​Poetry December 2023 is a collection of poems and a feature of Frank Marshall Davis. It’s a solid issue with Diane Seuss with ‘Cowpunk’, Okwudili Nebeolisa with ‘Innocence’, and Frank Michell Davis with ‘Giles Johnson, Ph.D.’. I especially enjoyed the interview, discussion, and short essay by Davis’s daughter. It was an in-depth look on how Davis’s work was heavily influenced by living in Chicago, the way people at the time saw his work as too political and bordering on propaganda, and how he viewed his work.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a novel about two video game makers, Sam and Sadie, as they navigate life through the creation of multiple video games. Sam had gotten into a car wreck where his mother died and his leg was terribly injured. Sadie’s sister was receiving treatment for cancer when Sadie meets Sam when they were kids. They play and get along until Sam finds out she is using him for community service. They distance themselves for years until college in Boston where they randomly find each other and Sam encourages Sadie to make a game, Ichigo, with him. They work together, with the aid of Marx, Sam’s roommate, and create a game which sells millions of copies. They continue to make games together through tumultuous times: Sadie’s abusive boyfriend and professor, Sam’s amputation surgery, badly reviewed games, Sadie and Marx’s relationship, and finally a gunman who fatally shoots Marx. Sadie and Sam split ways after Marx dies and, to win back Sadie, Sam creates a game only for her. By then, she has a child and is a professor herself. At the end, there’s hope that they’ll continue to make games together.
 
Zevin makes interesting choices in form and structure. For example, one chapter splits the narrative between Sadie and Sam, paralleling the story of their game Both Sides. She also has another chapter written from the perspective of Marx as an NPC in a game after he is shot. And a third chapter which tells the storyline of an in-game interaction between Sam and Sadie. The characters feel lived in and their motives are complicated and powerful. It threads in pop-culture references, historical events, and feels like a unique take on what game designers go through. I was a little annoyed at some of the explanations of games or their lingo, where, for example, Super Mario Bros. is described too in-depth. It reads as if it were written for an older generation where they don’t know basic aspects of video games. There was another moment where the events of 9/11 are discussed, which I think was meant to ground the reader in the time, but to me, it felt as if it were only added in to try and prove the novel’s own relevance. Additionally, some of the situations felt too easy, with payoffs happening quickly after problems arise. However, I generally enjoyed the way Sadie and Sam’s relationship is mulled over and it worked well within its universe.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor is about a cast of interlinking characters in Iowa City as they navigate grad school at the University of Iowa and life. One of them is a poet that despises his classmates, another is a dancer who then decides to become an investment banker, another is an older closeted man. There are others too that all intermingle and conflict during their tenure. The novel is heavily queer, though in a sense that emboldens and questions the masculinity of its characters. It comments on capitalism, parental wants, love, sex, and art. The characters and its dialogue, whether in a café or bar or classroom, are filled with tension and longing. It has an airy type of quality to it, and seems in some respects to be in conversation and conflict with Lan Samantha Chang’s All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost. Overall, a decent and dramatic read.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​Persuasion by Jane Austen is a novel about a well-off daughter, Anne, and her desires for a man, Captain Wentworth. The novel kicks off with Anne’s father, Sir Walter Elliot, having lost his first wife and now married to another, spending above his means. They have to sell off one of their pieces of land, Kellynch Hall, to a navy man, Admiral Croft, and his wife. Sir Walter Elliot hates this, and says, “a sailor grows older sooner than any other man…”. Admiral Croft brings with him Anne’s old lover, Captain Wentworth, who believes she betrayed him when she cut off their relationship. This was in part due to Lady Russell’s, Anne’s house-maid, word. Once Anne moves from Kellynch Hall, she meets Captain Wentworth and desires him throughout, but then begins to be courted by her cousin, Mr. Elliot. Captain Wentworth was also trying to marry another woman, Louise, but soon falls out of love with her after his friend courts her. It’s only when Anne’s friend, Mrs. Smith, reveals to her that Mr. Elliot is a conniving person only out for prestige that she cuts it off with him. And throughout, Anne goes to concerts, card parties, and hosts parties of her own. At the end, even though Captain Wentworth is not the type her family or friends want her to marry, they do and everyone, except Mr. Elliot, seems to get around to being fine with it.
 
