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A review by zachkuhn
Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction by Joshua Cohen
5.0
I'm one of Mr. Cohen's fiercest supporters. His fiction is first rate. His Books column in Harper's was one of the few vital monthly columns about literature published in the United States. His journalism in GQ and other publications has caused me to renew subscriptions in the past.
So I'm a huge fan of Cohen. And spoiler alert: this book is full of insights about the America of today, but also about the state of literature and thinking about literature. In what other writer's work can you find a profile of Bernie Sanders AND an examination of what Zola and Stendahl meant by the novel "holding a mirror" up to society? (And, an aside: how many can extrapolate a thesis like "For many of my peers, to write about the present is to search for a mirror that will only show shadows"?) Or a profile of the last days of a circus AND a review of Zibaldone, a book I didn't know but that Cohen made me seek out?
Cohen's work is essential. With Moshfegh, he's one of two young American writers whose work I must read. All of it. Every published word.
So I'm a huge fan of Cohen. And spoiler alert: this book is full of insights about the America of today, but also about the state of literature and thinking about literature. In what other writer's work can you find a profile of Bernie Sanders AND an examination of what Zola and Stendahl meant by the novel "holding a mirror" up to society? (And, an aside: how many can extrapolate a thesis like "For many of my peers, to write about the present is to search for a mirror that will only show shadows"?) Or a profile of the last days of a circus AND a review of Zibaldone, a book I didn't know but that Cohen made me seek out?
Cohen's work is essential. With Moshfegh, he's one of two young American writers whose work I must read. All of it. Every published word.