The short stories of the Chilean literary phenom Roberto Bolaño have all the delicious rumble and none of the repetitious ramble of his overpraised novels. Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 was one of the most critically acclaimed novels of the past few years, yet I’ve met few people who could honestly admit to enjoying it. This is [...]

In fiction, cruelty can be exploited for its shock valve or used to make a point. These two novels, one from France, the other from Greece, illustrate both choices. Beside the Sea, by Véronique Olmi. Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter. Peirene Press, 121 pages Rien Ne Va Plus, by Margarita Karapanou. Translated from [...]

This is the blog I publish over at Untitled Books, a literary website based in the UK that you all should check out. I’ll post all the blogs here, just in case you don’t wander that-a-way. Submission Guideline Statement: “DailyRejection prefers that you submit only one story at a time, or up to five poems [...]

One of literature’s greatest living authors writes his own posthumous fictionalized biography, in which he airs his deepest fears that no number of awards or marriages or friends can ever fully dispel the universal human certitude that one is a talentless fraud and an unlovable misanthrope. Reviewed by Tommy Wallach Upon putting down J.M. Coetzee’s [...]

Perils of the Pansexual This novel about a young woman who wakes up to find that her big toe has become a penis was a major bestseller in Japan, and it’s easy to see why. The book is titillating, disturbing without being disgusting, and reads like a self-help guide on the subjects of sex and [...]

A new collection of vintage educational shorts offers a peek into the anxieties and hopes of earlier generations By Tommy Wallach Oct. 12, 2009 | Once upon a time, the film projector was the teaching tool of the future. Schools all over the country purchased the temperamental, whirring machines, prompting a flood of educational shorts [...]

Of Violence and Beauty Colombian writer Evelio Rosero’s work is notorious for being brutally realistic, even hyperrealistic, and this book, which won 2009 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, is no exception. At the beginning of Evelio Rosero’s novel “The Armies”, the protagonist, Ismael, a retired professor in his seventies, spies on his young neighbor Geraldina over [...]

(This post was originally written for my arts and culture blog on Salon, Buzzkiller. All postings from that blog will also be reposted here.) Today, the NYTimes, my go-to source for rant-inspiring material, ran an article entitled “Country’s New Face: It’s Young and Blonde”. Hearkening back to sometime in the early 18th century, the piece [...]

Start Making Sense In Yoko Tawada’s latest novel alienation becomes downright alienating. A reviewer courts considerable danger when he or she condemns a book that is densely surreal or murkily allegorical. Complaining that the story’s symbols are foggy may invite charges that subtleties in the plot were missed; objections to the lack of a clear [...]

Fallout Girl Another take on the post-apocalyptic novel proves that this venerable genre is anything but a wasteland. “Every day I buckle on my guns and go out to patrol the dingy city. I’ve been doing it so long that I’m shaped to it, like a hand that’s been carrying buckets in the cold.” So [...]