Monday, November 21, 2005
UNFAMILIAR
A TWICE-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF DIFFERENT FICTION
September 1-15/05
I got Anna Lena a subscription to McSweeney's for her birthday, months ago. I got all worried that I'd blown $50 on it too, because nothing ever came in the mail, and no receipt ever appeared in my email-box. My fears were put to rest a few weeks back when out of the blue I got an email message, a shipping confirmation for this Fall's issue of McSweeney's.
Talk about crazy! This Fall's McSweeney's is an artful simulucra of another person's pile of mail, "Maria Vasquez" of Arlington, VA 22207. Her pile of mail contained an assortment of adverts, flyers, an art collection, and a couple of mock journals. At least I suppose that the journals aren't real - one of them is a journal for Big Foot fans. I haven't tried to read that one.
The other journal bears the title for this entry: Unfamiliar. It reads much like the McSweeney's website itself. It is a journal of short stories. I particularly like the first one by Sarah Manguso, and I think I've read the last story, by John Haskell. Lots of the stories in between were funny, and often bizaare things that often were crafted to poke at our current Iraq war.
That last story, hmm, I can't think where I read it. Oh, that guy that wrote "About a Boy"; I think he compiled that and that this story was in there. Ah, amazon.com reminds me that I read "How to be Good". Can't really be sure that the John Haskell story is in there.
September 1-15/05
I got Anna Lena a subscription to McSweeney's for her birthday, months ago. I got all worried that I'd blown $50 on it too, because nothing ever came in the mail, and no receipt ever appeared in my email-box. My fears were put to rest a few weeks back when out of the blue I got an email message, a shipping confirmation for this Fall's issue of McSweeney's.
Talk about crazy! This Fall's McSweeney's is an artful simulucra of another person's pile of mail, "Maria Vasquez" of Arlington, VA 22207. Her pile of mail contained an assortment of adverts, flyers, an art collection, and a couple of mock journals. At least I suppose that the journals aren't real - one of them is a journal for Big Foot fans. I haven't tried to read that one.
The other journal bears the title for this entry: Unfamiliar. It reads much like the McSweeney's website itself. It is a journal of short stories. I particularly like the first one by Sarah Manguso, and I think I've read the last story, by John Haskell. Lots of the stories in between were funny, and often bizaare things that often were crafted to poke at our current Iraq war.
That last story, hmm, I can't think where I read it. Oh, that guy that wrote "About a Boy"; I think he compiled that and that this story was in there. Ah, amazon.com reminds me that I read "How to be Good". Can't really be sure that the John Haskell story is in there.
# posted by Unknown @ 6:19 PM 
