“Rather than presenting a single, definitive story—an ostensibly objective chronicle of events—these books offer a past of competing perspectives, of multiple voices. They are not so much historical as archival: instead of giving us the imagined experience of an event, they offer the ambiguous traces that such events leave behind.” On the role of realist historical fictions.
Convincing Reconstructions
O Health Coach! My Health Coach!
“To you, clerk, literary man, sedentary person, man of fortune, idler, the same advice. Up!" Walt Whitman, health nut and paleo dieter–resist carbs, obey red meat!
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Chemikal Underground Rocks the Audiobook
Chemikal Underground, the Glasgow label that first launched Mogwai and Arab Strap, steps into the literary realm with its first audio collection of stories, The Year of Open Doors. You can listen to an excerpt--Arab Strap's own Aidan Moffat reads his story "The Donaldson Boy."
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Refusing to be Silenced
The Brooklyn Rail's InTranslation section has launched a new poetry series, 100 Refutations. Created by author and translator Lina M. Ferreira C.-V., the series will feature a daily poem "from one of the countries recently denigrated by the president of the United States." Pair with: The Millions' Surviving Trump column.
Goodies from The New Yorker
In this week's New Yorker, James Wood critiques Paul Auster, while his sometime-subject Don DeLillo offers refreshingly offbeat short fiction.