Loop by Brenda Lozano (2019), translated from the Spanish by Annie McDermott (2019)

8The word of the day, according to the online Oxford Dictionary, is Hikikomori: ‘(In Japan) the abnormal avoidance of social contact. Japanese origin, literally “staying indoors, (social) withdrawal ( Read more... )

Checkout 19: A Novel by Claire-Louise Bennett (2022)

II. Bright SparkI was with him. I’d done it, I’d crossed over a boundary. I was somewhere I shouldn’t be. I was with him-and he was with me. All weekend I felt him with me, wherever I went, all day and at night. He was with me very strongly when I lay in the dark, it was almost as if I was made ( Read more... )

Little Labors by Rivka Galchen (2019)

Notes on some twentieth-century writersFlannery O’Connor: No children ( Read more... )

On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint by Maggie Nelson (2021)

IntroductionFor some time, I thought a book on freedom might no longer be necessary-maybe not by me, maybe not by anyone. Can you think of a more depleted, imprecise, or weaponized word? “I used to care about freedom, but now I mostly care about love,” one friend told me.1 “ ( Read more... )

On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint by Maggie Nelson (2021)

2. The Ballad of Sexual OptimismCritics of “sexual optimism” or “sex positivity” tend to argue that certain “freedoms to” (such as the freedom to seek and engage in a wide variety of sexual relations without undue regulation or punishment) have taken priority over certain “ ( Read more... )

Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados (2021)

May
May 20
People will leave if they’re convinced they’re too good for something (13).

I called for Gala. She loves making a scene but knows the only way to recover from one is to abruptly take leave (13).

May 25 Love is in some ways like fascination. And in my twenty-one years, I have had the pleasure of ( Read more... )

Misfits by Michaela Coel (2021)

Introduction
What I am writing doesn’t change, but how I write it changes drastically. I find myself sitting with pain, with darkness. “How long,” I begin to wonder, “has my habit been to recount horror with a smile, standing in the light recalling tales of darkness?” Long enough that being here, with this darkness ( Read more... )

Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra (2008), translated from the Spanish by Carolina de Robertis

II. TantaliaAnita didn’t like Julio, as she considered him spoiled and depressive, but nevertheless she had to allow him in at breakfast time and even, once, perhaps to demonstrate to herself and her friend that at the core Julio did not displease her, she made ( Read more... )

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke (2021)

tripp, Beverley
Beverley
What is :dusty-stick:?

tripp
oh right
I forget that’s not a thing everywhere

Beverley
It’s a *thing* here? Like a bit?

tripp
it’s sort of an inside joke, yeah. it just means like
general disapproval, I guess

Beverley
Like a :thumbs-down:?

tripp sort of. ( Read more... )

The Performance by Claire Thomas (2021)

Chapter ThreeShe wishes she were more evolved, more aware and in control of the tenuous boundary between what is concealed and what is not. She thinks this leakage is a developmental flaw, that if she were properly adult and competent, she would not cry in public. She would wait and be appropriately private ( Read more... )