Category: New Yorker 2007

June 27, 2007

>The New Yorker: "The Mahogany Elephant" by Maxim Biller

>This one doesn’t do much for me, largely because I don’t buy the characters’ behavior, especially the woman. She has just returned from three…
June 22, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Homework" by Helen Simpson

>George is thirteen. He comes home from school and whines to his mother that he has an essay due the next day on an…
June 19, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Sweetheart Sorrow" by David Hoon Kim

>Set in Paris, the narrator is concerned about Fumiko, another foreign student. He, it turns out, was born in Japan but was adopted as…
June 17, 2007

>The New Yorker: "1966" by Denis Johnson

>I don’t think I get Denis Johnson. I’ve read some of his work and other people rave, but I’m generally not satisfied. Here we…
June 10, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Roy Spivey" by Miranda July

>I am not familiar with Miranda July’s work except for her hilarious website promoting her new book. Certainly this story is clever, especially in…
June 10, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Wildwood" by Junot Diaz

>No lack of conflict here. Lola is the rebellious teenaged daughter of a single Dominican mother in New Jersey. They’re both hard to get…
June 5, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Faith" by William Trevor

>Bartholomew and Hester are unmarried siblings who move to a village together when Bartholomew, a Church of Ireland vicar, takes over a small abandoned…
May 26, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Puppy" by George Saunders

>I’m not completely sold on this story told in alternating points of view of two women who at first seem very different. First we…
May 18, 2007

>The New Yorker: "A Beneficiary" by Nadine Gordimer

>This isn’t one of my favorites. I like the language well enough and the protagonist Charlotte is interesting (if not fully formed), but the…
May 12, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Hanwell Senior" by Zadie Smith

>I rather like this story by Zadie Smith. It is narrated by the daughter of Hanwell and reaches back in time to the sketchy…