Tomboy
Elizabeth Riggio Tomboy. I haven’t thought much about this word since I was 11 years old and it was practically my middle name. And I have history with my middle name. When I was younger, people thought I…
The Man
Scott Laughlin Before the judge stands a large man, almost three-hundred-and-fifty pounds, wearing a gray t-shirt and tan cargo pants. He hasn’t shaved in a few days, and his eyes, large and brown under his fat cheeks, have…
Review of “The Big Seven: A Faux Mystery” by Jim Harrison
Ellie Rodgers Oversexed, booze-soaked detective Frank Sunderson last delighted readers while hunting a cult Svengali in Jim Harrison’s The Great Leader. In that 2011 novel, Sunderson barely survived an ambush. Thankfully, he lived so Harrison could bring him back…
Review of “Huck Finn’s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece” by Andrew Levy
Shea Faulkner For the past nine years, I have worked as an educator in one capacity or another. Over that time period, I can think of few books that have challenged the way in which I teach, but Huck Finn’s…
Review of “The Undertaking” by Audrey Magee
Mary Slebodnik Before I picked up The Undertaking, I had never read a World War II novel with a Nazi supporter as the central character. I felt curious about how the author would prompt me to care about the…
Review of “The Denouncer” by Paul M. Levitt
Kim Shegog Imagine a life devoted to navigating a labyrinth of doublespeak. Such is the existence of one young man, Sasha Parsky, in Paul M. Levitt’s historical novel, The Denouncer. Set under the rule of Stalin, the novel examines…
At George’s Wake
David Colodney Jonathan spoke openly about his father’s death, that he didn’t have to worry about his dad’s speechless sort of pain anymore, the inaudible facial grimaces doing all the complaining his voice refused to. And Jonathan told me his…
Review of “Suspended Sentences” by Patrick Modiano
Mariah Gese A strange photographer befriended in a café, a secret gang of dissidents taking care of two children, an enigmatic man of many names and pasts—all roaming a forgotten Paris, not quite illuminated by Modiano’s dreamy yet particular wanderings…
Ode to Florida
Erica Kenick Your Okeechobee eye didn’t see us coming, Walkman and pet parrot in my lap, but I spied you from the boxed-in backseat on the East Coast map, a swampy turtle head so close to becoming your own island,…
Review of “Twilight of the Eastern Gods” by Ismail Kadare
Anni Liu I. It is Summer 1958, in the resort town of Dubulti, Latvia. The young attendees of a Soviet Bloc writer’s retreat are gathered on the beach for table tennis. Many of them, our narrator included, are on vacation…