Daniel Handler, Colin MacInnes, Rick Veitch and more...

INTERVIEWS

Adverbially Yours: An Interview with Daniel Handler
By Kelly Everding and Eric Lorberer
The complete Rain Taxi interview with the author of Adverbs and A Series of Unfortunate Events . . . really.

REVIEWS: FICTION

The London Novels
Colin MacInnes
In the three novels collected here, MacInnes portrays innocents attempting to navigate the underbelly of 1950’s London. Reviewed by Douglas Messerli

Paraspheres
Edited by Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan
This anthology, as its subtitle “Extending Beyond the Spheres of Literary and Genre Fiction” suggests, challenges how we categorize literature—and collects some superb stories in the process. Reviewed by Alan DeNiro

Arbitrary Tales
Daniel Borzutzky
Borzutzky’s first collection of stories run playfully amok, confronting ideology and the lack thereof, and appropriating, sometimes demolishing, received literary forms. Reviewed by Christian TeBordo

Now You See It… Stories from Cokesville, PA
Bathsheba Monk
In her debut novel, Monk makes the fictional town of Cokesville the main character of the story, a rusted-out belt of humanity quickly approaching ghost town status. Reviewed by William Bush

You, Me, and the Insects
Barbara Henning
Henning follows the inner life of an artist and yoga enthusiast through stream-of-consciousness diaristic entries as she searches for a philosophy to live by. Reviewed by Kris Lawson

Wide Eyed
Trinie Dalton
Amidst the detritus of pop culture, moments of real pathos and power shine through in this collection of short stories. Reviewed by Ed Taylor

In the Forest of Forgetting
Theodora Goss
The stories in Theodora Goss’s first story collection enmesh the fantastic in the real, and the relationship between the two is often at the heart of her fiction. Reviewed by Rudi Dornemann

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

The Yage Letters Redux
William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of City Lights, the publisher has expanded this collection of correspondence between Burroughs and Ginsberg with previously unpublished material. Reviewed by Mark Terrill

In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country
Etel Adnan
A gorgeous, multi-layered prose poem/poetic essay, Adnan’s latest work represents a journey through the historical disasters and literary movements of the 20th century. Reviewed by Kim Jensen

Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds
Jesper Juul
As video games increasingly dominate Western popular culture and command more of the American leisure dollar than motion pictures, it’s only natural that theory-heads would attack the subject. Reviewed by James Ervin

The Week-End Book
Edited by Francis Meynell
This delightful miscellany has been resurrected after a 51-year nap, providing necessary information about sandwich bread and super novas. Don’t face the weekend without it! Reviewed by Amanda Nadelberg

REVIEWS: ART

The Cement War
Mark Steenerson
This book by musician, poet, artist, and photographer Mark Steenerson evokes the sloughs of despond so convincingly that it takes an effort to haul yourself out of them after closing the book. Reviewed by Glenn Gordon

REVIEWS: POETRY

Splay Anthem
Nathaniel Mackey
Two ongoing series interweave in Mackey’s latest, a mythic and cultural melange that shows the poet at the height of his powers. Reviewed by Grant Jenkins

I Love Artists
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Covering four decades of writing, this new and selected poems offers a linguistic equivalent to the visual work of artists, using poetry to dramatize perception. Reviewed by Ben Lerner

nothing fictional but the accuracy or arrangement (she
Sawako Nakayasu
Nakayasu’s highly structured yet exploratory volume intrigues its reader from title to final page, considering questions of truth and artificiality. Reviewed by Dennis Barone

Saint Ghetto of the Loans, Grimoire
Gabriel Pomerand
Originally published in 1950, this neglected work of Lettrist metagraphics by provacateur Pomerand is now saved from obscurity. Reviewed by Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle

Whole Milk
Jim Goar
Goar’s Whole Milk proves that Grade A, vitamin-rich poetry doesn’t need to come in a fancy package to be enjoyable. Reviewed by Scott Glassman

REVIEWS: MIXED GENRE

PP/FF
Edited by Peter Conners
This anthology collects short pieces, the prose poems and flash fictions attributed by the title. Reviewed by Nava Renek

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Can’t Get No
Crypto Zoo
& The Maximortal
The extreme, the cynical, the difficult… all find expression in the comics genius that is Rick Veitch. Reviewed by Eric Lorberer

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Alison Bechdel
A departure from Bechdel's beloved Dykes to Watch Out For is a smart, moving, and serious memoir in comics form. Reviewed by Stephen Burt