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In Roddy Doyle’s “Love,” Sharing Beers — and Memories While Visiting the Pubs of Dublin, Two Men Look Back on Life”

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It takes the two men a while and a few pints for them to open up to each other. “There is a reason why men don’t talk about their feelings. It’s not just that it’s difficult, or embarrassing. It’s almost impossible. The words aren’t really there.” Ah, but in wine there is truth and in beer there is ‘drunken sense’ and the two manage to do a lot of storytelling. Joe reveals that he’s left his wife, Trish, for another woman, Jessica, whom Joe and Davy were each infatuated with more than 30 years ago.

You can read my review of Roddy Doyle’s Love in the Boston Globe by clicking the image below.

You can buy Roddy’s Doyle’s Love at Barnes & Noble.

Written by Joe Peschel

June 20th, 2020 at 3:13 pm

Posted in News

The Best American Short Stories 2012

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Here’s a partial list of authors whose stories will appear in The Best American Short Stories 2011, guest-edited by Tom Perrotta.

Let me know if you know of or are the author of an included story. I’ll be adding to the list as I discover more about stories that’ll be included.

Here’s the partial list:

Carol Anshaw, “The Last Speaker of the Language,” New Ohio Review

Taylor Antrim, “Pilgrim Life,” American Short Fiction

Roxane Gay, “North Country,” Hobart

Mike Meginnis, “Navigators,” Hobart

Lawrence Osborne, “Volcano” Tin House

Edith Pearlman, “Honeydew,” Orion Magazine

Eric Puchner, “Beautiful Monsters,” Tin House

Jess Walter, Anything Helps,” McSweeney’s

Adam Wilson, “What’s Important Is Feeling,” The Paris Review

Written by Joe Peschel

May 2nd, 2012 at 6:17 pm

Posted in News

“Who’s in Best American Short Stories 2011”

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Here are the authors and the stories included in The Best American Short Stories 2011.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “Ceiling,” Granta

Megan Mayhew Bergman, “Housewifely Arts,” One Story

Tom Bissell, “A Bridge Under Water,” Agni

Jennifer Egan, “Out of Body,” Tin House

Nathan Englander, “Free Fruit for Young Widows,” The New Yorker

Allegra Goodman, “La Vita Nuova,” The New Yorker

Ehud Havazelet, “Gurov in Manhattan,” TriQuarterly

Caitlin Horrocks, “The Sleep,” The Atlantic Fiction for Kindle

Bret Anthony Johnston, “Soldier of Fortune,” Glimmer Train

Claire Keegan, “Foster,” The New Yorker

Sam Lipsyte, “The Dungeon Master,” The New Yorker

Rebecca Makkai, “Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart,” Tin House

Elizabeth McCracken, “Property,” Granta

Steven Millhauser, “Phantoms,” McSweeney’s

Ricardo Nuila, “Dog Bites,” McSweeney’s

Joyce Carol Oates, “ID,” The New Yorker

Richard Powers, “To the Measures Fall,” The New Yorker

Jess Row, “The Call of Blood,” Harvard Review

George Saunders, “Escape from Spiderhead,” The New Yorker

Mark Slouka, “The Hare’s Mask,” Harper’s Magazine

Written by Joe Peschel

August 25th, 2011 at 3:42 pm

Posted in News

In the Fall They Come Back

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Watch for my review of Robert Bausch’s In the Fall They Come Back coming soon.

Written by Joe Peschel

June 24th, 2011 at 6:27 pm

Posted in News

NBCC Chooses Lisicky Piece as Exemplary Review

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The National Book Critics Circle chose my Boston Globe review of Paul Lisicky’s novella The Burning House as an exemplary review.

You can buy the book at Barnes & Noble by clicking the image below.

Read my review at Powell’s on the “Review-a-Day” page.

It’s the second time I’ve had a review chosen as an exemplary review. The first one, also a Boston Globe review, was on Martha McPhee’s “Dear Money,” posted about this time last year.

