The Review of Contemporary Fiction articles from March 2008

The Review of Contemporary Fiction archives from March 2008

Guest editor's note.
March 22, 2008... Having been asked to compile an anthology of contemporary Catalan stories, and one that already had a fairly definitive and defining proposed title (New Catalan Fiction), I would like to set out in writing some of the basic criteria on which I...

Some general resources in English about Catalan Literature.(Bibliography)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... 800 Years of Catalan Literature http://cultura.gencat.net/ilc/literaturacatalana800 Basic introduction to eight centuries of Catalan literature in digital format. Available in eleven languages. Associacio d'Editors en Llengua...

The salamander.(THEN)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... I strolled down to the water, beneath the willow tree and through the watercress bed. When I reached the pond I knelt down. As always, the frogs gathered around me. Whenever I arrived, they would appear and come jumping toward me. As soon as I...

The unexpected at number 10.(THEN)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... The unexpected comes to number 10 early in the morning. A couple of policemen armed with shotguns and two members of the social brigade threaten to batter down the first door on the second floor. One policeman shouts in a voice immediately...

The dying country.(THEN)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... When I arrived, the country that had lost its soul sat empty-handed by the port, sadly eyeing the dead waters. "Soon I shall be like these waters, it's clear. I express nothing, nothing is authentically mine. Soon I shall be an indifferent...

Myth of the Americans.(THEN )(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... In principle, my people are from the Plain of Vic. Or, better said, Guilleries folk who went up along the River Ter weaving and dying. Tall, scrawny men, pale-skinned and straight-haired, unkempt and angular, with brittle teeth. Aunt...

Provisional report of Elies Santapau's sprint.(THEN)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... The chronicler--on most accounts extremely meticulous, quite particular when it comes to details about events being described--regrets having to confess that at present he is still unable to establish with irrefutable accuracy the precise hour...

Strange name.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... He's pulling a baby carriage behind him, taking his time, when he sees an unusual sign on the building. It doesn't say "Seeking apartment in this neighborhood. Will pay cash. Phone... ," nor "Parking space for rent." The paper's like most...

Family life.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... Armand ran into the woodshop, making engine sounds with his mouth and trampling the wood shavings under his feet to make as much noise as possible. He circled the carpenter's bench twice, eyeing the handsaws, gouges, damps, planes and other...

From this side of the cloister.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... It was a house in carrer del Castell. The door was made from salvaged pieces of wood, from an old wagon, maybe. The bits were set vertically and right at the top there was one going across that didn't fit properly. At the bottom, on the left,...

The brothers Kovacks.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... When the elder of the Kovacks brothers witnessed his father's death, he already knew that a long journey awaited them. Some days previously, the private deathbed days, the elder brother summoned up his courage and asked one of the Frankfurt...

The window.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... Lisa Morning after morning she woke up with a hope that was easily satisfied: to breakfast while gazing through the mist at the distant house nestling deep in the valley. When the haze began to lift, she could discern a few frosty flies...

Our war.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... The moment I sit down in front of my computer my intention is to write the story of a battle and leave it unclear which side I'm on. If I can, I will explain the facts by distancing myself in a way that emphasizes the idea--hardly original, I...

Continental.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... Now that we've just gotten a divorce, this could be a good moment to remember how it all began. It was at the outdoor patio of the Continental, where I was having a vermouth with Angel and Sam. Angel had studied with me all the way through...

The future.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... One of the pushchair's four wheels isn't rolling properly. It's snared a paper tissue with which somebody must have taken lousy aim at the hall's wastepaper basket, without bothering to make amends for their clumsiness. The snot stuck to the...

The madmen's ship.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... Help! Help! For the grace of the good God, implores the castaway, whose body struggles against the waves of the Baltic. He thinks all is lost. But when his strength has already left him, when he's already resigned himself to certain death, in...

The importance of oral and dental hygiene.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... What he most craves in the world is to live with her. Why can't they share that flat her parents let her use for a symbolic rent? And who says flat means breakfast, nights in watching the television, and a joint message on the...

A fire.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... An evening comes along when Evian and Perrier simply don't know what to do. They don't want to go out or see anybody, they're quite sure about that. They've been married only a short time and are still going through that period when couples are...

Fiesta.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... ... and on the balconies black geraniums. --Albert Pla Those days the sun was hidden, the stock market collapsed, the government was scared, the schools took holidays, some scoundrels partied, and the country wept. A...

Barren.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... The woman driver of a smashed-up Volvo on a mountain road manages to climb out of the car. She goes to the edge of the road and sees that, three hundred meters below her, light is coming from the headlamps of a red Ibiza which has got stuck in...

