Granta 126: Do You Remember

Like with so many other literary magazines, the rule of fame applies If you have ever heard of the author, their story will underwhelm you, but if the story is by someone you ve never heard of, the story will stun you, move you, excite you.In this case, the work by Norman Rush is sophomorically obsessed with sex and reads like Woody Allen sans jokes Anne Beatie abandons coherence to try to be clever Edmund White s essay is perfunctory and even the usually perfect Lorrie Moore seems to have given [...]

The Lorrie Moore story is worth it But the one that really got under my skin and permeated into my brain is The Magic Box by Olivia Laing, which is all about the amazing artist David Wojnarowicz Amazing piece.

I was surprised that this issue of Granta did not have as profound an effect on me as some of the others, especially considering it contained quite a bit of fiction, which I prefer I think the absence of an Introduction to tie all the pieces together from the start really impacted on my ability to enjoy this issue as a whole Memorable QuotesThe Indian Uprising Ann Beattie There s no copyright on titles, he said It wouldn t be a good idea, probably, to call something Death of a Salesman , but you [...]

Another very fine Granta anthology even though there are changes in the editorial team Toboggan Run by poet new comer, Fiona Benson, is both solid and delicate, and very beautiful to read I also loved Lorrie Moore s Thank You For Having Me there is a wonderful steady and unshowy rueful humour at work through this, and I loved the descriptions voices of the renegade bikers This piece seemed to be about sex and aging, how to negotiate these things, and I love the muted optimism of the ending A cou [...]

I really do like this little quarterly each time I read it The theme from this edition, Do You Remember, and the question of whether something starts to become a fiction as soon as it is a memory as everyone remembers differently , was a great jumping off point for a wide variety of work There was non fiction can you call it that if someone is writing their own memories than fiction poetry, and quite a few photo essays, which was great Particular favourites were the piece with letters between [...]

An amazing anthology again I m quivering right now at the scope and depth of poems, tales and photographs.My favorites The Emily Dickinson Series Janet Malcolm and Marta Warnar Cooley High Aracelis Girmay Dangerous Joy Williams Off the Road Andrew Brown My Avant Garde Education Bernard Cooper The Defeated Jonny Steinberg Thank You For Having Me Lorrie Moore American Vogue Edmund White Please Tim Tickle Lana Colin McAdamand most of all, The Magic Box Olivia LaingAs usual, as always expected, all [...]

4.5 5 Very keen on this issue, lots of strong nonfiction, and a dash of good fiction and poetry Plus, anything with Janet Malcolm pretty much gets an automatic 4 stars The cover image is from a series of collages she did incorporating and inspired by typed transcripts from a book of Dickinson poems images and correspondence around the project are included in the issue.Too lazy to get too deep on this one, but it s a strong one Surely the pieces were picked up by John Freeman before he left in t [...]

One of the stronger Granta offerings of late, and a reminder of why I subscribed to this magazine over 15 years ago Every entry here has something to recommend it, and the variation in writing style is rewarding My favorites were Please Tim Tickle Lana, Dangerous, A Killing and A Hand Reached Down To Guide Me.

Good mix of stories, non fiction, and photo essays in this volume of Granta I particularly liked Please Tim Tickle Lana Colin McAdam , The Defeated Jonny Steinberg , and My Avant Garde Education Bernard Cooper.

Highlights of this issue include Please Tim Tickle Lana by Colin McAdam The Emily Dickinson Series by Janet Malcolm with an introduction by Janet Malcolm and Marta Werner and A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me by David Gates.

There were three phenomenal stories in this issue The Indian Uprising by Ann Beattie Dangerous by Joy WilliamsAnd, man, I really loved this one, A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me by David Gates.

Granta s always great, so my three stars may be misleading This was still good But not my favourite Granta issue Some of the pieces here didn t do much for me, and the overall theme seemed to run too easily into rather self indulgent memoir Still, better than most.

Just an average issue for me.

Definitely the most disappointing issue I ve ever read Very few of the pieces grabbed my attention They all seemed forced and many of them bored me so much that I didn t finish them.

Best pieces in this issue are Jonny Steinberg s The Defeated, Olivia Lang s The Magic Box, and David Gates A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me.

Stand out stories for me were, American Vogue by Edmund White and A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me by David Gates.

Very interesting Highlights were Lorrie Moore, and Steinberg s The Defeated , but wouldn t say there was a dud in this issue.

Highlights for me The Magic Box by Olivia Laing, and A Killing by Katherine Faw Morris