Written by Joe Peschel

June 22nd, 2011 at 12:05 pm

What Are Your Favorite Short Novels?

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I asked friends on Facebook—writers, reviewers, critics, readers—what their favorite short novels were, short being less than *217 pages.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was the best loved. Six people mentioned it, and that doesn’t include me. I try to read it every year.

Three persons chose William’s Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow as their favorite. Likewise, three persons chose Richard Bausch’s Peace.

Short novels by Steinbeck, Joseph Conrad, J. D. Salinger, Henry James, and Ernest Hemingway were popular, too.

Here are the responses:

Amy Holman:
Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola, by Paulette Jiles.

Lee K. Abbott:
So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell.

Ted Gioia:
Some of my favorites: The Spoils of Poynton (Henry James), The Black Swan (Thomas Mann), The Day of the Locust (Nathaniel West), The Great Gatsby (F.Scott Fitzgerald), The Gambler (Fyodor Dostoevsky) and Swann in Love (Marcel Proust).

Charles Baxter:
Ditto Lee K. Abbott’s choice: Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow.

Jan Eliasberg:
Couldn’t agree more—William Maxwell’s heart-breaking gem of a book, So Long, See You Tomorrow.

Robert Bausch:
Peace, by my brother Richard Bausch. After that, The Great Gatsby.

Allen Wier:
Ditto Bob Bausch—Peace and The Great Gatsby and R.G. Vliet’s Rockspring.

Rachel Helene Swift:
Peace is so beautiful, one of those perfect novellas that leaves you feeling like you’re clutching something precious.

Jill Jones:
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson.

Harvey Freedenberg:
There should be more of them, but here are four picks, three classics and one fairly recent (1) Gatsby; (2) The Old Man and the Sea; (3) Slaughterhouse Five; (4) Last Night at the Lobster [by Stewart O’Nan.] In the five years I’ve been reviewing, I’ve read more than a handful of novels that might have been better at fewer than 217 pp. than they were at their actual length.

To which I (Joseph Peschel) said:
I’d say that Bolano’s 2666 would’ve been better under 217 pages, but then I’d be hanged for heresy.

Stephen Fried:
A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean.

James Marcus:
Good Will, by Jane Smiley. Technically a novella, but what the hell. Also, The Beginning of Spring, by Penelope Fitzgerald, or just about anything else by Penelope Fitzgerald.

I (Joseph Peschel) asked:
What’s the difference between a short novel, a long short story, and a novella?

James Marcus:
A long short story is two anecdotes, a novella is three anecdotes, a short novel is four anecdotes and a car chase.

Jeri Kraver:
Franks Norris’s McTeague. Henry James’s Daisy Miller. Two terrifically teachable novels—so it might be the academic in me talking. Or Daniel Araon’s The Americanist.

Cynthia Haven:
Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier. And also C.S. Lewis’s less polished (but fun) The Great Divorce.

Ann Elizabeth Cavazos:
My taste is odd, admittedly. First choice would be Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, my copy from 100 years ago is crumbling but comes in at 177 pages. Now I will weep with shame and admit I have always loved S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, which comes in at 180. My copy of To Kill a Mockingbird just misses the limit. Because I read to my children, the short novels I’m aware of tend to be YA. Also love Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet.

John Orr:
Cannery Row, Steinbeck.

Chauncey Mabe:
Lots of gold to choose from in that stream. The Aspern Papers, by Henry James leaps to mind. The Snows of Kilamanjaro, by Hemingway. The Awakening, Kate Chopin. At the Mountains of Madness, by H.P. Lovecraft. The Stranger, Camus. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald. Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor (oops! Might be a tad too long). Siddhatha, by Herman Hesse… I gotta pick one?!?

which started the conversation below:

ChaunceyMabe:
Why do you ask?

