Book Reviews
Reviewed by:
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... more
Reviewed by:
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.... more
Reviewed by:
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,... more
Reviewed by:
Josh Garrett-Davis
1.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... more
Reviewed by:
Erica Mena
False Friends by Uljana Wolf, translated by Susan Bernofsky, is a delightful foray into language and poetry. Even for someone who has no knowledge of German, the playful shifts between the English translation and the German hinted at behind it are enlightening: both Bernofsky and Wolf clearly delight in the slipperiness of language and sound.Cognates and homonyms suffuse the poem, toying... more
