​The Florida Review 47.2 features a collection of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction of which I enjoyed a few. I particularly liked ‘Antidote’ by Ben Kline, ‘Indulgences’ by Garrett Biggs, ‘Elegy with Snake Twisting my Blistered Tongue’ by Alejandro Lucero, ‘Suspended in Flight’ by Diane Gottlieb, ‘OWLS’ by Kathryn Campo Bowen, and ‘A Chest of Drawers’ by Jason Brown. I liked the flow of ‘OWLS’ in the way that the two men try to find their friend, Vanessa, after a night drinking where she wanted to have sex with one of the men. All the characters are studying law, with the speaker planning to write a novel but it never comes to fruition. In the end, they find Vanessa, as she is not lost, and is annoyed they went looking for her. I found this collection to be a generally solid read.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go by Cleo Qian is a collection of stories mainly about Asian American women living lives that are surreal, magical, or supernatural. There were many stories I enjoyed, particularly, ‘Chicken. Film. Youth’ about a man who has a theater attached to his chicken restaurant, ‘Wing and the Radio’ about a famous singer and a radio host, ‘The Girl with the Double Eyelids’ about a girl who can see strange tattoos on people’s skin after she gets surgery on her eyes which then leads to finding out her best friend is dating their Chemistry teacher, ‘Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go’ about a group of friends doing an experimental art piece by streaming their lives in a remote house online, ‘Power and Control’ about a woman who is an alchemist and tries to keep her girlfriend with her by manipulating and controlling her, and ‘Seagull Village’ where a woman, Miho, is the only surviving person in the town after the earthquake in Japan. It’s a brilliant collection and I was completely enthralled by the drama that ensued within ‘The Girl with the Double Eyelids’. Qian uses the surreal and supernatural in ways that aren’t overbearing, but lead to the story’s climaxes (either in the weird tattoos revealing something about the character’s inner lives or the changing or reality to benefit a relationship). Overall, I really enjoyed the collection.
 
Final Rating: 5/5

​Story Winter 1993 is a collection of short stories. Many of the story were decent, either dealing with grief, adultery, or loss of a child. Though, I particularly liked ‘The First Snow’ by Daniel Lyons, which is about a father whose family finds out he’s gay after cops catch him in the park, and his son, who is a high school senior, tries to understand and deal with the revelation of his father. The father, it seems then “over corrects” for him being gay by taking his son out shooting birds. Other stories I found interesting were ‘God’s Door’ by Sally Savic, and ‘Jacinta’ by Charles D’Ambrosio.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie is a collection of interwoven stories about the people living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The stories deal with alcoholism, generational trauma, poverty, and what it means to be Native American. I particularly liked ‘Amusements’ about a few friends who leave their passed out friend on a roller-coaster, ‘This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona’ about a man and his friend going on a trip to collect the ashes of his father, and ‘The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire’ about a man on trial where he describes the atrocities his past generations have faced with white Americans. Though, my favorite story in the collection is ‘Jesus Christ’s Half-Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation’ which is about a man who has to care for an orphan with a head injury. The story goes on to describe the character’s desires, life, and interactions with the child who continues to grow but not speak. It reminds me of the grief found in Kenzaburō Ōe’s short story, ‘Aghwee the Sky Monster’.
 
In reading this collection, I have reflected on how Alexie’s sexual harassment has tainted his reputation and his writing. In part, I was curious as to the merits of his writing, which in the case of this collection to be substantiated. Though, also I am conflicted with reading and supporting work from a person who abused his power. For this reason, while I enjoyed the writing and the stories, I have felt that giving it a lesser rating makes the most sense.
 
Final Rating: 3/5

​Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is a novel following the recovery of an addict, Cyrus Shams, and his desire to make himself a martyr. After his mother dies in a plane shot down by US forces, Cyrus and his father, Ali, move to America to try and leave their grief behind. Ali gets a job at a chicken farm cleaning eggs and tries to support Cyrus until he goes to college. Cyrus attends Keady University where he meets Zee, a soon to be friend/lover, where they start doing drugs, at one point nearly chopping Cyrus’s toe off while high with an axe for a voyeuristic man. However, Cyrus begins to spiral into addiction where he finds himself finally crawling out of with the help of his sponsor, Gabe. While two years sober at an open mic, and attempting to write his book on martyrs, one of their friends suggests Cyrus travel to New York City from Indiana to meet an artist. The artist, Orkideh, is doing her final show, ‘Death-Speak’, in which she sits and converses with visitors on death as she will be dying from cancer soon. Cyrus can see it as a huge part of his book and so enlists the help of Zee to join him in New York for the weekend. While at the museum, Orkideh and Cyrus meet and begin to have a conversation over the next few days about death, martyrdom, other visitors, and addiction. On one of the nights, Zee and Cyrus have a large argument about how Cyrus sees Zee’s life amounting to nothing while he is trying to make something of his death. The following day, Cyrus goes to the exhibit, though finds Orkideh had taken pills and died the night before. Then, after fainting and recovering, Cyrus gets a phone call from the curator needing to discuss Orkideh, where it is eventually revealed that Orkideh is Cyrus’s mother. The curator and Cyrus meet at the park, where she describes what happened to his mother, that her lover got on the plane instead of her, how she fled to America after, and how she built her life as an artist. Afterward, Zee calls Cyrus where they meet at the park. Though, this time Cyrus can see how selfish he was dragging Zee along, not only to New York, but how terrible of a friend he is. The novel ends in a surrealist moment where the city is morphing and changing around them after all the death and the truths that had been revealed.
 
