The Paris Review, Issue 243, Spring 2023 by Emily Stokes

The Paris Review, Issue 243, Spring 2023 Reviews

• 
  Margaret Perkins

  Three whole author interviews in this one! The one with Rita Dove was fantastic.
• 
  angela

  faves: this is everything there ever will be (rivers solomon)*, holding a book i haven’t read for many years (malachi black), mistry: a lyric (d. s. marriott), interviews w mary gaitskill (!!!) & olga tokarczuk
  
  *the type of story where a single sentence guts you, turns you inside out
• 
  nathan

  lol you’re not sexy
  — because you don’t read 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸
  
  𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘭𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘮, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘵. — 𝘚𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘚𝘢𝘮𝘦 by Elaine Feeney
  
  I waited for you at the rooftop cafe overlooking a park full of lovers, and children. Children of lovers, filling the spring air with screams. I was in a caffeinated tantrum, afraid to see you again.
  
  I often think that what I write is too personal. Perhaps it needs to be because I want to scream in the air too. Because there’s truth. So much of it that it hurts. So much of it that it begs to be heard just as much as I do.
  
  The last time I saw you was in that month for lovers. Red and saturated with the frustrations of being in and around with someone so that one looks a little less lonely on weekends. I don’t mind being alone at all. In fact, I prefer going to movies alone. But to be seen alone is a different thing altogether.
  
  In an interview in this recent publication of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, Mary Gaitskill talks about private people in public places, the ways people commit little gestures unbeknownst to strangers around them. She picks up on these minor details to make use of her own fiction.
  
  You come in flushed, slinging your tote over your shoulder as it fidgets to be thrown back over the crook of your arm. Long time no see, you said in a single breath. Before you pull me into a hug, you look down at The Paris Review, the cover done by Peter Doig, wistful in its strokes to create that spring blush, the floats of pollen in the air, the very essence of being alive in daylight. What are you reading? You ask.
  
  Have you fictionalized me? I asked him. Or I thought I asked him. What I actually asked was, Do you ever think about what I’m doing on a Tuesday evening? Some random morning?
  
  No, frankly not, you said, with a smile. The smile is harmless, a buffer in niceties, but it hurts all the same.
  
  
  read the rest of the text here
• 
  Stephen De

  I really enjoyed the Gaitskill interview so much so that I picked up her short story collection "Bad Behavior." There was something about writing from the perspective of knowing the world is sad but desperately wanting it to be happy rather than knowing the world is sad and just accepting it. It was a difference I never really considered.
  
  I liked the Feeney piece the most of the prose for its simple elegance in capturing two people with an intense history trying to put it behind them. Marie NDiaye's piece was a close second for me, exploring the strange relationship between a woman and her housekeeper beautifully.
  
  The Dove and Tokarczuk interviews were both fun reads.
  
  Overall for my first issue of The Paris Review I enjoyed it and I look forward to reading more (and "Bad Behavior")