Category: Reviews & Criticism
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Book Review: Joshua Kleinberg on The Year of the Rooster, a poetry collection by Noah Eli Gordon
Noah Eli Gordon’s newest collection, The Year of The Rooster is like a hyper-intellectual conversation in the midst of a total rager. It’s easy to get lost, but that’s half the fun. Especially as these poems huck themselves around from existential doubt to post-modern denial, especially with this rooster running around giving everyone a hard time.…
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Byzantium, exciting historical stories by Ben Stroud, reviewed by Michael Goroff
I was kind of stunned when I opened Ben Stroud’s Byzantium for the first time to discover that I would be reading a story about a 28-year-old shut-in with a withered hand who lived during Heraclius’ reign over the Byzantine Empire. I don’t read much historical fiction, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely…
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The Stone Thrower, stories by Adam Marek, reviewed by Ryan Werner
I recently went to the wedding of a friend I’ve had for over twenty years. Mostly I did the things I do with people I know and enjoy the company of, telling and listening to stories and generally trying to let worthwhile moments be themselves. “My wife’s a shopaholic,” one of my friends who is…
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“A Small, but Strong Cup of Coffee”: Patrick Trotti Reviews How to Shake the Other Man by Derek Palacio
Derek Palacio’s debut book, Nouvella Book’s most recent, is top notch and reaffirms everything I’ve already thought about the in-between novella form. How to Shake the Other Man is a beautiful meditation on love, brotherhood, identity, and boxing. Palacio, who has a story forthcoming in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2013 collection, has staked a…
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Is That You, John Wayne?, flash fiction by Scott Garson, reviewed by Kelsie Hahn
Scott Garson is a writer who captures moments, and it is here that his new collection, Is That You, John Wayne? excels. Individual moments are the stars of these stories, similar to the micro shorts in his previous collection, American Gymnopédies. The moments are quiet but powerful. The characters are unself-conscious. Most of all, they are…
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Penny, n., a novella by Madeline McDonnell, reviewed by Jeremy Behreandt
Penny, n. tells of Penny, a girl who grew up being told she was pretty by her mother. Penny discovers she is not pretty, and at thirty, worries. Worries worries worries. She takes a job at a bar, she meets Guy, the lexicographer. Guy moves in, invents clever, nauseatingly sweet pet names. Then, one day,…
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Pretty the Ugly, poetry by Jillian M. Phillips, reviewed by Erin McKnight
Pretty the Ugly, Jillian M. Phillips’ collection of poems, poses with its very title the question of whether the contained poems will center on the ways we see the world, or the means and methods we use to manipulate ourselves in order to look better to those who see us. From the first poem’s last…
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“The Lifespan of a Fact: Why D’Agata’s Truth Wins,” a book review by Jill Davis
I am seeking a truth here,” John D’Agata boasts in an essay he wrote for Harper’s, “not necessarily accuracy.” The subject of the essay: Levi Presley, a Las Vegas teenage resident who jumped to an early death from the brink of the Stratosphere amid the blinding lights of downtown Vegas. However, due to the numerous…
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Brief Nudity, poetry by Larry O. Dean, reviewed by Jordan Sanderson
The effect of brief nudity depends on the context. Sometimes, it’s sensual; sometimes, it’s embarrassing; sometimes, it’s funny. No matter the context, it allows a glimpse of what is always there but seldom seen. The poems in Larry O. Dean’s Brief Nudity reveal the world as it scampers from the shower to the bedroom, as…
Heavy Feather Review 