Granta 144: Generic Love Story by Sigrid Rausing

Granta 144: Generic Love Story Reviews

• 
  Neil

  The book blurb gives you a good idea of what is found in this edition of Granta. The articles are, as usual, a mixed bunch of fact and fiction and a mix in terms of personal appeal. An article about a girls’s experience with a paedophile whilst not explicit is uncomfortable to read. An excerpt from Sally Rooney’s upcoming novel is a chance to preview the one remaining book I need to read from this year’s Man Booker long list. Photo articles including one about cross-dressers showing part of a collection of found photographs from the 1880s to the 1930s are interesting. It is a mixed bag, but well worth reading for the relevance of its subjects.
• 
  eva mae

  a truly gorgeous collection of the good, the bad, the very bad, and the ugly when it comes to love stories. never have i read so many extracts of stories at once but the sequence and the pace was set oh-so perfectly.
  
  should i be saving money? yes.
  am i going to go and buy many of the texts featured? most likely.
  
  reading the granta magazines has been such an eye opener to books and novels that i may have never even thought of picking up.
  
  i could never recommend this edition enough.
  
• 
  Maureen

  Well now I’ve read some Sally Rooney.
• 
  Chris

  Another engaging collection of stories, poetry, memoir, and critical and photo essays.
  Tara Isabelle Burton's story of a woman falling into an abusive relationship as the United States falls into an abusive government is the most memorable piece for me. Leni Zumas' "That" shows a writing ability I want to read more of.
  Ferdnanda Eberstadt has a startling memoir of her friendship with artist Stephen Varble and New York City in the 1970s.
  The collection of photos of turn-of-the-century cross-dressers had the effect of normalizing this fashion. "It ain't no new thing" as Gil Scott Heron said about something very different.
  This Granta is a collection, primarily, of women's stories, of abuse, of seduction, of abortion, of being seen, of not being seen. A compelling collection.
• 
  Rue Baldry

  This issue on Gender and Power turns out to be mostly about rape and #MeToo. Less than 2 years after being issued, it already feels dated, very much of 2018, if not 2019.
  
  There are a few good pieces: the title comic strip has promise but feels incomplete, Andrew Motion’s piece and the photographs of cross-dressers from the olden days are great, there are good, but bitter & hopeless stories about working in high fashion retail and driving through a desert.
  
  Mostly though this issue is full of rants from women either seething with victimhood or dismissive of those who cannot manipulate men through their desires and banal pieces stating the fairly obvious on only moderately interesting topics. Also, for a British magazine it is rather unbalanced towards North American writers.
• 
  Garrett Zecker

  Another brilliantly edited collection from Granta features some poignant and timely pieces on gender and power reflecting many dimensions of the #MeToo movement discussion currently happening. I particularly enjoyed the pieces in this collection by Eberstadt, Toews, Newell, Duffy, Parrish, Burton, Gwartney, Nesbit, Moshfegh, and Zumas. Everything in the collection was beautiful and energetic, and I found myself gasping at some poignant lines that communicated the hard and striking voices unveiling lifetimes of struggle and repression. One of my favorite Grantas in recent memory, this particular issue urges readers to listen, to observe, and to raise a flag in the front lines of today’s changes in gendered power dynamics.
• 
  Neil Kenealy

  A mixed bag of essays and stories. Some very thought provoking and some required a bitnof effort to get through them.
• 
  Rob Christopher

  Harrowing, powerful. Best to read in small doses.
• 
  Kate

  some very powerful material in this volume
• 
  Loulose

  Nja. Jeg skjønte det kanskje ikke, men jeg syns ikke det var så veldig bra.
• 
  Johan Sanders

  Dit nummer deed me meer lezen van Sally Rooney en Ottessa Moshfegh.
  Ook Stella Duffy kon me bekoren.