Review: Roy Jacobsen’s Borders by Jeff Amos Roy Jacobsen’s Borders begins with the whimsical anecdote of a miller’s attempt to construct a small footbridge over the Our River between Luxembourg and Germany, but swells into a tale of history, family, and identity in a community of fluid borders. Set primarily in a small valley in … Continue reading Review: Roy Jacobsen’s Borders
Category: Review
Review: Ben Lerner’s The Hatred of Poetry
by Bess Cooley, Managing Editor It makes sense to begin where Ben Lerner begins The Hatred of Poetry—with an excerpt from Marianne Moore’s poem “Poetry.” She writes, “One discovers in / it, after all, a place for the genuine.” Lerner writes that there’s “no such thing” as a genuine poem. Poetry only offers a place … Continue reading Review: Ben Lerner’s The Hatred of Poetry
So Much for That Winter
A Review of Dorthe Nors’ So Much for That Winter by Hannah Rahimi Cynicism and hope jostle for position in Dorthe Nors’ new pair of novellas, as Nors addresses crucial questions of contemporary existence with great humor and humanity. In “Minna Needs Rehearsal Space,” an avant-garde musician is torn between a need for creative solitude … Continue reading So Much for That Winter
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Published in Paperback by Graywolf Press, 2016 Review by Bess Cooley Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts is a near perfect example of form and content fitting together, informing one another. This book of nonfiction questions and pushes against gender binaries and traditional gender roles, while also questioning and pushing against the nonfiction genre itself, rejecting the … Continue reading The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Jamaal May’s The Big Book of Exit Strategies
Review By: Bess Cooley, Managing Editor Birds searching for bread. A fist fight. Fences. Lampposts. All these in the first two poems, immediately setting up Jamaal May’s second poetry collection, The Big Book of Exit Strategies. This is an urban book, a book of city landscapes—particularly Detroit, the author’s hometown. The second poem in this … Continue reading Jamaal May’s The Big Book of Exit Strategies
Review: Sjohnna McCray’s Rapture
The collection is a glimpse into one person’s life thus far—and it’s a stunning glimpse, like living through somebody else, sifting through family history documents and discovering what lies behind them.
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
By Katie McClendon In The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters continues her tradition of weaving a story filled with tension. Waters is known for novels that combine historical elements with plot-driven storylines often fueled by romance. Her first book, Tipping the Velvet, became a BBC miniseries and won the Betty Trask Award. Affinity, her second novel, … Continue reading The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
After the Fire: Bill Morris’ Motor City Burning
Bill Morris’ new novel, Motor City Burning (Pegasus Books), begins on Opening Day at Tiger Stadium. It’s 1968, nearly a year since the race riots ravaged Detroit, and five days since the death of Martin Luther King Jr. This immediate submersion into baseball-and-hot-dog Americana and fraught historical context establish the duality of Morris’s novel: Motor … Continue reading After the Fire: Bill Morris’ Motor City Burning
Michael Mlekoday: The Dead Eat Everything, Including this Review
First course: some “bathtub gin,” Baba’s dice left on the kitchen table, all the malt liquor poured out for loved ones. Second course: the roughage of “every page of the bible” to cleanse the pallet. The main course, the whole enchilada: “a city so ruined, it is perfect” with julienned pit bull—a mornay of “gunmetal … Continue reading Michael Mlekoday: The Dead Eat Everything, Including this Review
Brass City: Xhenet Aliu’s Domesticated Wild Things
When I was growing up in my own beleaguered industrial hometown, there was a kid in the neighborhood so famous for his grossness we didn’t accuse each other of having cooties, but The Gordie Touch. Gordie was a chubby special ed kid with cracked thick-lensed glasses and a shabby buzz cut. He wore stained hand-me-down … Continue reading Brass City: Xhenet Aliu’s Domesticated Wild Things
