The King of Norway, by Amos Oz (1/17)—an aborted romance on a kibbutz in Israel
Axis, by Alice Munro (1/31)—a great story about how lives can turn profoundly on a single moment; it just occurs to me now that this story would be an interesting companion to Margaret Atwood's "Stone Mattress," a sort of feminist "Cask of Amontillado" published in the final issue of the year
The Other Place, by Mary Gaitskill (2/14)—a disturbing story about men and violence
Paranoia, by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh (2/28)—an eerie parable of race and class in America
The Trusty, by Ron Rash (5/23)—a convict attempts to escape from the chain gang
Home, by George Saunders (6/13)—a war veteran's struggles
Gravel, by Alice Munro (6/27)—a childhood trauma
Reverting to a Wild State, by Justin Torres (8/1)—tracing, in reverse chronological order, the devolution of a relationship
Tenth of December, by George Saunders (10/31)—a moving iteration of one of Saunders's favorite fictional structures: two characters, lost in their own worlds, who encounter each other out in the world
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, by Nathan Englander (12/12)—a take-off on Raymond Carver's famous story, this time about two Jewish couples, one ultra-conservative, the other quite secular
4 comments:
I loved "What we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank" and "Axis." I am having a hard time placing some others. I'll have to try to recall "Gravel." Last night I finished Munro's collection, The Beggar Maid. Old stuff. Really good.
I loved The Beggar Maid, too, although I much prefer its Canadian title: Who Do You Think You Are?
I didn't know that. That's curious. Both "the beggar maid" and "who do you think you are?" are stories in the collection, so I wonder why we (in the U.S.) didn't get "Who Do You Think You Are?" as the book title.
The vagaries of the publishing business, I guess. Supposedly the Canadian title was considered "too philosophical."
I like this cover of the first Canadian edition, don't you?
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