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McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #49
McSweeney's Issue 49: Cover Stories
Issue 49 is our Cover Stories issue, featuring some of today’s best writers re-imagining (or covering) classic stories.
To name a few, there’s Roxane Gay channeling Margaret Atwood, Jess Walter embodying James Joyce, Meg Wolitzer taking on J.D. Salinger—thirteen stories, all told, featuring stunning illustrations by the award-winning design outfit Aesthetic Apparatus, and guest art directed by legendary album-cover designers Gary Burden and Jenice Heo of R. Twerk & Co.
To name a few, there’s Roxane Gay channeling Margaret Atwood, Jess Walter embodying James Joyce, Meg Wolitzer taking on J.D. Salinger—thirteen stories, all told, featuring stunning illustrations by the award-winning design outfit Aesthetic Apparatus, and guest art directed by legendary album-cover designers Gary Burden and Jenice Heo of R. Twerk & Co.
203 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2017
4 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
About the author
Dave Eggers
338 books9,469 followersDave 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.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 3, 2025
“How does anyone survive growing up and becoming who you ultimately are? God only knows and he ain’t telling.”
This issue is all about cover stories. The front cover features the original authors grouped together on a stage. The back cover features the new authors (who reimagined their stories), seated and applauding the original authors. It was fun trying to match them all up.
The stories themselves were okay. I did really enjoy the teasers from Gary Burden’s autobiography that came before the stories. The quote I opened with was from him.
My Fav: It was a tie between “The Babysitter” and “The Argentine Ant”.
My Least Fav: The placement of the poems and the use of ads throughout the book. No thank you.
Three stars to a book that made me ponder how some people luck into extremely interesting lives while the rest of us slog through the grind.
This issue is all about cover stories. The front cover features the original authors grouped together on a stage. The back cover features the new authors (who reimagined their stories), seated and applauding the original authors. It was fun trying to match them all up.
The stories themselves were okay. I did really enjoy the teasers from Gary Burden’s autobiography that came before the stories. The quote I opened with was from him.
My Fav: It was a tie between “The Babysitter” and “The Argentine Ant”.
My Least Fav: The placement of the poems and the use of ads throughout the book. No thank you.
Three stars to a book that made me ponder how some people luck into extremely interesting lives while the rest of us slog through the grind.
January 20, 2018
Goodreads tells me it took me almost seven months (!) to finish this, so let me explain: I had this grand idea that I would read all of the original stories that are "covered" here, and then have some greater appreciation of what each of these writers was doing. That ... never really happened, and I do feel like I missed out on some level here. That being said, I remember enough of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" to realize that what Anthony Marra did with a cell phone here is brilliant. This totally has me ready to catch up on all the McSweeney's I've been missing out on!
May 31, 2017
Some stories really capture the spirit of their originals, others are an homage in the vaguest of ways. Still others, I was unfamiliar with the original and so who's to say how it did? Some stories are less successful than others, some are exceptionally good. All in all, a neat concept by the fine folks at McSweeney's - honestly, I hope they do it again in the future with more authors.
June 24, 2017
Tricky to rate a collection of so disparate stories. More of a 3.5
I recommend reading the original stories that these are "covers" of, virtually all of them are available online somewhere.
I recommend reading the original stories that these are "covers" of, virtually all of them are available online somewhere.
September 9, 2019
I am a big supporter of the whole McSweeney's Quarterly Concern experiment - and have been since I picked up a copy of the second issue. I own all but the first. My actual cover-to-cover reading of said volumes has been spotty, probably a bit more than 25% of the volumes, along with a few pieces here and there among the others. I do urge subscription, for those who have an interest in literary fiction worldwide.
This particular issue, "Cover Stories" is the kind of theme issue they can pull off on a regular basis. They asked a number of authors (T. C. Boyle, Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff and Anthony Marra among them) to write cover versions of famous short stories ("The Tell-Tale Heart" "The Lottery" "Hills Like White Elephants" "All Summer in a Day" "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" among others). There are also a handful of cover poems, and a selection of famous political quotes twinned with Trump tweets. Tweets tend not to fare well when help up against Inaugural Addresses, I will tell you that.
I've published a few cover poems in my day, and I was hoping there would be a wide range of approach in this volume, bingo, got that one. One way to do a cover is to tell the same story from a different point of view, and Alice Sola Kim did that in "One Hour, Every Seven Years" which was my favorite effort in this volume. She brilliantly used a science fiction device to open up a science fiction story. Others updated the idea, as Anthony Marra did with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." His version is so very 20teens.
Others told a story with a similar theme and device (Megan Mayhew Bergman's "The Lottery Redux"). In still others, I can't yet tell you what method was used, because I haven't read (or don't remember reading) the original. Chris Abani's brutal version of Anton Chekhov's "Sleepy" being an example of that. Knowing Chekhov, it's probably just that brutal. I'll have to see.
One of the things to love about this issue is its not-too-secret attempt to guide readers to the original stories; and I've put together the list of the ones I have to chase down. Thank you, McSweeney's. [I appeal to the judges, though: Do I get any points for having read six of the root stories??? Partial credit??? Anything?]
In addition to the thematic covers, there is the Letters section, which is a stitch, as always. There's also a selection of excerpts from Gary Burden's autobiography, which is bizarre, and therefore interesting. Also, because McSweeney's, there's a monologue by Kevin Moffett, and an excerpt from Patty Yumi Cottrell's novel Sorry to Disrupt the Peace.
So, yeah, you should probably get a copy of this one. Sorry.
