The Paris Review, Issue 248, Summer 2024

by Emily Stokes (Editor), Kelley Deane McKinney (Managing editor), Harriet Clark (Senior editor)

Mary Robison on the Art of Fiction: “The first thing they’d say was ‘This is a nice story—where’s your novel?’ And I would just lie my head off. ‘Oh, it’s at home. It’s almost there!’”

Elaine Scarry on the Art of Nonfiction: “A lot of my troubles in life have come from taking literally what I should have understood as figurative.”

Prose by Peter Cornell, Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill, Renee Gladman, Nancy Lemann, Banu Mushtaq, K Patrick, and Anne Serre.

Poetry by Mosab Abu Toha, Diana Garza Islas, Homer, Douglas Kearney, Kim Hyesoon, Masaoka Shiki, Patty Nash, and Jana Prikryl.

Art by Lauren Halsey and G. Peter Jemison.

Cover: Jeremy Frey, Radiance, 2024, black ash, sweetgrass, and synthetic dye, 22 x 12 in.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, Fiction, Essays

240 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Margaret Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite. I disliked all the short stories but did appreciate the brevity and power of "That Summer" by Anna Serre (only three pages!). As always, the interviews were the best part, hands down. I also enjoyed the poem "My Library" by Mosab Abu Toha.

[colette ⋆˙⟡]

first paris review i've ever physically purchased - though honestly nothing major to write home about

here are some things i underlined:

"and few events on earth can bring you here,
the very rim, where who you are goes on
into the sheer new time and voyages
without you since you watch her go, become
the parting of the two. The air between."
- Jana Prikryl, The Channel

"'earth brimming with fresh snow melt'"
- Masaoka Shiki

"Jack is a conondrum. I am the perfect wife for him since I have no needs and am easily suffocated and am not suffocating. Maybe I'm not needy enough. Men like needy women. Damsels in distress."

"you embroidered him into a vast ideal"

"'And then we came forth again to see the stars.' Not as ecstatic as Paradise. But you came to the other side."

"Former glamour girl and now Deposed matriarch."
- Nancy Leeman, The Oyster Diaries

"Certainly when I'm taking notes on something I write by hand, and that seems very important - I've read about how all kinds of abilities, like one's math ability, are helped by the practice of handwriting. For certain passages of Dreaming by the Brook, I'd wake up at five in the morning and sit by the windowsill, watching the birds, recording the sequence in which they came. I took immense pleasure in that."
- Elaine Scarry

[Coco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved:
“That Summer” by Anne Serre, “The Oyster Diaries” by Nancy Lemann and both the interviews with Mary Robison and Elaine Scarry.

Superstar:
“That Summer” by Anne Serre.

Favorite moment:
Interviewer— what about the case of say an unattractive object?
Scarry— what’s misleading about beauty is that there are some objects almost everyone finds beautiful—like the sun or the moon, or certain paintings, or the work of Shakespeare— so we might think all beauty has to be universally agreed on, but that isn’t true. There are really two genres of beauty—universal cases, and cases that are tremendously plural. Maybe the cases that everyone agrees on provide a kind of rehearsal for what it would mean to come together and agree about certain things like not torturing people or giving up nuclear weapons and so forth. But it’s not a necessary feature of beauty that we agree, and some instances agreement would actually be deleterious— if everyone fell in love with the same person, for example.

[Ryan]

(2.5 stars?)

Greatly enjoyed "The Oyster Diaries" by Nancy Lemann and to a lesser extent G. Peter Jemison's exhibit of "Paper Bags" and the poem "My Library."

Found the Two Poems of Douglas Kearney and the interview with Elaine Scarry worth the time to read them.

Neutral reaction to Daniel Mendelsohn's taste of The Odyssey, and mixed reactions to "A Drop of Ink," "Red Lungi" and "My Lesbian Novel."

Didn't much care for the remainder.

[Roxane Dumontheil · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's weird to review TPR lol - i honestly haven't read a full issue B2B in so long but this was good and is really a habit i want to cultivate because i always learn SO much from reading the interviews and always add a number of books to my TBR from it! great way to keep a pulse on the literary world, especially in the international space. the poems and short stories were not my fave this issue though except for the Oyster Diaries which i found phenomenal.

[Dieuwke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars because the art moved me too

[Chris Nordahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit and miss for me but that’s probably how these books go. I really liked “My Lesbian Novel” and both the long interview segments, really deep dive conversations.

[Tammas]

The interviews were both exceptional in this one

[Erik]

Favorite in this issue: Nancy Lemann (“The Oyster Diaries”) and the Elaine Scarry interview

[Ben Wasson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly okay. The interviews are this entry’s definite highlight (which seems a theme, recently). Will be looking into Elaine Scarry: her work interests me.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good collection. The short stories were intriguing, the poetry was meh, the interview were rather good

[Jaime Samson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite issue. The beginning and ending pieces dragged on for too long, the art wasn’t my favourite, but both interviews and a few of the stories were good.

[Kamran Sehgal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very much a meh issue...

[Christina]

Highlights
Anne Serre, Mary Robinson, K Patrick, Nancy Lemann, Elaine Scarry, Peter Cornell

[Lia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The two interviews were so good and strong that I'm giving this 5 stars.

[Kurishin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the usual pattern: beautiful art; good poetry; uneven short stories.
Not sure what to think of the interviews.

[c · Rating 5 out of 5]

a lot of forgettable stuff but nice in the moment