In our afternoon reading: new writing by Lance Olsen and Chris La Tray, thoughts on The Hard Quartet’s debut, and more.
Morning Bites: The Necks’ Latest, Roger Zelazny’s October, Maris Kreizman Nonfiction, and More
In our morning reading: thoughts on The Necks’ new album, nonfiction by Maris Kreizman, and more.
Sunday Stories: “For a Pint of Plum Liquor”
For a Pint of Plum Liquor
by Arjun Razdan
In puffs the kettle on the old oven sends the smoke. Pictures of elders have moist frames from the heat generated in the room. He sits at his desk, trembling hands, hands trembling from having drunk a little bit too much of his cherry brandy yesterday. Outside, the apple tree has shed its foliage. The pear tree is nearly bare rising into the cadre of the window, piercing it. Beyond, you see the bare mountains now almost brown from the gone sheen of the sun and a year past. He looks at his mother in one of the photos, sheepskin coat and turning over the beads, and then he looks down on the desk in front of him, at the square pocket of brown paper that is the postcard. He lifts it from his desk, takes a stamp and puts his saliva to the back of the tampon, before
Weekend Bites: Kay Chronister Interviewed, Remembering Ka, Chat Pile’s Latest, and More
In our weekend reading: an interview with Kay Chronister, a tribute to Ka, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Michael Bible Fiction, Revisiting Sanora Babb, Hernan Diaz’s Fiction, and More
In our afternoon reading: fiction by Michael Bible, thoughts on a Hernan Diaz novel, and more.
Morning Bites: Nino Cipri’s Latest, Kirkus Prize Winners, Revisiting John Cale, and More
In our morning reading: an excerpt from Nino Cipri’s new novel, an exhibit of Chris Ware’s work, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Corey Farrenkopf Fiction, Revisiting Kathy Acker, Kim Kelly on Labor, and More
In our afternoon reading: new writing by Corey Farrenkopf, an interview with Kim Kelly, and more.
Out of Ohio: A Review of Nick Rees Gardner’s “Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts”
Nick Rees Gardner’s third book (So Marvelously Far, 2019 and Hurricane Trinity, 2023) is a linked story collection focusing on the fictional Westinghouse, Ohio. Right away, I was drawn to see Gardner’s world in connection with Sherwood Anderson’s linked stories in Winesburg, Ohio, and Gardner’s Delinquents didn’t disappoint. As the opening pages make clear, this Rust Belt collection is about a very different America than Anderson wrote about in Winesburg. They’re trapped; they’re often addicts; they’re seeking a means to escape Westinghouse; they’re looking to find love, meaning, connection, and some shred of satisfaction. Time passes or it doesn’t in Westinghouse, as the book points out. Too often, the characters struggle just to make it another day.