McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #30.  Editor, Dave Eggers.  Short Fiction Collection.

For some reason it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten all the way through an issue of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern.  I don’t know why that is and I’m inclined to blame myself, rather than McSweeneys.  But man am I glad I’m back.  Without even realizing it I read all eleven stories and 167 pages of McSweeney’s most recent issue (#30) and it was great to be back with my friends.

I started, strangely enough with Kevin Moffit’s Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events, which was story number three chronologically, and which I didn’t intend to read first – I was headed for story number four – Bad Karma by Etgar Keret – when I stumbled upon these words in Moffit’s story, “Full of bees.”  This piqued my interest and I went back a few sentences so I could see what the hell he was talking about, here’s the passage:

[“It wasn’t all the time.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and looked at me. “You should try writing about her, if you haven’t already.  You find yourself unearthing all sorts of things.  Stories are just like dreams.”

Something about his advice irritated me.  It brought to mind his casually boastful author’s note, This is his first published story.  “Stories aren’t dreams,” I said.

“They’re not? What are they, then?”

“I didn’t know.  All I knew was that if he thought they were dreams, then they had to be something else. “They’re jars,” I said, “Full of bees.  You unscrew the lid and out come the bees.”]

HELLO – I’M IN LOVE.  That passage sent me back to the beginning of Moffit’s story, and then to the beginning of the quarterly to read it all the way through, front to back, as intended.  And it was wonderful.  All the stories were strong.  Some standouts for me were:  Kevin Moffit’s Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events; Etgar Keret’s Bad Karma; Carson Mell’s Diamond Aces; J. Malcolm Garcia’s Cuts; Catherine Bussinger’s Foothill Boulevard; and Wells Tower’s Retreat.  Matei Visniec’s Madness, went beyond being a standout…and well over into the brilliant category.  The only complaint I had with Madness is that I wanted more more more.

But now let’s get to the real meat of this post, the fact that one of the best stories in entire collection is a piece called Pinecone by Michael Cera.  Yes, I said Michael FUCKING Cera.  You know the one.  Why is the world so unfair…that someone gets to be Michael Cera and ALSO gets to be a great writer of short fiction.  The world my friends is a cruel cruel place.  I’d be pissed at Mr. Cera if I wasn’t so hopeful that he’ll write and publish more stories.

Overall I give McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #30 4.0 Stars and anxiously await my next issue.

#38.  One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box.  Three Collections by Dave Eggers, Sarah Manguso, and Deb Olin Unferth.  4 Stars.

Let’s just talk about packaging.  BEA-UTIFUL!  It could not be more gorgeous.  Three tiny, perfect little volumes, packaged in a small box, and a gorgeous one at that.  Now let’s talk about concept, what a great idea this is.  Some great authors, given pretty free reign to be as creative and “out of the box” (excuse the pun) as they want.  Just wonderful.  Okay, now onto execution, there is some minor stumbling here in that the quality of the three tiny volumes, for me, was just not equal. 

Sarah Manguso’s Hard To Admit and Harder To Escape shocked me, I mean SHOCKED me with its brilliance.  She has 81 blissfully tiny stories that are edited (and perhaps written) with the finest of tuning…they are only the absolutely necessary words and the result is incredibly powerful little tales.  Manguso’s book was by far the strongest for me overall (and I’m pretty sure she creeped inside my head at night and stole tale #81, about zombies, directly from dreams – shame on you Ms. Manguso!).  It is a pretty powerful piece that can (slightly) show up a collection by Dave Eggers.  Hats off to you Ms. Manguso. 

Dave Eggers collection How The Water Feels To The Fishes is also very powerful, and my absolute favorite pieces overall were probably his, but his collection was not as consistently brilliant as Manguso’s.  Still, a powerful exciting read.  I was so into Eggers collection that I almost missed my stop at 86th street on the subway, and then proceeded to almost knock over a blind man.  I know, I know, horrible.  I’ve felt guilty about it for days now. 

Last, and sadly least (though I read it in the middle) was Deb Olin Unferth’s collection Minor Robberies.  This was still a great collection and had I read it on my own, separate from the other two collections, perhaps it would have held up better, but in comparison to Eggers and Manguso’s pieces, it just didn’t have the same power for me.  The stories were much longer than Eggers and Manguso’s pieces generally were, yet there was actually less punch to the stories.  I was disappointed, but again, I think only because read in combination with the other two volumes, the three just did not seem to mesh well together overall and Olin Unferth’s seemed to be the weakest link. 

I would recommend this collection to anyone that loves short fiction, as it is a beautiful collection (great gift) and the storytelling within is really quite original and cutting edge.  Very few authors out there can handle the short short story, and these three are absolutely at the top of the crop.  4 Stars.