All Lateral

A pile of literary magazines and reviews

The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “The Know-It-All” by Jeff Spitzer

ByRoss McMeekin

  Some narrators announce their unreliability in the opening sentences of a short story (see Matt Sumell’s “All Lateral”), and in this way their skewed vision of the world serves as a stylistic lead, drawing readers in. In “The Know-It-All,” from the latest New Ohio Review, Jeff Spitzer creates a narrator whose reliability is revealed…

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The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “All Lateral” by Matt Sumell

ByRoss McMeekin

When we speak of a story as “voice-driven,” that typically means it’s written in first person and that the narrator has attitude. Instead of quietly striving towards general objectivity, the narrator—à la Holden Caulfield—gives us a unique angle on the world that keeps our eyes fixed to the page. Matt Sumell, in his story “All…