August 24th, 2009

Reads

I would never tell you what to do, but if you were looking for something to read and you happened to *ask* me, I might suggest:

—Sherman Alexie’s wonderful new story, War Dances is worth reading just for the crisp dialogue, just for the laconic generosity Alexie extends to his characters, just for the long prose-poem/text experient/amazing section “Exit Interview for My Father.” Taken in total, this story blew me away.

–Dave Fiore’s new fiction blog, Montreal Fiores‘s slogan is “putting the character in local character.” For those of us who haven’t been local in a while, or even at all, these stories and scenes put you there in a detailed, pigeons and cigarette butts way that’s so true it’s occasionally alarming.

–As ever, the whole of the current issue of The New Quarterly is worth your concentrated attention. Particularly “Impetus for a Sketch” and “All We Will Ever Be,” two particularly striking stories out of an issue full of strong strong fiction. The latter is by the 2008/9 Metcalf-Rooke Award-winner, Amy Jones, by the way; so the torch has been passed and it looks like the flame is burning bright.

–But *Once* is still around, and the first story from the collection, “ContEd,” has received a thoughtful review at That Shakespearian Rag. In the course of this year, I’ve learned that almost every single story in the book is someone’s favourite, but “ContEd” sure does come up a lot.

There, I’m glad I got all that off my chest. Happy reading!

Summer to winter
RR