Book Reviews Archive
The Houseguest and Other Stories by Amparo Dávila
Amparo Dávila’s collection is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Franz Kafka, and Edgar Allen Poe, and tests the limits of fiction.
Since When by Bill Berkson
Since When is unlike any poet’s memoir I’ve ever read. It’s a treasure.
Dissolve by Sherwin Bitsui
At the center of Dissolve, a single line repeats four times: "I breathe it in." These inhalations encapsulate both the rich density and the immersive capacity of Bitsui's work.
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
In Unfurled, the reader is pulled forward in short, well-crafted chapters that simulate the rough-and-tumble journey through shock, grief, and the revelation of knowledge that the narrator initially rejects—that her mother survived and was in touch with her father.
The Lake on Fire, by Rosellen Brown
In response to her novel, The Lake on Fire, Rosellen Brown has been compared to both Jane Austen and Tillie Olsen.
The Shallows by Stacey Lynn Brown
Though each of these poems embodies the heaviness of illness, their beauty is evinced in the pauses, the generous white spaces to be found in this book of poems.
The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza
Garza's use of language and suspense is so skillful that she can remind us of the artifice of fiction in one moment, holding us up so we can see everything in its place, and in the next push our heads back beneath the surface of its conceit.
Everyone Rides the Bus in a City of Losers by Jason Freure
But in Montreal, according to Freure's speaker, everyone is a loser in the best sense of the word.
So Far So Good by Ursula K. Le Guin
Readers who rest in these meditative poems are sure to find the voice of the beloved Le Guin just as intriguing as they did in her prose.
After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey
Guadalupe Nettel's writing, in an excellent translation by Rosalind Harvey, is spare, occasionally eerie and always elegant.