March 15, 2019
On Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
New York, NY: Scribner, 2018. 304 pages. $26.00. Sarah Smarsh’s memoir Heartland joins a new genre that might somewhere down the road be called Trumpology. J.D. Vance’s 2016 sleeper hit […]
March 8, 2019
On Salvatore Scibona’s The Volunteer
New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2019. 432 pages. $28.00. “The boy wore a black parka, a matching ski cap, blue jeans, and sneakers; he appeared to be five years old; […]
March 8, 2019
On We, the Almighty Fires by Anna Rose Welch
Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2018. 100 pages. $15.95. I’ve been trying to figure out the title of Anna Rose Welch’s We, the Almighty Fires for a while. The book […]
March 1, 2019
Caught in the Glow: A Review of What if This Were Enough? by Heather Havrilesky
New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2018. 240 pages. $25.95. Ever since 1991, when Kurt Cobain screamed “A denial” over and over again from our stereo speakers, many of […]
March 1, 2019
On Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit by Mikko Harvey
Toronto, Canada: House of Anansi Press, 2018. 60 pages. $19.95. “Fuck, I always knew metaphors would be my downfall,” thinks the speaker of “Cannonball,” the closing poem of Mikko Harvey’s […]
February 22, 2019
On Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life by Jenny Boully
Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2018. 152 pages. $16.95. In Jenny Boully’s The Book of Beginnings and Endings (2007), she offers readers just that—alternating beginnings and endings from “hypothetical books.” […]
February 22, 2019
Dismantling Myself Spitefully: On Luigi Pirandello’s One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand
Translated by William Weaver. Sacramento, CA: Spurl, 2018. 218 pages. $18.00. “Forgive me if I speak a moment in the style of philosophers,” narrates Vitangelo Moscarda in the second part […]
February 15, 2019
On We Wear the Mask
We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America. Edited by Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2017. 216 pages. $18.00. One of my favorite […]
February 8, 2019
Florida Projects
Florida. Lauren Groff. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2018. 288 pages. $27.00. Florida. Christine Schutt. Evanston, IL: TriQuarterly Books, 2004. 152 pages. $22.95. What is a Florida book? A Florida […]
February 8, 2019
Duration and Adoration: On Catherine Barnett’s Human Hours
Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf, 2018. 112 pages. $16.00. Catherine Barnett’s enchanting third collection, Human Hours, takes its name from her “Essay on An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” an ode as sly […]
February 1, 2019
War Gets Everything It Comes For: On Diana Khoi Nguyen’s Ghost Of
Oakland, CA: Omnidawn, 2018. 88 pages. $17.95. Diana Khoi Nguyen’s debut collection Ghost Of is an exploration of family, identity, and the indelible but shifting imprints of grief. In any […]
January 25, 2019
On Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora
Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2017. 88 pages. $16.00. In “To Abuelita Neli,” the introductory poem to Unaccompanied, Javier Zamora’s remarkable debut, the reader is immediately gifted a moment […]