Tag: Review

Modern America in 1990s South Africa

Post author By benjwoodard
Post date September 12, 2014
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In this month’s issue of Numéro Cinq, I talk about Ingrid Winterbach’s excellent The Elusive Moth. Though recently released by Open Letter, the novel was originally published in the 1990s and focuses on a woman living in a small South African town. The timeliness of Winterbach’s overarching themes—gender disparity; corrupt, powerful police—is quite chilling, and there are moments throughout reminiscent of recent events here in the US. One can’t help but feel the echo of Ferguson, MO when reading scenes of police lieutenants attacking innocent people, or when hell breaks loose the moment the marginalized attempt to take a peaceful stand. Amazing, brilliant, heartbreaking stuff.

You can find the review here.

Tags ingrid winterbach, numero cinq, open letter, Review, The Elusive Moth

Book Review

Looking at Lipsyte

My review of Sam Lipsyte’s story collection, The Fun Parts, is titled “Laughing at Despair,” and that kind of sums up—in my mind, at least—the career of the author. He has such a gift for examining people living on the fringe, these desperate, lost souls. Yet what makes Lipsyte’s fiction so great is the fact that it turns these lives into uncomfortable comedy.

You can read my thoughts on the book over at Numero Cinq.

Tags Gordon Lish, numero cinq, Review, Sam Lipsyte, The Fun Parts

Book Review

Stay Awake

I wrote about Dan Chaon’s latest, the short story collection Stay Awake, for Rain Taxi. My piece appears in the latest print issue, which came out last week. Chaon’s book is (spoiler alert) pretty excellent. It’s full of ghostly visions, falls from ladders, foster kids, mysterious messages, a parasitic conjoined twin head, a brain-damaged ex-husband, and, well, people trying to stay awake, both physically and metaphorically. Read all about it by picking up a copy of RT right here.