I enjoyed the wit and acuity Austen deploys with Anne and Captain Wentworth. And while it is a story of its time, I did find the way everyone treated Anne to be transcendent. Lady Russell tells her to marry someone else, her father thinks she’s the lesser of the three daughters, and Elizabeth is simply rude to her. Though, at times, the parties got a little overbearing and I had difficulty with how quick the final chapter wraps things up. I’m also not that interested in stories about well-off families, as their problems seem more or less comparatively small to others. Overall, I thought it to be a fairly enjoyable read.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​Lighthouse Dreams by Elizabeth Genovise is a collection of stories of people in some sort of in-between. The first story is about a passenger after a train crashes, another is about a family who arrives at a lighthouse, another is about a hike between two friends, another is about an art history professor and student who both plan to kill themselves. The stories, as the title suggests, feels surreal at times, meaningful in others but exist to create something more for the characters and the reader. In a few of the stories, dreams are used as vehicles for the character’s unconscious to show their fears and desires. I enjoyed the banter between the art history professor and the student the most since it felt real and tender, both trying to say more, but unable to address what’s truly on their mind.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​The Best American Short Stories 1993 is a collection of 20 stories selected by guest editor Louise Erdrich. This selection has big names such as John Updike, Mary Gaitskill, Alice Monro, and Mary Gordon. Many of these stories I enjoyed such as ‘Playing with Dynamite’ by John Updike which describes the marriage and infidelity of an old man, ‘The Girl on the Plane’ by Mary Gaitskill about a man who recalls being part of a gang rape after seeing a stranger on a plane, ‘The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore’ by Harlan Ellison about a man who is part of surreal moments in history and it takes up an interesting structure, ‘Poltergeists’ by Jane Shapiro about a mother trying to care for her teenagers who are always partying, ‘Red Moccasins’ by Susan Powers about a Native American family who lose a young child, ‘Pray Without Ceasing’ by Wendell Berry about a grandfather who is shot by his friend, and ‘Gold’ by Kim Edwards about a nugget of gold found in Malaysia.
 
This collection had some amazing pieces, and pieces that I’m not sure why they work. For example, the final story of the collection ‘The Important Houses’ by Mary Gordon begins and stays almost too long in describing the features and events that happened in the narrator’s grandmother’s house. There is a lot of backstory and discussions of relationships that seem fairly sprawled out, and it’s only in the last two pages where I felt there was reason to tell the story: the father died when the narrator was younger. It is unexpected but makes sense and many of the relationships/descriptions come back in the last moments to make the narrative work, though I’m still perplexed. The story, I think, also has one of the best lines in the collection, in which it preempts the reader with the father’s death. It goes, “There is a sound of disaster, and a quiet after it, when the universe becomes still with shock; the wind stops, the light is colorless, and humans have no words, because no words fit the enormity.” It’s a sprawling, intricate sentence that really made me realize how effortless it seems for Gordon to transition from the grandmother’s house and its happenings to something deeply entangled in the narrator.
 
Though there were other stories, such as ‘Terrific Mother’ by Lorrie Moore which had a twinge of Orientalism in moments such as this, “’Dishonored?’ So Japanese. Adrienne like the sound of it.”. Or “She sighed. ‘Then I shall sing to you. Mood music.’ She made up a romantic, Asian sounding tune and danced around the room with her cigarette, in a floating, wing-limbed way. ‘This is my Hopi dance,’ she said. ‘So full of hope.’” These are moments that made me question Moore’s intent. Because why would you take a very stereotypical aspect of Japanese culture and use it as a prop? Or still, the second quote feels even more icky in that not only does it otherize Asian cultures (let alone sticking them together and mentioning “Asian sounding”, what the heck does that even mean—there’s no monolithic “Asian sounding” music), but it displays it in a grotesque and characterized way. Why name it a “Hopi dance”? Why make something seem ‘exotic’? And while yes, the narrator is intentionally grating, these moments feel off.
 
