Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Wednesday 20 May 2020

"Best Fiction Debuts 2013" (HarperCollins, 2013)

Samples from novels

  • Nathan Filer ("The shock of the new") - I've read it before.
  • Maggie Shipstead ("Seating Arrangements") - 57 year old Winn has kept away from the pre-wedding frenzy of his daughter, bridesmaids and family. Now he drives to his family's other house on an island where they all are. On the way there, especially at the ferry, he thinks about how things were. There are 7 women (some he's known since they were girls) and him. Lots of memories of the male gaze. I liked it - interesting observations and phrases throughout.
  • Charles Dubow ("Indiscretion") - Claire's met from a train station to spend a weekend at her rich boyfriend's country house with his other guests. Restaurants, beaches, parties. She meets a famous author. It didn't appeal to me.
  • Rosie Garland ("The Palace of curiosities") - 3 episodes. "Eve" (1831): an unfertilised egg tells us about the hours around its fertilisation when its mother witnesses a lion-tamer's death at a circus. "Abel" (1854): A man thought drowned in the Thames mud tells us how some ruffians save him. "Eve" (1845): A hairy girl, shaved weekly by her mother, has stones thrown at her in the zoo.
  • Tracy Guzeman ("The Gravity of Birds") - It begins in 1963. Alice, a 14 y.o. girl who reads poetry, is on holiday with her family by a lake. She tries to befriend a 28 y.o. male artist staying nearby. They have a fairly intellectual chat. She discovers that her old sister has been posing nude for him.
  • Helene Wecker ("The Golem and the Djinni") - A female, anatomically accurate golem is created for a man who dies soon after the golem's brought to life. A Djinni is released. We read about its species.

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