Dear Everybody is brilliantly complex in its simplicity: by telling the story of Jonathan’s life is such a fragmented way, Michael Kimball finds a new way to break your heart.
Eugene Marten’s Firework is the 21st century ‘s On The Road. It’s a filthy tour-de-force of debauchery and redemption that I’ll never forget, yet am too scared to reread.
Chelsea Martin wants me to think about her in bed, and I do. Everything Was Fine Until Whatever is at the same time both humorous and tragic, without being overly effusive.
Gary Lutz’s Stories in the Worst Way taught me everything I needed to know about the things I didn’t know I needed to know, and inspired some poor imitation on my part.
With each fragmented & descriptive story/chapter of The Orange Suitcase, Joseph Riippi pieces together a narrative that finds significance in life’s seemingly insignificant moments.
Kevin Sampsell’s A Common Pornography was stellar. It took formal chances, and each one of them paid off. It’s a touching (yet terrifying) view of the maturation of Sampsell’s sexuality.
Justin Taylor exhibits an incredible control of point-of-view in Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever. He uses conceptual settings not to parody his characters, but to heighten the drama. And it fucking works.
Christian TeBordo uses word repetition and a layered sentence structure brilliantly in The Awful Possibilities. Never do you feel grounded in place or character, yet never do you complain.
I’ve never read a book where I’ve felt so satisfied at its conclusion as I have in Deb Olin Unferth’s Vacation. Every tangent comes together seamlessly.
Deb Olin Unferth’s Revolutionis most successful when it’s exploring the relationships of the things we idealize: the difference between ideas and things and between fantasy and reality.
