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lucian_childs's review against another edition
5.0
This week, I finally got around to Ploughshares Spring 2021 issue, edited by Laura van den Berg. Van den Berg, a writer of both novels and short stories, has assembled an impressive group of fiction writers in this issue. (I’m not qualified to comment on the poetry and non-fiction.)
’Pemi Auguda’s “Imagine Me Carrying You” is a young woman’s touching account of her mother’s disapproval, one exacerbated by the older woman’s depression over having accidentally killed someone.
In Venita Blackburn’s “Ambien and Brown Liquor” a daughter deals with the aftermath of her mother’s anguish—this time in a conversation with her sister that masks “all the erratic chemicals of grief and abandonment.”
In Tania James’s fantastical and beautiful “Bark” yet another daughter processes her mother’s disintegration, of sorts, in a conclusion that feels, like all the best endings, unexpected and wise.
Fajer Alexander Hansa’s “Seaworthy” documents a mother’s anguish and her son’s desperate flight to Greece along with other Syrian immigrants, a group that, like the boat they sail upon, is anything but seaworthy.
In Zora Mai Quỳnh’s “Her Infectious Laugh” a mother’s disdain for her daughter’s pregnant wife is no match for a good bout of laughter.
Seth Wang breaks the maternal theme with the gothic and outrageous “The Cacophobe,” an entertaining tall tale of a man who from boyhood is “deathly allergic to ugliness.” Literally.
There are more excellent stories here, all in first person narration, an editorial decision that unifies the wildly disparate pieces of this marvelous collection. { Cross-posted at my website. }
View all my reviews
’Pemi Auguda’s “Imagine Me Carrying You” is a young woman’s touching account of her mother’s disapproval, one exacerbated by the older woman’s depression over having accidentally killed someone.
In Venita Blackburn’s “Ambien and Brown Liquor” a daughter deals with the aftermath of her mother’s anguish—this time in a conversation with her sister that masks “all the erratic chemicals of grief and abandonment.”
In Tania James’s fantastical and beautiful “Bark” yet another daughter processes her mother’s disintegration, of sorts, in a conclusion that feels, like all the best endings, unexpected and wise.
Fajer Alexander Hansa’s “Seaworthy” documents a mother’s anguish and her son’s desperate flight to Greece along with other Syrian immigrants, a group that, like the boat they sail upon, is anything but seaworthy.
In Zora Mai Quỳnh’s “Her Infectious Laugh” a mother’s disdain for her daughter’s pregnant wife is no match for a good bout of laughter.
Seth Wang breaks the maternal theme with the gothic and outrageous “The Cacophobe,” an entertaining tall tale of a man who from boyhood is “deathly allergic to ugliness.” Literally.
There are more excellent stories here, all in first person narration, an editorial decision that unifies the wildly disparate pieces of this marvelous collection. { Cross-posted at my website. }
View all my reviews
emilyinherhead's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Literary collections are always somewhat hit-or-miss, but this is a solid collection.
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