Joseph Peschel:
I noticed a GalleyCat question on Twitter about favorite long books. So, being the contrarian I usually I am, I thought I’d asked writer and critics about their favorite short books.

Joseph Peschel:
Sure, you can pick more than one.

Chauncey Mabe:
Thanks. You may have given me a blog subject for tomorrow.

Chauncey Mabe:
If I had to pick one, it might—might—be The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark.

Joseph Peschel:
Damn! I was gonna put it on my blog later!

Chauncey Mabe:
Oh, please, be my guest. There’s no end of things to write about.

Joseph Peschel:
There’s no reason we both can’t post this stuff on our blogs, is there? The more…

Chauncey Mabe:
True. Then we can compare misperceptions.

Joseph Peschel:
Should we count the small-print version of War and Peace?

Chauncey Mabe:
Yes, absolutely. Ulysses, too.

Mark Wisniewski:
You can’t go wrong with Of Mice and Men. &, yes, people tend to hate Hemingway, but there’s a lot to learn about storytelling from the few pages in The Old Man and the Sea. Then of course there’s this awesome new novel due out this October that’s right around 217 pp, titled Show Up, Look Good—wait a minute, that’s MY novel!

Kelly Cherry:
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather; Death of Ivan Ilyich. Can we say that Crime and Punishment is a short novel? It’s at least relatively short. Family Happiness by Tolstoy.

Joseph Peschel:
You know Kelly that greater than symbol was a boo-boo, supposed to be less than.
I mentioned the small-print version of War and Peace to Chauncey Mabe. We agreed that it and Ulysses should be counted. So, I guess “Death Comes” and “C& P” are in—if and only if they are the small-print versions. Does anyone have a magnifying glass?

Michael Shapiro:
Paar Lagerkvist’s The Sybil.

Leora Skolkin-Smith:
The Lover, by Marguerite Duras.

Paul Lindholdt:
Henry James, What Maisie Knew.

Dawn Tripp:
An Imaginary Life, by David Malouf; The Stranger, by Camus, Snow Country, by Yasunari Kawabata; The Lover, by Marguerite Duras; Ransom, by David Malouf; The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with The Sea, by Yukio Mishima; Emily L., by Marguerite Duras. (Ransom, by Malouf, is the only one that bends your rules a bit—comes in at 224, but e-x-q-u-i-s-i-t-e.)

Stephen Kiernan:
Pan by Knut Hamsun.

KC Bosch:
The Moon is Down Steinbeck.

Laura Orem:
Gatsby. It’s like holding a gem up to the light every time I read it.

Henry Cabot Beck:
Conrad, Billy Budd, Salinger’s novellas; Baby is Three, by Ted Sturgeon; Henry James’s Turn Of The Screw, & Washington Square.

Rick Carroll:
Silk, by Alessandro Baricco.

Otto McCarthy:
The Heart of Darkness, Conrad.

Sharon Nelson:
Tuck Everlasting (by Natalie Babbitt), even though a fantasy novel for youngsters, still pulls at my heartstrings.

Bill Harrison:
Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman

Kelly Cherry:
I need to second The Beginning of Spring, by P. Fitzgerald; it’s one of my favorite books. There is also a short novel by Michael Frayn, maybe titled The Translator, or something like that, and it, too, is wonderful.

I (Joseph Peschel) said:
Could it be Russian Interpreter?

Kelly Cherry:
That’s the title, Joseph! Thanks. I’m happy to have it restored to me memory.

Lora Soroka:
Salinger’s Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters! Since youth…

Lionel Beasley:
Death in Venice, Thomas Mann.

Tija Spitsberg:
The Aspern Papers, Henry James.

Bill Ransom:
Ballad of the Sad Café, Carson McCullers; or Of Mice and Men (can’t decide).

Dan Linke:
In Another Country, by Susan Kenney and alluded to in a Lee K. Abbott short story.

Steve Vivian:
My favorite: Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West.

