In our morning reading: thoughts on Lincoln Michel’s new book, a story by Mary Miller, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Ilana Masad Fiction, Phillipa K. Chong, Charles Yu Interviewed, Mary Miller, and More
In our afternoon reading: new fiction by Ilana Masad, an interview with Charles Yu, and more.
The Complexities of One Man’s Life, With Added Dog: A Review of Mary Miller’s “Biloxi”
When it comes to finding ugliness, unexpected beauty, and weirdness in everyday life, no author does it quite like Mary Miller. Her understated, straightforward prose is a treasure trove of illuminating morsels that strip away pretense and reflect humanity in all its glorious range: unpleasantness, pettiness, aching, love, hope, heartbreak, longing, lust, depression, humor, and confusion abound. At once a novel and a sociological treatise of loneliness and heartbreak, Biloxi, Miller’s latest novel, is a hybrid narrative that’s part novel, part love letter to human darkness, and part ethnographical observation of an old man and his dog. Oh, and it’s all strangely beautiful and engrossing.
Morning Bites: Mary Miller Interviewed, Ted Chiang, Bette Howland Fiction, Nicholas Mancusi, and More
In our morning reading: interviews with Mary Miller and Nicholas Mancusi, fiction from Bette Howland, and more.
Morning Bites: Mary Miller, Nebula Award Winners, Anna Moschovakis Interviewed, Shirley Jackson on Film, and More
In our morning reading: a review of Mary Miller’s new novel, an interview with Anna Moschovakis, and more.
Weekend Bites: Kevin Young Interviewed, Best Essays, Literary Chicago, Mary Miller Nonfiction, and More
In our weekend reading: an interview with Kevin Young, new writing from Mary Miller, a host of year-end lists, and much more. (We’re taking a few days off; posting will resume on December 26th.)
Sunday Stories: “Stakeout”
Stakeout by Mary Miller I’m in my boyfriend’s van with its newly tinted windows, parked outside of a lady’s house. His job is to follow the lady wherever she goes and take pictures. Ideally, his job is to photograph this lady climbing a ladder or doing jumping jacks or I don’t know what so her insurance doesn’t have to pay. So far we’ve followed her to Walmart and then to CVS and then through the drive-thru at Raising Cane’s where […]
Mary Miller on the Making of “Always Happy Hour”
The stories in Mary Miller’s new collection Always Happy Hour unfold along unpredictable lines, whether she’s writing about the way that questions of class fracture a friendship or chronicling a young woman becoming peripherally involved in a sinister crime. I’ve been an admirer of Miller’s work since reading her first collection, Big World, especially the way that she’s able to take the reader into the minds of characters in unexpectedly, somewhat askew situations. We conversed via email about her new […]