McSweeney's Issue 12: Unpublished, Unknown, &/or Unbelievable

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #12

by Dave Eggers (Editor)

Issue 12 is made up of three parts.
The first and largest section consists entirely of new writers -- new to us, probably new to you, and not even well-known by their own families.
Part two is a new story from Roddy Doyle, featuring Jimmy Rabbitte of The Commitments.
Part three is a collection of twenty-minute stories, by which we mean stories written in twenty minutes, from all sorts of people that you know and do not know.

Contributions from Steve Almond, Aimee Bender, Jill Bialosky, James Boice, Ryan Boudinot, Judy Budnitz, Douglas Coupland, Ann Cummins, Andrea Deszo, Roddy Doyle, David Ebershoff, Jennifer Egan, and many others!

This quarterly takes the form of a more traditionally published paperback; divided into four colored sections; cover flaps can be unfolded to view 3D illusion inside.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Anthologies

273 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2003

About the author

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

[christopherdrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had a lot of different jobs over my almost-50 years; one of the most ill-suited ones was being the maintenance guy at a high-end clothing store, which was technically code for: walk around the four-level store and replace any of the hundreds of lights that might've burnt out overnight. Officially I was hired as a shipper/receiver, which meant showing up at 3 in the morning and putting security tags on clothing items that were worth more than my paycheque (have you seen the cost of a Hermes scarf?) without damaging the fabric, but I was soon tagged by the previous maintenance guy, Jeremy, to take over for him while he went on tour with his punk band. Jeremy never came back, and I became the new maintenance guy full-time. Understand: I had no experience doing anything maintenance-related, other than the afore-mentioned light bulb mastery, but this store had no real HR department, and most decisions about those of us that existed in the basement were made with a dismissive sort of 'HE'LL DO'. They expected me to fill a six-hour shift with burnt-out bulbs (and sometimes scolding the sales staff for breaking the pull-out drawers at their counters by using them as seats, because they weren't allowed to have actual stools or chairs on the floor, but that's another story), a job that really only took a few hours at best, and since I was already working at the bookstore til midnight at this time: I got good at finding places to hide, and to nap.

I was in my early twenties, and certainly couldn't be expected to make sound career choices.

Anyway: the main office had a coil-bound notebook dedicated to department heads leaving notes for me to come fix stuff, most of which simply required me to call an actual tradesperson, who'd come in and point at whatever was broken and say, "You should tell them to stop sitting on these." To which I'd shrug with a look that said we're on the same page, but whatcha gonna do? before heading back to a supply closet or panel room that I could lock from the inside, wherein I'd sequester myself around a shop-vac or box of wire hangers and resume my napping. This book really didn't get used that much, which is why I started writing in it. I started from the last page, and worked my way backwards, so that the power-that-be wouldn't notice (although in hindsight, that logic's about as sound as closing my eyes and saying if I can't see you, you can't see me or whatever, but, remember: early twenties, which is indistinguishable from dumb as fuck) and while I can't remember what I was writing, it was probably atrocious, like, really bad teenage poetry/journal entries about existential malaise, that sorta thing. I don't know why I was doing it; probably just because that's what I do with coil-bound notebooks, maybe there was some sort of notion towards guerrilla literature, I dunno.

Eventually they hired an actual HR person, who (rightfully) pointed out that they should've hired an actual skilled maintenance person in the first place, and (rightfully) moved me back to the loading dock, but by that time the bookstore had taken me on full-time, and I was literally and figuratively tired of existing on three-hour snatches of sleep between jobs, so I gave my notice, and everyone was the happier for it.

Point is: every time I see Eggers doing his 'writing in the indicia/prose popping up in the most unlikely of places' thing, I think about that book. I wonder if anyone ever found what I wrote, and while I cringe at the thought of them reading it, I'm still kinda happy I left it there. I mean, they probably just took one look, ripped out the pages and threw them away, but it still warms my heart a tiny bit.

This was a good collection; there's a definite theme of parenthood in these stories - or maybe that's just the lens I'm reading through these days; regardless, there's some great material here. Also: I totally forgot that Roddy Doyle wrote The Commitments, and discovering a sorta sequel in this book was a treat. I'm not sure about the pictorial essay on Yuri Gagarin that runs through the book, but I suppose the pictures were nice enough; and while I loved the 'Twenty Minute Stories' section at the back third, Eggers question about maybe discovering a 'new form of fiction' makes me wanna slap him. I mean, yes, it's stated in a self-deprecating way, but dude: everyone knows you're clever, but if you boast about it, you just sound like a dick.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I really enjoyed this. 8/10 would eat here again, as long as I had nap beforehand. (Sorry for the pottymouth.)