Toby Tucker Hecht:
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf.

Tija Spitsberg:
Also, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton.

Renée Roehl:
Flight, by Sherman Alexie.

Christopher Purdy:
Firmin, by Sam Savage.

Jessica Blau:
Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. That’s short isn’t it? I haven’t read it for years but have been thinking about Pamplona lately!

Terry Hummer:
Marguerite Yourcenar’s Coup de Grace.

Sarah Otto Deacon:
Sold, by Patricia McCormick. Yeah, it’s a young adult novel but our book club just read it anyway. Beautifully written, poignant, riveting and important subject.

Chris Gavaler:
Henry James’s Turn of the Screw.

*I arrived at 217 pages after garnering some rather promising statistics, working out a few hours of trivial calculations, and writing a C program to give an absolute and unassailable answer. After my code choked in the compiler, I decided that 217 sounded like a really good number.

Below are the results:

TITLE VOTES TITLE VOTES
A River Runs Through It 1 Siddhatha 1
Always Rings Twice 1 Silk 1
An Imaginary Life 1 Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola, 1
At the Mountains of Madness 1 Slaughterhouse Five 1
Baby is Three 1 Snow Country 1
Ballad of the Sad Café 1 So Long, See You Tomorrow 3
Billy Budd 1 Sold 1
Brave New World 1 Swann in Love 1
Cannery Row 1 The Americanist. 1
Conrad (unspecified) 1 The Aspern Papers 2
Coup de Grace. 1 The Awakening 1
Crime and Punishment 1 The Beginning of Spring 1
Daisy Miller 1 The Black Swan 1
Death Comes for the Archbishop 1 The Day of the Locust 1
Death in Venice 1 The Gambler 1
Death of Ivan Ilyich. 1 The Good Soldier 1
Einstein’s Dreams 1 The Great Divorce. 1
Emily L. 1 The Great Gatsby 6
Ethan Frome 1 The Haunting of Hill House 1
Family Happiness 1 The Lover 1
Firmin 1 The Moon is Down 1
Flight 1 The Old Man and the Sea 2
Good Will 1 The Outsiders 1
Hatchet 1 The Postman 1
Heart of Darkness 1 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1
In Another Country 1 The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with The Sea 1
Last Night at the Lobster 1 The Snows of Kilamanjaro 1
McTeague. 1 The Spoils of Poynton 1
Miss Lonelyhearts 1 The Stranger 2
Of Mice and Men 2 The Sun Also Rises. 1
Pan 1 The Sybil 1
Peace 3 To Kill a Mockingbird 1
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters! 1 To the Lighthouse 1
Ransom 1 Tuck Everlasting 1
Rockspring. 1 Turn Of The Screw 2
Russian Interpreter 1 Washington Square 1
Salinger’s novellas 1 What Maisie Knew 1
Show Up, Look Good 1 Wise Blood 1

Written by Joe Peschel

June 21st, 2011 at 6:58 pm

Posted in News

BASS 2011 Redux

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Recently, I’ve heard from Josh, an Internet friend who also enjoys discovering stories that will appear in Best American Short Stories before it comes out. He mentions “Gurov in Manhattan,” by Ehud Havazelet, originally published in TriQuarterly, and “Housewifely Arts” by Megan Mayhew Bergman, from One Story.

I’ve also found out that Caitlin Horrocks’s story “The Sleep,” originally published  in Atlantic for Kindle, will be included.

I still haven’t heard from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt about the entire list. So, let me know if you know of or are the author of an included story. I’ll be adding to the list as I discover more about stories that’ll be included.

Here’s the updated partial list of authors whose stories will appear in The Best American Short Stories 2011, guest-edited by Geraldine Brooks.

Clicking on the author’s name will take you to the announcement of BASS inclusion.

