Maps and Legends

Book #26 on my reading list was Michael Chabon's non-fiction collection Maps and Legends (not to be confused with the R.E.M. song).

The essays included in M&L range from literary critiques of Sherlock Holmes, The Road, and graphics novels to memoir-y stories from Chabon's past. Some of the essays make for interesting reads, but as a collection it's probably best reserved for only the most diehard of Chabon fans. Gotta dig the Jordan Crane cover art though.

Excerpt
McSweeney's page
Wikipedia page

McSweeney's #24

Book #21 on my reading list was McSweeney's #24.

This issue of McSweeney's is split into two parts, with each half of the book binded on opposite sides. One side is a tribute to Donald Barthelme featuring commentary by such stalwarts as George Saunders and Padgett Powell as well as two uncollected stories from Barthelme himself. It's mostly stories about Barthelme himself rather than fiction inspired by him, but it's an interesting read nonetheless. The two Barthelme stories included at the end are not his best and probably not a great place to start for the uninitiated.

The B-Side is a collection of six stories that have nothing to do with Barthelme. Of these I most enjoyed Jonathan Ames' Guy Noir gone wrong "Bored to Death".

My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead

Tome #13 was My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekov to Munro.

It's not every day you find short story collections that mix works of some of today's best writers: George Saunders, Miranda July, Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, etc. alongside great writers of the past such as James Joyce, William Faulkner, Anton Chekov and Vladimir Nabakov. It's a bold choice on the part of editor Jeffrey Eugenides and one he manages to pull off without coming across as a Schelleyian madman. If you're guessing at this point that this must be a McSweeney's project give yourself a big pat on the back. Proceeds from this one go 826 Chicago and their sweet secret agent supply store.

Hard to pick favorite stories especially since I'd read some of the pieces previously but in terms of writers who piqued my interest for reading more, I'd go with Harold Brodkey whose two stories were both excellent.

Previously: The Book of Other People

McSweeney's #25

Book #6 this year was McSweeney's #25.

Skipping the opportunity for a self congraulatory pat-on-the-back, issue #25 is vintage McSweeney's: interesting short stories packaged in beautiful binding. Highlights for me included: Connor Kilpatrick's "Yuri", Steven Millhauser's parable "The Tower", Chloe Hooper's "A Death in Custody" and Padgett Powell!!!!'s "No Empress Eyes".

McSweeney's #23

Book #47 on my '07 reading list was McSweeney's #23.

Yet another solid addition to the McSweeney's library, issue #23 features ten new quality short stories, including contributions from Roddy Doyle and Ann Beattie. My favorites were Chris Bachelder's "My Son, There Exists Another World Alongside Our Own", Deb Olin Unferth's "Bride", and April Wilder's "The Butcher Shop".

What Is The What

Eek, I'm behind on my book blogging. Book #5 on my list this year was Dave Eggers' new novel What is the What.

Although billed as a novel Eggers' work centers around Valentino Achak Deng, a real-life Sudanese "Lost Boy" who recounted his story to Eggers over the course of three years. Eggers has taken the poetic license to fictionalize some of the details, but has attempted to tell a story in Valentino's voice using real life events as the foundation for the events in the novel. Using Valentino as his muse, Eggers crafts a heart-wrinching (notice I avoid the temptation to say heart-breaking) story describing Valentino's seperation from his family in Marial Bai and the subsequent thirteen years he spent in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Valentino's story is one that screams to be told and Eggers does an excellent job of delivering it. It's Eggers best work to date and a book that I'd highly recommend. Oh and Manute Bol makes a couple of appearances in the story so it's got that going for it too!

Collection of reviews and interview with Eggers and Valentino
New York Magazine review
Excerpt on Salon.com
Wikipedia page
Lost Boys of Sudan documentary

McSweeney's #21

Book #48 on my reading list this year was McSweeney's #21.

This issue is meat-and-potatoes McSweeney's with a renewed focus on great writing. The result is one of the finest collections of stories that McSweeney's has ever put out. Just about every story is a winner, but some of my favorites were works by Roddy Doyle, Rajesh Parameswaran, Arthur Bradford, Holly Tavel, Greg Ames, and yet another great contribution by Kevin Moffett. The standout for me though is the closing story, a historical fiction piece by Joyce Carol Oates titled 'Grandpa Clemens & Angelfish 1906' (loosely based on accounts of Samuel Clemens latter years).

Between stories are photocopies of fascinating and sometimes hilarious letters sent to Ray Charles. The letters in the book as well as many more which weren't included can be found on the Letters To Ray website.

McSweeney's #20

Book #31 on my reading list was McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #20. This quarter's edition of the literary journal is a nice hard bound copy containing 13 short stories, a preview of Chris Adrian's new novel, and 50 full cover illustrations. As the McSweeney's site says, it's 'a handsome, handsome issue, brimming with fulfilling things.'

By far the most fulfilling thing in the book is Kevin Moffett's excellent "Statement of Purpose" and the exciting news that his short story collection titled Permanent Visitors is set to be published in October. That makes me a very happy man. That one's going right on the old Amazon wish list.

The rest of the stories combine to make this a slightly above average McSweeney's edition. Besides Moffett's piece, other favorites include Susan Steinberg's "To Sit, Unmoving", Aaron Gwyn's "Mate", Jack Pendarvis' "The Big Dud", and Roderick White's "Elsewhere".

McSweeney's #19

Book #26 of my reading list this year was McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #19.

