Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty, by Ramona Ausubel. Riverhead, 2016. $27, 320 pages.
As I started to read Ramona Ausubel’s latest novel, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty, I prepared myself for yet another romp through
Book Review
The Gods Are Dead
The Gods Are Dead, by Joanna C. Valente. Deadly Chaps, 2016. $12, 98 pages.
In Joanna C. Valente’s The Gods Are Dead, Tarot is combined with the themes of love, fear, sex, and existentialism. Transforming the idea of the …
Mortal Trash
Mortal Trash, by Kim Addonizio. Norton, 2016. $26, 107 pages.
Kim Addonizio’s latest collection emphasizes what she writes about best: sex, relationships, and death. But Mortal Trash refines these concepts and their connection to waste or recovery. Whether meditating on …
Slow Startle
Slow Startle, by Rohan Chhetri. The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, 2016. $17, 72 pages.
Imagine a poet whose literary ancestry can be found not in a poet or other poets but in a poem. Midway through reading the young …
The Heavenly Table
The Heavenly Table, by Donald Ray Pollock. Doubleday, 2016. $28, 365 pages.
Donald Ray Pollock’s second novel, The Heavenly Table, delivers a jolt of the barbed wire and broken toothed countryside mayhem that readers familiar with his …
Remains
Remains, by Jesùs Castillo. McSweeney’s, 2016. $20, 109 pages.
Jesùs Castillo’s first full-length poetry collection, Remains, is a stark collage of voice, nature, and the breakdown of culture, a world in which “the bombs had fallen with the majesty …
The Marble Army
The Marble Army, by Gisele Firmino. Outpost19 Books, 2016. $16, 184 pages.
Set in Brazil during the years following the military coup of April 1964, Gisele Firmino’s first novel, The Marble Army, is about a family trying to …
System of Ghosts
System of Ghosts, by Lindsay Tigue. University of Iowa Press, 2016. $20, 84 pages.
Lindsay Tigue is a devoted listener. System of Ghosts, her debut collection and winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, is filled with fragments …
Wonderland
Wonderland, by Samuel Ligon, with artwork by Stephen Knezovich. Lost Horse Press, 2016. $20, 78 pages.
“Collage-like” is a term that finds an easy home in the short story collection review, but it’s more than well deserved in describing …
Rant. Chant. Chisme.
Rant. Chant. Chisme., by Amalia Ortiz. Wings Press, 2015. $16, 128 pages.
Amalia Ortiz’s debut poetry collection Rant. Chant. Chisme. captures the unapologetic voice and identity of a Chicana living on the Texas-Mexico border. Divided into four sections—Magic Valley …