Caitlin Horrocks, “The Sleep,” Atlantic Fiction for Kindle

Ehud Havazelet, “Gurov in Manhattan,” TriQuarterly

Megan Mayhew Bergman, “Housewifely Arts,” One Story

George Saunders, possibly “Escape From Spiderhead” The New Yorker ?

Joyce Carol Oates, “I.D.,” The New Yorker

Jess Row,“The Call of Blood,” The Harvard Review

Rebecca Makkai, “Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart,” Tin House

Jennifer Egan, “Out of Body,” Tin House

Allegra Goodman, “La Vita Nuova,” The New Yorker

Tom Bissell, “A Bridge Under Water,”  AGNI

Written by Joe Peschel

June 20th, 2011 at 12:37 am

Posted in News

What’s Your Favorite Comic Novel?

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Recently, the National Book Critics Circle asked its members about their favorite comic novel.  The novel mentioned most often on the NBCC Blog was: Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.

In another NBCC Blog post, Nabokov’s  novels,  Lolita, Pale Fire, and Pnin are mentioned, too.

I didn’t write an essay on my favorite, but I would’ve chosen Stanley Elkin’s The Living End: A Triptych,

Everyone from John Irving to Sam Lipsyte to William Gass loved this book.

You can buy the newer 2004 edition in paperback.

Written by Joe Peschel

June 17th, 2011 at 3:49 pm

Posted in News

The Best American Short Stories 2011

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Here’s a partial list of authors whose stories will appear in The Best American Short Stories 2011, guest-edited by Geraldine Brooks.

I still haven’t heard from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt about the entire list, but below is what I’ve found out by Googling. Let me know if you know of or are the author of an included story. I’ll be adding to the list as I discover more about stories that’ll be included.

I just noticed (June 17) in the New Yorker’s “Summer Fiction” issue that a story by George Saunders will be included in BASS 2011.  I don’t know which story but it might be “Escape From Spiderhead.”.

I just saw (April 19) that an Oates story will be included:
Joyce Carol Oates, “I.D.” The New Yorker

Jess Row,“The Call of Blood,” The Harvard Review

Rebecca Makkai, “Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart,” Tin House

Jennifer Egan, “Out of Body,” Tin House

Allegra Goodman, “La Vita Nuova,” The New Yorker

Tom Bissell, “A Bridge Under Water,” from AGNI

Written by Joe Peschel

April 19th, 2011 at 2:04 pm

Posted in News

McClatchy Newspapers Picks up My Baxter Review

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The McClatchy Company, parent company of The Kansas City Star, picked up my review of Charles Baxter’s Gryphon.

So, in addition to The Kansas City Star, the review appears in The San Luis Obispo Tribune (California)

The Biloxi Sun Herald (Mississippi)

The Olympian (Washington)

The Tacoma News Tribune (Washington)

The Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky)

The Rock Hill Herald (South Carolina)

The Centre Daily Times (State College, Pennsylvania)

The  Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho)

The Modesto Bee (California)

The Bradenton Herald (Florida)

The Macon Telegraph (Georgia)

The Myrtle Beach Sun News (Florida)

The State (South Carolina)

The Belleville News-Democrat (Illinois)

The Tri-City Herald (Washington)

The Bellingham Herald (Washington)

I also reviewed Baxter’s Soul Thief


in the April 20, 2008, edition of The Kansas City Star. You can read the review here.


Written by Joe Peschel

January 24th, 2011 at 1:36 am

“Drinking Closer to Home”

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I’ll be reviewing  Jessica Anya Blau’s Drinking Closer to home in the January 19 edition of The Boston Globe.

Written by Joe Peschel

January 14th, 2011 at 1:39 am

Posted in News

“Lawn Order”

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Whodunit? Joe Peschel dunit. Watch for my review of Molly MacRae ‘s new cozy mystery Lawn Order coming soon, January 5, in The Boston Globe.

Written by Joe Peschel

December 30th, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Posted in News

“The Last Lingua Franca”

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I’ll be reviewing  Nicholas Ostler’s The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel in the December 23 edition of The Boston Globe.