[Kendall Concini · Rating 2 out of 5]

#readingchallenge2017 (my book by multiple authors)

Like the novel, I'll break my review into multiple parts:

Part 1: The Emails
The most entertaining aspect of reading this portion stems from the the facts, 1. I've never heard of McSweeney's journals prior to starting this chapter, 2. so...the emails are the first exposure. I was immediately thinking, wtf is this?! But that was entertaining. I was left wondering 'are these serious?', or is it just shock factor to get into the journal. I questioned how this process worked, and it made me go and research the concept of the journal. So the emails were well chosen in my opinion.

Part 2: The Random Short Stories
Completely hit or miss, straight black and white. It's either I really loved a short story and read fast in interest, or it was an immediate miss in which I skimmed and kept glancing to see how long I had left. (my favorite was the squid).

Part 3: The Longer Story (in blue)
Meh.

Part 4: The Twenty-Minute Stories
I was most excited for this portion because the notion sounded fascinating, but the majority of them missed the mark...there IS INDEED a reason authors don't have intense time restraints. I wish I saved twenty-minutes by skipping them

Overall it's a neat concept of a book, but I've read better Anthologies.

[Timons Esaias · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I've subscribed to McSweeney's since I picked up the second issue in the bookstore, I've had a history of browsing without reading cover-to-cover. I'm now in the process of actually reading them (34 so far), somewhat randomly, which brings me to Issue 12.

It's a fine issue, well worth hunting down, despite two appearances of the word 'grimace' in the text.

The letters were amusing, especially the LECTURE TOPICS FOR ALL GULF WAR FICTION BOOKS. Shann Ray's "The Great Divide" reminded me of Denis Johnson. That's a strong plus.

Wythe Marschall's "Cold France and Other Permutations" is nicely surreal, and worth a look.

"After the Disaster" is Literary post-apocalypse fiction, and Ben Ehrenreich delivers a real, um, experience.

Steven Siefel's "Charities" was my favorite full-length piece in this volume. Yep.

And that brings me to the cluster of 29 (I believe) flash fictions by well-known literary writers in the back. They're a particular kind of flash fiction, because the authors were challenged to spend no more than 20 minutes writing them. Do authors ever follow instructions? Of course not. But it's an interesting sample, and I intend to study it again when I teach a flash fiction workshop in September. A worthy challenge.

This strikes me as a full-up edition of the most imaginative magazine I know. Recommended.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this in 2005 because it contains a short story by Chad Simpson, who was my creative writing teacher at SIUC at the time.

The issue contains 12 short stories by authors who were then previously unpublished. Several of them have since seen varying degrees of success, from award winning short story collections to full time positions in academia.

Highlights:
Shann Ray - “The Great Divide” (very well written western piece; looking forward to reading his collections)
Andy Lamey - “My Life as Samuel Beckett”
Wythe Marschall - “Cold France” (probably the best story in the issue)
James Boice - “Pregnant Girl Smoking”

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting concepts. Some stories I liked more than others. The 20-minute entries were hit or miss.

[brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly solid collection, as usual, but there weren't any pieces that particularly wowed me. Probably worth the price of admission for the twenty minute stories section as it is, but maybe I'm just a sucker for fast fiction. If memory serves, the basic m.o. for this one was 'undiscovered' authors, so there are accordingly some brilliant stories (the giant squid one was, at the very least, awfully memorable) and a couple I don't even really remember reading.

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Have read MOST of Egger's work, but had never gotten around to reading McSweeney's until I found this in a little bookstore in New Harmony, Indiana, and it has been a joy. A hodgepodge of thick, thin, well known and unknown, absurd and intense, the works represented here make me think there will be a lot more to discover by reading many more editions of McSweeney's. Inspiring. I must write more. And get drunk on life more. And write more...

[Nicki Pfaff · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best parts of this book is the section of writers who wrote a short story each in under twenty minutes. For anyone who has attempted to write a short story, you know that to write a full short story in twenty minutes or less is incredible. Aimee Bender's story is especially awesome.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not going to review every story, but this was an above-average collection.