Fiction has always been a laboratory to study the human condition but with the advancements of technology and science becoming more commonplace, fiction has become a simulation runner to experiment on the plausible consequences of these achievements.

Lara Vapnyar discusses the “mysterious Russian soul”, childhood, and how she learned she is a powerful writer.

Lillian Ross does not reveal how the adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage will pan out until practically the very end, at which point, the plot reasserts itself and what had seemed a sideshow attraction rears into view as the true climax of Picture.

Shortly before I started reading my favorite novel of 2019, my beautiful 23 year old daughter stopped communicating with me. I didn’t know it then, but it would be almost a year before I saw her again.

The more the French view me as part of their country, the more I see myself as belonging here with them. With my blonde hair and daily scarves, I look the part. It’s easier to accept superficial validation such as compliments on my accent and cultural ease from the French than it is to reconcile my fading American patriotism.

"I loved that, no matter where the characters went underground, they came out into the same space..I could see a double-paged spread showing a huge old fashioned attic — full of the different entry points. To me, the story said, whatever you think you know about the rules of life, forget it, ain’t necessarily true."  

It’s that time of year again. The late capitalist clusterfuck some call the holiday season. Or, as literary folks know it, “Best Of” Hell.

There are few if any American writers who can vocalize the crushing despair of late capitalist malaise in a mere five sentences.

You don’t read Ben Lerner’s writing. You read Ben Lerner’s mind. His immense, contorted, self-effacing, hilarious intellect propels his narratives. Sure, his novels have characters, plots, themes.