Written by Joe Peschel

December 17th, 2010 at 10:52 am

Posted in News

2010’s Top 100 Books

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The Kansas City Star lists its Top 100 Books of the year. Books by Allison Amend, Benjamin Percy, Patrick Somerville, Richard Bausch, Robert Stone, Emmanuel Carrère, and Salman Rushdie are on it.

I reviewed Amend’s Stations West in The Raleigh News & Observer.

I reviewed Percy’s  first novel, The Wilding in The Boston Globe.

The Universe

I reviewed Somerville’s book of short stories, The Universe in Miniature in Miniature in The Boston Globe.

I reviewed Something Is Out There in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

I reviewed Fun With Problems in The Raleigh News & Observer.

I reviewed Carrère’s My Life as a Russian Novel in The Boston Globe.

I reviewed Luka and the Fire of Life in The Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Written by Joe Peschel

November 24th, 2010 at 6:03 pm

Posted in News

Tauvernier Street

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I’ll be reviewing Jay Atkinson’s short story collection, Tauvernier Street, soon in the The Boston Globe.

Written by Joe Peschel

November 22nd, 2010 at 4:41 pm

Posted in News

New Book Coming from Patrick Somerville

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Here’s a new book, The Universe In Miniature In Miniature, from Patrick Somerville. It’s a book of interlinked stories that comes out in November.

The Universe

I’ll be reviewing it soon in The Boston Globe.

I reviewed Somerville’s first novel, The Cradle, in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in March of 2009.

Here’s Somerville’s website.

Written by Joe Peschel

October 23rd, 2010 at 1:41 pm

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Gone BASS Fishing

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A few days ago, I asked a publicist about having a galley of “BASS 2010” sent to me, so that I could review it for The Boston Globe. It seems I should have written “BASS 2010” out: Best American Short Stories 2010.

BASS 2010

Today, I just received from the publisher a new novel, Nashville Chrome, by Rick Bass instead of Best American Short Stories 2010.

BassBook

I like Rick Bass’s stuff, but I haven’t snared an assignment to review his novel.

Written by Joe Peschel

August 26th, 2010 at 2:00 pm

Posted in News

How Do You Decide What to Read Next?

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A while ago, Jane Ciabattari, President of the National Book Critics Circle, asked NBCC members to submit pieces on “How Do You Decide What to Read Next?” I wrote this piece a while ago; it was published on the NBCC site on August 20, 2010.

If you’re a reviewer, you probably choose what you read next about the same way I do. If you don’t review books, but want to, here’s what you’re in for. 🙂

What I’m going to read next depends on which books I’d like to review. For me, those books will usually be literary fiction (although, currently, I’ve been assigned a memoir to review.) So, that means scanning Publisher’s Weekly, the Library Journal, and publisher’s catalogues, looking for interesting novels or short story collections that I’d like to share, and it means taking notes. Every now and then, a writer on Facebook will suggest books that I should review, too.

Click the NBCC logo to read the piece. Elda and I had fun commenting on the article.

Written by Joe Peschel

August 25th, 2010 at 2:51 pm

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Review of “My Life As A Russian Novel” Coming Soon in The Globe

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My review of Emmanuel Carrère’s memoir, My Life As A Russian Novel, will be published in The Boston Globe in the next few weeks. It’ll be the first time I’ve reviewed a memoir, and it’s a damn good book.

I’ve done a couple of other reviews for The Globe. My first one was on Martha McPhee’s novel Dear Money. The National Book Critics Circle called that piece an exemplary review and re-posted it on the Powell’s Books website.

My second review was on Justin Kramon’s novel, Finny.

My next piece for The Globe will be a review of Benjamin Percy’s first novel, The Wilding.

Written by Joe Peschel

August 2nd, 2010 at 4:44 pm

Posted in News