Along with the main narrative, Akbar weaves moments of Cyrus’s mother’s past into the story as well as dream sequences of famous people talking to people Cyrus knows. Also spread throughout are draft excerpts of Cyrus’s book about martyrs. It’s a really engaging, passionate, and intensely visual novel about addiction, recovery, and friendships. I was deeply moved by the conversations Cyrus has with Orkideh and astounded at the way Akbar pulled in references to religion and the philosophical nature of the inner thoughts of the characters. I also found it especially powerful when a story that is recounted about a man serving two military drafts (one for his dead brother and one for himself) parallels with how Orkideh’s lover dies and she must take her identity in the beginning to continue her life in America. A truly awe-inspiring novel.
 
Final Rating: 5/5

​The Greensboro Review Spring 2024 contains a few stories and poems that I found interesting. First was the story, ‘Trailer Park Gothic’ by Josh Bell, then ‘Mantis’ by Daniel S.C. Sutter, and finally the story, ‘Interiors’ by Leah Yacknin-Dawson. They all had intriguing and memorable characters and I particularly liked the sibling relationship in ‘Interiors’. I also enjoyed the poem ‘February: A Dictionary’ by Weijia Par with the lines “I know every inch of my body/is a danger to no one; I like history; my great-grandpa/survived all the wars for me.” A fine issue.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​Shadowings by Lafcadio Hearn is a collection of Japanese legends, songs, girl names, and essays focused particularly on dreams. In the legends, one features a samurai who returns to his first wife one night only to discover that that she had died from his absence. Another features a man who must ride the dead body of a woman in order for her not to haunt him. There’s an essay on cicadas and how the Japanese infuse them into literature. Then an essay on the etiquette and minutia of girl names which catalogue hundreds of names and their meanings. There’s an essay on old songs and the contexts from which they come from. Finally, there are an assortment of essays ranging from how the author levitated in his dreams, to why we fear ghosts, to words he had dictated from a book in his dream. There are weird moments, though I appreciate the amount of detail Hearn goes into on how he categorizes and explains the names, songs, and cicadas.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​Memorial by Bryan Washington is a novel about two men, Mike and Benson, navigating their strained relationship in Texas. After Mike’s mom, Mitsuko, arrives for a trip from Japan and tells him that his father is ill and dying, Mike immediately flies out to see if he can be of any help. This leaves Benson and Mitsuko to live together at Mike’s place for an undetermined amount of time. Mitsuko is initially cold with Benson as he goes about his weeks working at a day care. Benson then gets a call from his sister that their father is always drunk and likely will run himself into the ground. Though, Benson dislikes the idea of going to his father because he had kicked Benson out once he found out he had HIV. One day, the brother of one of the kids Benson daycares for, Omar, begins to take a liking to him. They go on a few dates, which they don’t call dates, and in fact Omar calls Benson over to help calm his younger brother down. At the goading of his sister, Benson goes to his father’s place where he sees the state his father lives in. Then, at a coworker’s wedding, Benson gets the call that his father had fallen down, and Omar rushes with him to care for his father. The whole time, Mitsuko and Benson’s relationship starts to warm up where they cook together. Then, Mike returns home after his father dies.
 
Meanwhile in Japan, Mike returns to his father’s place where he is coldly welcomed. His father, Eiju, runs a bar mainly filled with locals and is helped out by a clumsy young man, Kunihiko. As his father refuses treatment for his illness, Mike begins to see the deterioration before him. One of the customers that comes in, Tan, takes a liking to Mike where they begin to have an undefined relationship. Mike has a difficult time trying to understand his father, and why he had left their family years ago. Though, Mike also sees Eiju has started to act like a father to Kunihiko in ways that Mike couldn’t experience. Then, one night Eiju passes away in his sleep and the future of the bar is left undetermined. Eiju had given the choice to Mike on running the bar or on giving it to Kunihiko. Though, Mike decides to return to Texas and come back once he is able to figure things out with Benson.
 
Upon Mike’s return, Mike and Mitsuko begin making arrangements and Mike and Benson’s relationship is pulled into focus with the contrast of the relationships they started when Mike was gone. Eventually, it all comes to a head when Benson’s family arrives at Mike’s door with his father planning to apologize for how terrible he was about the fact that Benson is gay. Though, Mike and Mitsuko also arrive at the house a little later with groceries where Mike and Benson cook a large meal for both families. Mitsuko then decides to return to Japan, and Mike plans to follow her, leaving Benson back in Texas. Mitsuko pushes back, telling Benson essentially that going back to Japan is not the right decision for her son and that she thinks Mike staying with Benson is. The night before Mitsuko leaves, they go and spread Eiju’s ashes at a park and go to a restaurant where Mitsuko gets quite drunk. Yet, she tells them through a story of how her and Eiju met that Eiju was cowardly to leave the family and tries to say that Benson needs to convince Mike to stay. The novel ends with Mitsuko at the airport, with Mike intending to leave a few weeks later.
 
The book is structured in a way that pulls the reader very close to the two main characters. First, we get to see what it’s like for Benson when Mike goes to Japan, then from Mike’s perspective in Japan, and finally from Benson when Mike returns. It’s a novel about fathers being terrible to their sons and how those sons deal with the trauma they received. One instance of a father kicking his son out, another of the father leaving his family. I was floored at how well the interactions between the characters are rendered, and the tension riding between their conversations. And while the novel leaves us with a question of whether Benson convinces Mike to stay or not, it shows the depth and nuances of their relationship. A sometimes humorous and witty novel that has left me breathless.
 
Final Rating: 5/5