Prose that Packs a Punch
EMILY BULLOCK experiences the shock of connection in the writing of F.X. Toole: ‘During my research I was constantly asked the question, Why Boxing? And my reply was: Have you ever read Rope Burns?’
The Love Story of Annie Proulx’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’
Professor CHARLES E. MAY examines the love story of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ by Annie Proulx: ‘The fact of the matter is: Jack and Ennis love each other – with tenderness, passion, and concern – and people who love each other in this way – regardless of their gender – desire to be physically close…’
Love and Ageing in the Stories of Juan Goytisolo
PATRICIA DUFFAUD examines the short stories in Juan Goytisolo’s The Party’s Over – Four Attempts to Define a Love Story: ‘We feel the heat, we see and smell the “piles of pressed grapes fermenting in the sun” and we are there, trapped with the characters inside their lives…’
Abandoned
‘From the story’s opening, there has always been violence lurking at the periphery, like the many tentacled horrors of a story by Lovecraft…’ MORGAN OMOTOYE explores the darkness and beauty of Denis Johnson’s short story ‘Two Men’.
The Moral Crossroads of Marc Le Goupils
MIKE SMITH unearths the moral dilemmas of Marc Le Goupils’ short story ‘The Cross-Roads’: ‘Laid almost reverently in the wheelbarrow, with a soft pillow to support her head, the gypsy woman is trundled from place to place in search of somewhere she can die, at someone else’s expense…’
Elizabeth Bowen Misremembered
MARCELLA O’CONNOR shows us that Bowen’s ‘The New House’ isn’t as straightforward as it first appears: ‘a closer reading reveals that it is actually a radical literary experiment where the setting is used to tell the story of a man’s phantom pregnancy…’
Drilling for Water
‘A story for our times, ‘Hard Times’ by Ron Rash should be required reading for politicians…’ KATH McKAY recommends the heartbreaking writing of Ron Rash.
The Two Mrs Foxes
ERINNA METTLER takes an in depth look at the controversy around Sarah Hall’s short story ‘Mrs Fox’, after it was aired on BBC Radio 4: ‘When the broadcast was over, there was a brief flutter of outrage on social media. The gist of this was that Hall’s story was overly similar to the 1922 novella Lady Into Fox by David Garnett…’
The View from the Mailbox
In this essay, PATRICK YARKER learns something from ‘The Lesson’ by Toni Cade Bambara: ‘A college graduate, Miss Moore has returned with her knowledge, her sober clothes and her undisuadable dedication, to the streets of late-60s Harlem to help educate the next generation, much to its irked disdain…’
In Your Dreams
JULIET WEST ponders the role of women in George Saunders’ latest collection, Tenth of December: ‘I marvelled at the breakneck prose, the dark humour, the searing satire on Western consumerism. Yet, as I read, I began to experience an increasing sense of unease. At times, I felt as if I had landed in the fantasy world of a deviant male adolescent…’