The Parallel Narrative Arc in Memorial
In Bryan Washington’s first novel, photos are used, in part, to consider how we use images to communicate. They also work together to create a narrative arc that echoes the arc of the book itself.
Author: Laura Spence-Ash
Reading Two Groff Companion Pieces
Two of Lauren Groff’s recent stories share an interest: exploring the relationship between domestic violence and masculinity. Each story acts as a mirror for the other, the differences often pointing up the similarities and allowing the two pieces to connect in subtle and nuanced ways.
The Bass Rock’s Layered Use of Setting
The use of place in Evie Wyld’s third novel underscores the constant nature of violence against women—that unchanging and immoveable landscape—and yet the capacity for women to band together in order to fight back shows that there may, indeed, be better days ahead.
Reading William Trevor’s “A Day” and Jamel Brinkley’s “Comfort”
Brinkley’s story, written in response to Trevor’s, echoes the latter’s plot, characters, and structure, but in capturing its tone—a gentleness and a very light touch—the story transcends the original, its ending resonating with meaning.
Two Contemporary Retellings of The Playboy of the Western World
John Millington Synge’s 1907 play is now a classic, examining, among other elements, the definition of a hero and the role of the community in that definition. Over a hundred years later, two contemporary novels, both set following the 2008 financial crisis, echo it in numerous ways.
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel Moniz
In this debut story collection, the reader feels the story in their body as they read; Moniz makes us look directly at the source of trauma in order to share the pain.
A Burning by Megha Majumdar
Megha Majumdar’s debut novel forces us to see the inequities in the world, and the way desire for freedom is so often thwarted.
Whiteout Conditions by Tariq Shah
In Tariq Shah’s debut novel, the protagonists finds a sliver of life in a world of death and, with that, a tiny bit of grace.
Oksana, Behave! and Olive, Again
New novels by Maria Kuznetsova and Elizabeth Strout, written in the form of chapter-length stories, give us the opportunity to see a great span of a life and to focus in on the moments that matter.