Bristled in the way.
Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes
And slept.

Mark Wisniewski's SHOW UP, LOOK GOOD

Jack Smith

“Wisniewski shows a shrewd hand with sparkling dialogue,” said Publishers Weekly of All Weekend with the Lights On, Mark Wisniewski’s 2001 collection of short fiction, and while this assessment is certainly true, Wisniewski’s deeply engaging prose style also owes much to the author's incisive wit and subtle irony. Combining the best of literary forebears Twain and Hemingway, Wisniewski’s narration offers a fine mix of arresting humor and keen lucidity, and generously so in his second novel, Show Up, Look Good (Gival Press, 2011).

Crossing 3

Russell Scott Valentino

Our editor-in-chief, Russell Valentino, is writing a series of posts from a trip across Eurasia via ferry, plane, and Trans-Siberian Railway.

Leslie Marmon Silko’s THE TURQUOISE LEDGE

Josh Garrett-Davis

Somewhere outside Tucson, there’s a Laguna Pueblo/Euro-American/Mexican-American woman living in a house with space blankets tacked inside the windows, with half a dozen mastiffs, a pit bull, a pet rattlesnake, a small flock of macaws (including a twenty-two-year-old named Sandino, with one leg—owl attack), an African gray parrot singing along to Sesame Street, and tables full of crystal quartz and turquoise pieces collected from the arroyos nearby. She’s probably painting canvases to communicate with “Star Beings.” She is Leslie Marmon Silko, best known for her 1977 novel Ceremony.

Rahul Mehta's QUARANTINE

James Grinwis’s EXHIBIT OF FORKING PATHS

Mark Wisniewski's SHOW UP, LOOK GOOD

Crossing 3

Leslie Marmon Silko’s THE TURQUOISE LEDGE

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