Review: THE LITTLE BUDDHIST MONK & THE PROOF by César Aira

May 27, 2017 Brenton Woodward

This new book by New Directions places side-by-side two separate and very different little novels by acclaimed (but still relatively obscure) Argentine surrealist author César Aira. This packaging decision was artistic as much as logistical, I think: there are, as the blurb points out, definite thematic continuities between The Little Buddhist Monk and The Proof, including corporate influence on culture, misogyny in various forms, and the interplay between the two.

Thoughts on IRON MOON, an anthology of Chinese migrant worker poetry

May 1, 2017 Marie Schutt

Iron Moon should be required reading for anyone interested in poetry written from beyond safe or elite literary spaces, from places “closed off because the owners of these mines and factories have every incentive to conceal the conditions their workers deal with day and night,” as Goodman writes in her afterword.

Review: TEMPORARY PEOPLE by Deepak Unnikrishnan

March 14, 2017 Marie Schutt

This book shines a blinding, unapologetic spotlight on the UAE’s foreign national workforce, illuminating the realities and unrealities of an existence in flux.

Review: Can Xue's FRONTIER

March 11, 2017 Marie Schutt

To crack open Can Xue’s Frontier is to enter a world governed by dream logic.

Review: Dimitris Lyacos's Z213:EXIT, a world gone mad

February 23, 2017 Marie Schutt

"Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two arms, two legs. The symmetry of the machine that pursues you.”

'He was not made of skin': An interview with Caitlin Scarano

September 13, 2016 Marie Schutt

"I just aimed for ambiguity and viscerality, which made room for darkness, as it often does."

'Schools aren't quite as innocent as they appear': An interview with Claire Hopple

September 2, 2016 Marie Schutt

"Kids can be harsh to each other."

REVIEW: Alejandro Zambra’s MULTIPLE CHOICE, translated by Megan McDowell

July 18, 2016 Brenton Woodward

This book is, as its cover suggests, unclassifiable, but it invites you to try: Underneath the title, standardized-test-style bubbles prompt you to choose "A) Fiction," "B) Nonfiction," "C) Poetry," "D) All of the above," or "E) None of the above."

“Gillette, as in the razor blades”: An interview with Frank Diamond

July 14, 2016 Marie Schutt

" 'The Recent Future' alludes to a prophetess or goddess figure that the remnant comes to worship. I wanted a town that sounded very manly as juxtaposition. Gillette, as in the razor blades."

“The new heart will rise”: An interview with John Reinhart

June 23, 2016 Marie Schutt

"Every time we step out of our own heads and shake hands with another person, every time we climb down our marbled ladders and lift worms out of the street, every time we paint a new picture we transform a little corner of some accepted reality."

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