This issue of Granta explored the theme of fate in all of its beautiful, terrible glory. The introduction warns that the selections to follow “are concerned with fate in its most serious manifestations: love, sexuality, identity, death, illness, religion and war.” The issue included beautiful images of Mexico’s retablos or exvotos, painted on pieces of metal or wood, “which are offerings of gratitude to a Catholic divinity, usually placed in a sanctuary shrine or altar, that condense a charged moment in somebody’s life, perhaps of anguish or even terror, usually […]
The Larger Risk
I’ve long depended on Granta to push me out of my comfort zone and have always loved the format. It’s a quarterly collection of new writing — fiction, nonfiction, poetry — with some amazing photojournalism thrown in as well. I’m consistently drawn to the idea of a program or publication striving to put many different lenses on a single theme. Although some themes are more relatable than others — for many readers, Granta‘s “Mothers” issue may be slightly more accessible than, say, the “Pakistan” issue — I always enjoy each issue. A […]
I was Catalina, Oxford, Serrano
Hemingway said: “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” Written following her return home to Los Angeles after eight years in Olympia, Washington, Hollywood Notebook is a beautiful collection of fragments, prose and poetry, by Wendy Ortiz — little glimpses into the author’s days, memories, plans, and dreams. It’s a work that skillfully and heartbreakingly captures a special moment in time — a talented young writer, about to take flight. It is also the story of young person enduring painful transformation in pursuit of her passions. If […]
Because Truth and Secrets Are Cranes
Blue van Meer was never going to be the typical “girl next door” — her father, Gareth, made quite sure of that. Having lost her mother at a very young age, Blue forms a very strong bond with her father, and thereafter, the riotous, seemingly invincible father-daughter team moves from town to town, following his teaching career all over the country. A professor of political science — “interested broadly in political and economic revitalization, military and humanitarian involvement, and post-conflict renewal of third world nations” — Gareth […]
Stranger Than Fiction – An Unflinching Memoir
I recall seeing a very passionate recommendation for this book in the comments section of a Pajiba movie review, and I ordered a while back, without a lot of thought. And I mention this only because it means I had no idea what this book was about, or what I was getting into. All I knew, I insinuated from the beautiful cover — a young woman on a beach, her pronounced indifference seemingly daring the photographer — and everyone else — to try to capture even one small […]
A Last Natural Wilderness
Milan Kundera wrote “Beauty is a world betrayed… [t]he only way we can encounter it is if its persecutors have overlooked it somewhere.” You know that feeling of discovering something beautiful? Something, perhaps, overlooked? In the case of a book, chances are that you didn’t really “discover” it, not in any real sense of the word. Someone else discovered it, and then a lot of other people discovered it too – after all, there it is, printed and bound and sitting in your lap. But maybe you […]