The Paris Review, Issue 207, Winter 2013 by Lorin Stein


The Paris Review, Issue 207, Winter 2013
Title : The Paris Review, Issue 207, Winter 2013
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : -
Language : English
Format Type : Perfectbound
Number of Pages : 276
Publication : First published December 1, 2013

Geoff Dyer on the art of nonfiction: "The process of book writing for me is entirely one of trial and error." And Edward P. Jones on the art of fiction: "Until I can read a story physically, with the eyes, it doesn’t seem to exist for me."

The first installment of a novel by Rachel Cusk. New fiction from J. D. Daniels, Jenny Offill, Nell Freudenberger, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Lydia Davis, and the winner of the NPR Three-Minute Fiction Contest.

Poems by Kevin Prufer, Susan Stewart, Hilda Hilst, Charlie Smith, Monica Youn, Sylvie Baumgartel, Emily Moore, and Linda Pastan. A portfolio of nudes by Chuck Close.

The Paris Review, Issue 207, Winter 2013 Reviews

  • Daniel Chaikin

    The interview of Edward P. Jones was fascinating. If you believe the calmness in his words, then he is just someone who is manifestly unperturbed by the basic troubles and stresses with life. And he's had numerous troubles and stresses.

    As for the rest:

    Part one of four of Rachel Cusk's novel was interesting enough that I hope to read it.

    Geoff Dyer's interview (Art of Nonfiction) was interesting. He is oddly arrogant, which I don't think I minded, but he stubbornly insists he is breaking down the split between fiction and nonfiction, then
    contradicted himself by making statements about their difference. I guess I didn't quite buy into him.

    I liked Jenny Offill's fictional diary-like entries about being a new mother.

    Mixed on Sylvie Nell Freudenberger's Hover and Lydia Davis's The Seals.

    Poetry with one or two poems between each story simply doesn't work well for me. Nothing sticks. But I know I really liked Charlie Smith's Bus to Tuxtla, Sylvie Baumgartel's Gramercy Park and Caprice. And I also like Linda Pastan's - Last Rites.

    But, outside Jones, and maybe Cusk, it wasn't the kind of magazine that makes me want to read these kings of magazines.

  • Corinne

    I enjoyed the interview with Edward Jones, Nell Freudenberger's "Hover," and some of the poetry. The rest I could live without. All the short stories felt so conventionally short-storyish and were largely forgettable.

  • John

    Uhh nudes. This issue is full of naked pictures. So. Read it. For, uhh, the articles.
    "Nudes," by photographer, Chuck Close. A Okay.

    And an interesting interview in this issue with author Geoff Dyer who's books merge the two categories of fiction and non-fiction in interesting ways.

  • Ann Douglas

    Highlights of this issue include the author interviews -- Geoff Dyer (non-fiction) and Edward P. Jones (fiction) -- and the excerpt from Rachel Cusk's forthcoming novel Outline.

  • P. E. Hudson

    So glad I've picked up the Paris Review again. Very much enjoy it. What wonderful weekend reading.