The best part about McSweeney's #19 is the wonderful packaging. The 143 pg. softback issue comes in a beautifully decorated cigar box filled with a variety of WWII style propaganda/paraphernalia. It's unclear to me how much of the material is newly written and how much if it is reprints of real documents. Several of the items seem to fall in the latter camp, but then again they may just be real well done. Anyways, I'm not sure if each box is the same, but included in mine were:

• a 64 pg booklet titled 'A Pocket Guide to the Middle East'
• a handy card with Air Raid Instructions
• a flier enlisting young men of seventeen to consider joining the Marines
• an underground Communist flier titled 'The Big Plot'
• military orders for a 'Rainbow Mission'
• a short Marine pamphlet titled 'The Stuff That Wins'
• a leaflet from the Civil Defence titled 'Some Things You Should Know If War Should Come'
• a 1961 DoD pamphlet titled 'Fallout Protections - What to Know and Do About Nuclear Attack'
• a CIA memo from Donald Rumsfield titled 'The Impact of Leaking Classified Information'
• a pamphlet titled 'Your Horoscope Tells You How You Can Help the Republican Party Win'
• a pamphlet on War Pensions
• several letters from a Nelson Squires to his brother Fred
• a black and white Halloween photo of some kids in what appears to be a Communist classroom of some sort
• a black and white photo of several kids on kots in the woods

Sadly, the actual literary journal in this issue isn't nearly as interesting as the packaging. T.C. Boyle's so-so novella "Wild Child" makes up the majority of the issue. "Wild Child" is the story of a young boy who is abandoned in the woods and grows up as a wild animal. Upon discovery he's brought into society and 'domesticated'. It's a story that's been oft-told, and Boyle's take on it isn't much different. Oddly Boyle attributes the story to Dana Halter, a character from his new novel saying that Dana's "interest in identity and language informs 'Wild Child' with a dimension that I alone would be incapable of achieving." Weird.

Aside from Boyle's work the remainder of the issue is primarily made up of short stories centered around three paintings which line the inside front and back covers. All in all pretty ho-hum.

On a side note, I was disappointed to find that the journal I received was incorrectly bound. Following the table of contents the copy I received starts with page 22 and 23, jumps back to pages 4 and 5, bounces forward to 18 and 19, etc., etc. Around page 20 things get back to normal so I was able to read from the second story on to the end of the book with no problem. Not sure if I was just unlucky or if this was a common problem that affected a wide run of issue #19.

McSweeneys #5

Book #23 of my '06 list was McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #5.

I was pleased to find this one used for a mere $30 in the Harvard Bookstore while we were visiting Boston a couple of weeks ago. I'm actually not sure if $30 is a good deal or not, but considering I've never seen a used issue below #10, I was pretty excited to find it. I'm thinking about collecting them all as I now have #9-#19 in addition to this one. I guess its pretty esoteric to collect them given that The Better of McSweeney's, Vol. 1 - Issues 1-10 was released recently, but if there's one thing I need it's something else to collect.

My favorite stories were Rodney Rothman's "My Glorious Publishing Empire", Paul Collins' superb "The Strange and Epic and Tragic Trajectory of Solresol, The Universal Musical Language and of its Creator, Monsieur Sudre" (I guess Jill is right to be so effusive about his writing), Chad Willenborg's "Soot", Sarah Vowell's interview with Ted Koppel and Dave Eggers' letters to CEOs in the voice of Steven the dog. Overall I'd say the quality of the content was a bit lower than what you find in more recent editions, but there are a few superb pieces which still make it worth reading.

McSweeney's #18

Book #5 of my reading list this year was McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #18.

In this issue McSweeney's toned down the packaging a bit and got back to the basics of delivering a high quality set of great short stories. Taken as a whole, I'd have to say that this is one of the best issues they've delivered in quite awhile. My personal favorites in the issue were Daniel Orozco's excellent 'Somoza's Dream', Roddy Doyle's 'New Boy', Adam Levin's 'Hot Pink', Yannick Murphy's 'In a Bear's Eye', Nelly Reifler's 'The Railway Nurse', and Edmund White's fascinating 'My Hustlers'.

The book came with a copy of Wholphin, McSweeney's new DVD magazine of unseen things. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I know it contains Miranda July's excellent short 'Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?', so I have high hopes.

McSweeney's #16

Book #34 of 2005 was McSweeney's #16, which comes in a wonderfully packaged cloth-bound edition that does indeed include a comb (as promised) as well as a deck of cards that can be shuffled into any order and then read as a story.

I'd say the quality of the stories in this edition are pretty average fare in McSweeney's terms, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. By far my favorite was Kevin Moffett's 'The Medicine Man' which happens to be set in Flagler, Florida not very far from the rural area in which I grew up (The story even name checks Palatka!). I'm not positive, but based on a piece about Gainesville's Friends of the Library Booksale that Moffett previously published in The Believer, I think he may even have attended my beloved UF. Anyways, Moffett's story is a delcious view of southern lifestyle with an interesting cast of characters all written in the familiar voice of home.

My second favorite story this month was Roddy Doyle's 'Home to Harlem', a story about a black Irish man who comes to America to half-jokingly study the influence of the Harlem Renaissance writers on Irish Literature and ends up discovering a lot about himself (boy that sounds cheesy, but you'll have to take my word for it that it's really not). Other stories I particularly enjoyed were 'Mudder Tongue' by UW alum Brian Evenson and "Driveway" by fellow blogger Pia Z. Ehrhardt.