However, overall, I found the collection to be a decent read.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell is a book about an Illinois family living through the time of the Spanish Flu. It follows the lives and happenings of two sons, Bunny and Robert, the father, James, and the mother, Elizabeth. Early on, all the characters gravitate toward Elizabeth as the glue that holds their house together. Bunny is young enough to have an innocent love toward her, Robert sees her as someone to protect, and James doesn’t see a life without her. The story follows the boys initially as their schools are let out due to the epidemic. Bunny listens in to James reading the news, tries playing with some of James’s toys, and at one point is saved by his brother when other kids are beating him up. Bunny then becomes sick with the flu, where he is cared for by his mother and Irene. He gets better, but it takes him a while and there is a scene where Robert offers to show Bunny his figurines but doesn’t let him play with them (which I thought worked well in showing the dynamic between the two). Elizabeth is expecting a child, so her and James rush off to another town with a doctor who, it’s hinted at will most likely perform a C-section. As they are having the child, Bunny and Robert are taken to their aunt’s house where Robert gets sick, and Robert and Bunny fight about playing with each other’s toys. Finally, after having the child, Elizabeth comes down with the flu, and eventually dies from pneumonia. James returns to their home and is utterly broken. The news is broken to the children and somehow James must find a way to continue caring for Bunny, Robert, and now a new baby. Near the end, James compilates selling everything, giving the boys to the aunt, and leaving. However, as a ray of hope, Irene suggests she could help care for the children and be there for James. The novel ends with James and Robert both looking at Elizabeth’s body in the casket, where James asks Robert, “’You won’t forget your mother, will you…’”.
 
In addition to this main plot, there is also a minor plot that unravels once it’s revealed that Robert lost a leg years before and now, he wears a prosthetic. He lost it when he was riding along on Boyd’s car, Irene’s husband, fell off, and his leg was run over. There is a tension between James, Boyd, and Irene that is finally reflected upon when James says that Elizabeth never forgot about that incident.
 
The story is broken into three parts, the first of which follows Bunny, the youngest child. Then it breaks off following Robert up until he hears that his mother has died. And the last part is focused on James and how he is dealing with his wife’s death. It’s an interesting progression to have the narrative follow each character, as if to show they slowly lose their innocence and must mask their emotions. It was a sad novel, but I thought the relationship between Robert and Bunny were authentic and at times humorous.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​A Captain’s Duty by Richard Phillips is an account of his harrowing story off the shore of Somalia where his cargo ship was captured by pirates, and he was taken hostage in a lifeboat in 2009. The book goes through Captain Phillips’ actions to prepare for an attack, what he did to keep his crew safe, and how he survived. The tension between the pirates and Captain Phillips is palpable as he accounts the mock executions, the humiliation, and his crews’ actions. It was interesting to read his account because I remembered the event in the news. Though, the book revealed specific actions he’d done to keep his crew safe on the Maersk Alabama by running drills, building repertoire with the pirates, and alerting his crew over the radio. There were so many things that he’d done right, but it was interesting for him to recount and focus on the mistakes he made. And while the book’s style/content wasn’t particularly one I usually read, I still found it held up. Overall, I enjoyed the depth with which it went into Captain Phillip’s mindset and his perseverance.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​The Kenyon Review Winter 2023 features short stories, essays, poetry, and visual art, with a folio focusing on bridges and how people/connections/moments can be bridges for other things. This issue has a few fascinating stories, one of which is called ‘Block Party’, by Danny Lang-Perez, which features a magical man who can cook/make anything from his mobile kitchen and his son, Charles, who people adore. When Charles doesn’t appear one night because his mother asked him not to help, the neighborhood goes crazy, throwing things at the man and running him out of their cul-de-sac. It’s an interesting way to look at how the entitled treat workers, and what happens when things don’t go their way. I also enjoyed the language in ‘Eight Poems’ by Abbas Kiarostami and ‘The Orphanage’ by Emeline Atwood. Though, everything else felt a little lackluster.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​BeHere/1942 by Masaki Fujihata is a book describing an exhibit put on by the Japanese artist Masaki Fujihata, which documents and explores the Japanese American Internment Camps. The book seems to be paired with an art exhibit featuring 3D renderings of famous photographs taken as Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes. In one instance in the book, Fujihata zooms in on the eyes of famous photographs to show how the observer (the photographer) is reflected in the eyes of the observed (the Japanese American). The book is broken up into three parts, first describing Fujihata’s project and process, second discussing the history of the internment camps, and third focusing on Fujihata himself. The book, and Fujihata’s vision, is to think about how the observer/photographer/government wanted to represent and positively spin the incarcerations. There were some striking, and deeply emotional photographs and it was interesting to learn about the exhibit even though I wasn’t able to see it.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5