The keys.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... When I went back there, it had changed so much I felt I was in a different place. The riverbeds been dug out, there's a new bridge, and they've levelled out all the hilly areas to improve access. "[he empty lots at the side of the road have...

You can't not feel it.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... For some time now, the village's children have been told the tale of why, be it morning or night, they may not go to the beach. Since this tale is told to them in school, and since the classes are held in the morning, there's no danger of the...

Afterword: stolen time.(AND NOW)(Fictional work)
March 22, 2008... Asked once to explain his devotion to short stories, Pere Calders answered that, while in exile in Mexico, he had held down a 9-to-5 job. He would steal time for himself by getting up at 5:00 A.M. to write before work, and it was the short...

Acknowledgments.
March 22, 2008... Merce Rodroreda "La salamandra" from the work La meva Cristina i alters contes, 1967 [c] Institut d'Estudis Catalans Pere Calders "L'imprevist a la casa numero 10," from the work El primer arlequi [c] Heirs of Pere Calders ...

Dear editor.
March 22, 2008... Dear Editor: I was disturbed by the letters to the editor in the last issue of RCF. Why promote this grim view of love and marriage by publishing such garbage? If the letters are intended to be funny, I can assure you that they are not. And if...

Shimon Ballas. Outcast.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... SHIMON BALLAS. OUTCAST. TRANS. AMMIEL ALCALAY AND OZ SHELACH. CITY LIGHTS PUBLISHERS, 2007. 308 PP. PAPER: $13.95. In Outcast Shimon Ballas introduces an old man, a Jew born in Iraq who converted to Islam in the 1930s, reviewing his divided...

Violette Leduc. The Lady and the Little Fox Fur.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... VIOLETTE LEDUC. THE LADY AND THE LITTLE FOX FUR. PETER OWEN/ DUFOUR EDITIONS, 2008. 104 PP. PAPER: $20.95. The lady of the title is a desirous Mrs. Dalloway, a sixty-year-old Sasha Jenson, lit at times with joy and wonderment at her dear...

Douglas Messerli. My Year 2005: Terrifying Times.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... DOUGLAS MESSERLI. MY YEAR 2005: TERRIFYING TIMES. GREEN INTEGER, 2006. 305 PR PAPER: $15.95. The premise of My Year 2005 is simple enough: it collects reviews and "casual writing" that Messerli did (largely) in the year of 2005 sometimes...

Magdalena Tulli. Flaw.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... MAGDALENA TULLI. FLAW. TRANS. BILL JOHNSTON. ARCHIPELAGO BOOKS, 2007. 140 PR PAPER: $14.00. Flaw acknowledges a debt to artifice from first page to last as its narrator summons from hanging garments and second-hand sets a cast of...

Jordi Coca. Under the Dust.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... JORDI COCA. UNDER THE DUST. TRANS. RICHARD THOMSON. PARTHIAN BOOKS, 2007. 200 PR PAPER: $17.95. Surely one of the defining genres of twentieth-century literature has been the bildungsroman set amid the oppressive pressures of a fascist...

Charles Baxter. The Soul Thief.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... CHARLES BAXTER. THE SOUL THIEF. PANTHEON, 2008. 224 PP. PAPER: $20.00 Charles Baxter, best known for his National Book Award-nominated novel, The Feast of Love (2000), now gives us The Soul Thief. The first half of the novel tracks...

James Sallis. Potato Tree.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... JAMES SALLIS. POTATO TREE. HOST PUBLICATIONS, 2007. 180 PP. PAPER: $15.00. Crime novelist and translator James Sallis reveals another facet of his work in this collection of stories culled from forty years of writing. In the title story,...

Anna Kavan. Guilty.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... ANNA KAVAN. GUILTY. PETER OWEN LTD./ DUFOUR EDITIONS, 2008. 189 PP. PAPER: $32.95. Part Dickensian bildungsroman, part Kafkaesque nightmare, Anna Kavan's previously unpublished novel Guilty follows the fortunes of Mark, the narrator and...

Ha Jin. A Free Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... HA JIN. A FREE LIFE. PANTHEON BOOKS, 2007. 660 PP. CLOTH: $26.00. A Free Life by Ha Jin, the author of Waiting and War Trash and the winner of National Book and PEN/Faulkner awards, is the first book-length fiction that the China-born...

Andy Mozina. The Women Were Leaving the Men.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... ANDY MOZINA. THE WOMEN WERE LEAVING THE MEN. WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2007. 230 PP. PAPER: $18.95. One of the strange things about Andy Mozina's collection is that two of its first three stories, "Cowboy Pile" (about piles of cowboys)...

Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlap. Trans. Anne Mclean. Autonauts of the Cosmoroute.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... JULIO CORTAZAR AND CAROL DUNLAP. TRANS. ANNE MCLEAN. AUTONAUTS OF THE COSMOROUTE. ARCHIPELAGO BOOKS, 2008. 354 PR PAPER: $14.00 "Rest areas, monotonous? To us they seem more diverse all the time, we feel and experience them like microcosms...

Dannie Abse. Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... DANNIE ABSE. ASH ON A YOUNG MAN'S SLEEVE. PARTHIAN BOOKS/ LIBRARY OF WALES, 2007. 344 PP. PAPER: $16.95. Dannie Abse, born in 1923, is known as the doctor-poet among the poets of Wales, much as the late R. S. Thomas was the priest-poet. Yet...

Kathy Acker. Acker: Articles from the New Statesman, 1989-1991.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... KATHY ACKER. ACKER: ARTICLES FROM THE NEW STATESMAN, 1989-1991. ED. ROBERT BUCKEYE. AMANDLA PUBLISHING, 2007. 64 PP. PAPER: $15.00. This volume collects eleven articles Kathy Acker wrote from the U.S. for The New Statesman (then still a...

Paul West. Sheer Fiction IV.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... PAUL WEST. SHEER FICTION IV. MCPHERSON & CO, 2007. 229 PP. $26.00. Thirteen years after the previous installment, Paul West's wonderful Sheer Fiction series here comes to an end: four volumes spanning three decades of essays, reviews, and...

Barry Gifford. Memories from a Sinking Ship.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... BARRY GIFFORD. MEMORIES FROM A SINKING SHIP. SEVEN STORIES PRESS, 2007. 270 PP. $21.95. In this new novel from Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart, Back in America), we are drawn into a world of unspoken understanding, of gangsters, of Chicago in...

Kercheval, Jesse Lee. The Alice Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... KERCHEVAL, JESSE LEE. THE ALICE STORIES. UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS, 2007. 227 PP. PAPER: $24.95. Despite its frequent allusions to Alice in Wonderland, this collection of short stories is hyper-realistic. The narrator is keen to see her...

Alasdair Gray. Old Men in Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... ALASDAIR GRAY. OLD MEN IN LOVE: JOHN TUNNOCK'S POSTHUMOUS PAPERS. BLOOMSBURY, 2007. 312 PP. CLOTH: 20.00 [pounds sterling]. Alasdair Grays eighth novel is his first since A History Maker (1994); like its predecessor Poor Things (1992), it...

Victoria Redel. The Border of Truth.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... VICTORIA REDEL. THE BORDER OF TRUTH. COUNTERPOINT PRESS LTD., 2007. 324 PP. CLOTH: $24.95. Sara Leader passes her summer days between the New York Society Library, where she is translating the philosophic writings of Walter Benjamin, and...

Lance Olsen. Anxious Pleasures: A Novel After Kafka.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... LANCE OLSEN. ANXIOUS PLEASURES: A NOVEL AFTER KAFKA. SHOEMAKER & HOARD, 2007. 179 PP. PAPER: $15.00. Lance Olsen's anxious pleasures: a novel after kafka is a surreal text of haunting, interlacing narratives. Olsen engages in direct...

Kenneth Koch. On the Edge: Collected Long Poems.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... KENNETH KOCH. ON THE EDGE: COLLECTED LONG POEMS. KNOPF, 2007. 411 PP. CLOTH: $35.00. Called the "headmaster and ringmaster" of the New York School by his friend John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch's On the Edge: Collected Long Poems follows on the...

William T. Vollmann. Riding toward Everywhere.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN. RIDING TOWARD EVERYWHERE. ECCO, 2008. 288 PP. CLOTH: $26.95. Riding Toward Everywhere is William T. Vollmann's portrait of the contemporary hobo, a subculture of people who have dropped out of mainstream life and...

Peter Carey. His Illegal Self.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... PETER CAREY. HIS ILLEGAL SELF. KNOPF, 2008. 272 PP. CLOTH: $25.00. If Milan Kundera's insistence that the novel must offer insight into "a hitherto unknown segment of existence" is accurate, then Peter Carey's recent His Illegal Self easily...

Joseph Tabbi and Rone Shavers, eds. Paper Empire: William Gaddis and the World System.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... JOSEPH TABBI AND RONE SHAVERS, EDS. PAPER EMPIRE: WILLIAM GADDIS AND THE WORLD SYSTEM. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS, 2007. 291 PP. PAPER: $32.95. William Gaddis hasn't exactly been ignored--as Joseph Tabbi rightly points out in his...