The Paris Review, Issue 211, Winter 2014 by Lorin Stein

The Paris Review, Issue 211, Winter 2014 Reviews

• 
  Finn

  The interviews with Gornick and Haneke were both great, the former especially for the digs at Philip Roth and the later for how unexpectedly jokey Haneke is. Karl Ove Knausgaard had an interesting enough style but he comes off as one of many in the long line of tradition of writers who think the most interesting thing they can do with their style is talk about how little they thought of women when they were teens. His essay was much better than the excerpt from My Struggle, I thought. The poems were okay I guess, and the stories were mostly good, though I disliked Sayrafiezadeh's. Worth reading mostly for the interviews, Manguso's Short Days, and Dunthrone's The Line. I also very much dug Yankus' portfolio, old buildings are cool.
• 
  Michael Kitchen

  The Art of Memoir #2: Vivian Gornick = 5
  Slumming by Ottessa Moshfegh = 5
  Writing "My Struggle" - James Wood and Karl Ove Knausgaard = 5
  Critic, Sixteen by Karl Ove Knausgaard = 5
  The Line by Joe Dunthorne = 5
  Metaphor of the Falling Cat by Said Sayrafiezadeh = 3
  The Art of Screenwriting #3: Michael Haneke = 3
  Cigarettes by Sam Savage = 4
  
  Review average: 4.375
• 
  Penny O

  Gornick’s interview and Short Days by Sarah Manguso were great openers for the issue but my interest dropped once I read Metaphor of the Falling Cat. I felt incredibly uncomfortable the more I read it. Kudos to the author to evoke these feelings. Overall, this issue was disappointing for me.
• 
  Erik Eckel

  I found much to like in Paris Review #211. I particularly enjoyed Ottessa Moshfegh's Slumming, Joe Dunthorne's The Line and the Critic, Sixteen excerpt from Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle.
• 
  Caroline

  Vivian Gornick forever.
• 
  Enrico

  I'm going to cancel my subscription to The Paris Review if they publish Seidel in another issue.
• 
  Maggie Harney

  This was my first attempt at the world of literary magazines and I can only say what a wonderful leap of faith it was. The work of Sarah Manguso (Short Days) and the interview with Vivian Gornick (The Art of Memoir No.2) grabbed me while I was still in Barnes and Noble and seduced me so completely I have thought about very little else since. The pages are slightly smudged, just how I like them, from accompanying me for coffee every morning this week.
  
  Manguso's piece, which I can only characterize as free verse, reads like a collection of spontaneous ideas, as if at any moment the writer is so massively self-aware that she can both react and assess any lasting importance immediately. Her phrases move from love affairs to the nature of her writing style while still maintaining the sense of urgency it takes to maintain her unique and impulsive profoundness. My favorite line: "Horror is terror that stayed the night." I got shivers just typing it.
  
  For Gornick, it is a window into a world, particularly a New York, that no longer exists. From discovering feminism to leaving the world of journalism, her fascination with learning and being completely honest about her life's work has a kind of humility that is absolutely lacking in many modern writers. Never does she give the impression that her way is the only way but she offers the benefit of her experience with a wry self-actualization that champions not only her own mistakes but the entire process of failure as discovery. My favorite passage: "The thing that feminism taught me very quickly was that we were all making instrumental use of each other, that for instance, when a man was attracted to me, he wasn't attracted to me as such—he was attracted to the feelings I aroused in him, and what he wanted from me was that I keep that arousal alive. That is what we call sexual infatuation, and it's fine, delicious, necessary. But it does not constitute reality between people. That is not one human being apprehending another human being as a separate reality, akin to one's own." She put together pieces that I have always struggled explaining myself, and she did it with such clarity it took multiple reads for me to understand she had silenced one of my constant, internalized questions.
  
  So how does one move past these elegant words? I can only absorb them completely.
  
  
• 
  Ollie

  This is the first time I've read the Paris Review and I completely loved it. If I could, I'd get a subscription.
  
  Highlights for me included the short stories by Ottessa Moshfegh and Joe Dunthorne, poetry by Frederick Seidel, great interviews with Vivian Gornick and Michael Haneke, and non fiction by Karl Ove Knausgaard (regardless of what one thinks about his opinions, it's hard to get away from his seductive way with words).
  
  Michael Haneke's interview, in particular, should be essential reading for any writer (I was surprised to learn that he sees himself foremost as a writer and only started filming at 45.) And Joe Dunthorne's story appears to be an extract of a novel still in development which I'd love to check out when it's finally published.
• 
  Pearse Anderson

  Huh, I do not like The Paris Review, I think. This issue, combined with the anthology The Unprofessionals I read earlier, The Paris Review seems be full of sexually repressed midlife crisis professionals who go to a lot of dinner parties. Well, that's not really my vibe, and I hope that isn't my future. I disliked the interview here, the poetry, and a portion of the prose. The general trend of 2018 books I've read is that the prose is TIGHT and fantastic, but everything else slumps. The killers this issue were Moshfegh's "Slumming," and Joe Dunthorne's "The Line." OH! Sarah Manguso's bit was one of the best things I've read in 2017. But that was old news. But so brilliant. Still, 5/10 for this issue, bitch.
• 
  Corey Ryan

  Knausgaard is a genius. God,I love him.
  "Slumming" was pretty good.
  "The a Metaphor of the Falling Cat" and "The Line" were excellent.
  I enjoyed Seidel's poems; Levin's poem "Dandelion" was really bad because it sounded like a perfect poem for a poorly written standardized test, 8th or 9th grade.
  Neither interview was particularly inspiring, but not useless either.
• 
  Griflet

  I won't be renewing my subscription this year.
  I find the fiction woeful.
  The story, 'Slumming', in this issue, leaves me never wanting to read another short story again.
  I love the interviews so I'll stick with the Interview Collections from now on.
• 
  Gemma Mahadeo

  4.5/5
• 
  Kurishin

  Above average offering with My Struggles excerpt and solid short stories.
• 
  Brian

  Hit and miss (typical for PR in my opinion - lots of poetry that only an adjunct MFA prof could love). But then I was introduced to Knaussgaard. Gold.
• 
  Darryl Webster

  
  The Line by Joe Dunthorne was excellent. Also quite enjoyed Ottessa Moshfegh's Slumming
• 
  Leigh Forsstrom

  Finally decided to start My Struggle after reading the interview.