The Unadorned Grace of “Agatha of Little Neon” – Chicago Review of Books

The Unadorned Grace of “Agatha of Little Neon” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] A common refrain in the teaching of the craft of writing, to whatever extent that can in fact be done, is that one’s form and content, story and structure, should each be sculpted with the other in mind, a sort of mechanical drinking bird for the art of fiction, where the pressures of one … Read more

Temporal Distance in “Nobody, Somebody, Anybody” – Chicago Review of Books

Temporal Distance in “Nobody, Somebody, Anybody” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Among the great and hidden challenges of past tense, first-person narration—and one that, while seemingly omnipresent in contemporary fiction, is seldom discussed—is fixing the temporal distance between the act of the narrating and the fictive events themselves. It is a concern that asks, essentially, how far away in time is the protagonist from herself … Read more

Uniting Form and Function in “With Teeth” – Chicago Review of Books

Uniting Form and Function in “With Teeth” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] For all the ink shed—in reviews, interviews, and criticism—about the trials and tribulations of navigating the literary world on the level of the individual novel, comparatively little space is provided to career-wide discussions. While this is understandable given the enormous challenge that writing and publishing just one book presents to the writer (not to … Read more

Unwavering Progression in “Great Circle” – Chicago Review of Books

Unwavering Progression in “Great Circle” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] In global navigation, a great circle is drawn along the shortest route between any two points on Earth. It is, then, the most direct course to a given place, one taken when the journey, perhaps, is of less importance than the destination. While such routes may be the most efficient, they are bent to … Read more