This particular issue, "Cover Stories" is the kind of theme issue they can pull off on a regular basis. They asked a number of authors (T. C. Boyle, Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff and Anthony Marra among them) to write cover versions of famous short stories ("The Tell-Tale Heart" "The Lottery" "Hills Like White Elephants" "All Summer in a Day" "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" among others). There are also a handful of cover poems, and a selection of famous political quotes twinned with Trump tweets. Tweets tend not to fare well when help up against Inaugural Addresses, I will tell you that.
I've published a few cover poems in my day, and I was hoping there would be a wide range of approach in this volume, bingo, got that one. One way to do a cover is to tell the same story from a different point of view, and Alice Sola Kim did that in "One Hour, Every Seven Years" which was my favorite effort in this volume. She brilliantly used a science fiction device to open up a science fiction story. Others updated the idea, as Anthony Marra did with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." His version is so very 20teens.
Others told a story with a similar theme and device (Megan Mayhew Bergman's "The Lottery Redux"). In still others, I can't yet tell you what method was used, because I haven't read (or don't remember reading) the original. Chris Abani's brutal version of Anton Chekhov's "Sleepy" being an example of that. Knowing Chekhov, it's probably just that brutal. I'll have to see.
One of the things to love about this issue is its not-too-secret attempt to guide readers to the original stories; and I've put together the list of the ones I have to chase down. Thank you, McSweeney's. [I appeal to the judges, though: Do I get any points for having read six of the root stories??? Partial credit??? Anything?]
In addition to the thematic covers, there is the Letters section, which is a stitch, as always. There's also a selection of excerpts from Gary Burden's autobiography, which is bizarre, and therefore interesting. Also, because McSweeney's, there's a monologue by Kevin Moffett, and an excerpt from Patty Yumi Cottrell's novel Sorry to Disrupt the Peace.
So, yeah, you should probably get a copy of this one. Sorry.
July 26, 2017
This had a really interesting premise, not sure if it was worth waiting two years for (and why, McSweeney's, did you never address this hiatus with your subscribers?). I know that McSweeney's had grand ambitions for this issue, with each story in its own miniature LP case and what not. We had to settle for a book, which is fine. McSweeney's often gets bogged down by the presentation or concept.
It was an overall fine issue. Most of the stories were high quality, as expected. For those who didn't read the description, this was a collection of "cover stories" modern retelling of classic stories (or at least stories by famous authors). A good number didn't resemble their source material at all ("And so on" by Kiese Laymon...it did share a similar theme) and some almost needed familiarity with the original to be anything more than just a bit of fun ("The Tell-Tale Heart" by Anthony Marra, who cleverly turned his into a social media nightmare.). I was not familiar with about half of the originals, which may push me to seek these out. Highlights include:
The letters, which are always a hoot. One in particular raised all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of covers.
"The Babysitter" by Emily Raboteau (covering "Some Women" by Alice Munro).
"Falling Faintly", another excellent story by Jess Walter (covering "The Dead" by James Joyce), about a James Joyce obsessed writer who falls madly in love with an actress. Funny, touching, thrilling. Simply brilliant.
Roxanne Gay's surreal, but beautifully written cover of "Rape Fantasies" by Margaret Atwood, "Men on Bikes".
T.C. Boyle proves once again why he's the best short story writer in the business with "The Argentine Ant", a cover of Italo Calvino's story of the same name. It is about a young couple who moves to a small town in the jungle, only to find it infested with ants. It was funny, entertaining, and multi-layered look at immigration.
Alice Sola Kim's wonderful and gorgeous time travel story, "One Hour, Every Seven Years". (which covers "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury). It's about a woman who tries to fix her life by getting her nine-year-old self to see the sun on Venus.
It was an overall fine issue. Most of the stories were high quality, as expected. For those who didn't read the description, this was a collection of "cover stories" modern retelling of classic stories (or at least stories by famous authors). A good number didn't resemble their source material at all ("And so on" by Kiese Laymon...it did share a similar theme) and some almost needed familiarity with the original to be anything more than just a bit of fun ("The Tell-Tale Heart" by Anthony Marra, who cleverly turned his into a social media nightmare.). I was not familiar with about half of the originals, which may push me to seek these out. Highlights include:
The letters, which are always a hoot. One in particular raised all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of covers.
"The Babysitter" by Emily Raboteau (covering "Some Women" by Alice Munro).
"Falling Faintly", another excellent story by Jess Walter (covering "The Dead" by James Joyce), about a James Joyce obsessed writer who falls madly in love with an actress. Funny, touching, thrilling. Simply brilliant.
Roxanne Gay's surreal, but beautifully written cover of "Rape Fantasies" by Margaret Atwood, "Men on Bikes".
T.C. Boyle proves once again why he's the best short story writer in the business with "The Argentine Ant", a cover of Italo Calvino's story of the same name. It is about a young couple who moves to a small town in the jungle, only to find it infested with ants. It was funny, entertaining, and multi-layered look at immigration.
Alice Sola Kim's wonderful and gorgeous time travel story, "One Hour, Every Seven Years". (which covers "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury). It's about a woman who tries to fix her life by getting her nine-year-old self to see the sun on Venus.
April 12, 2020
This was one of the more memorable and rewarding issues of McSweeney's that I've read. (For those scoring at home, I think I've read 12 issues now, so I'm not quite an authority on how this ranks in the overall collection.) Yeah, there have been some issues that have had more impressive stories or that have had a better overall consistency of top-quality works. I found that this issue, however, provides uniformly solid fiction and poetry while inviting readers to delve into the works that inspired the writing in this volume.
I was a bit methodical in my approach to this issue, reading the original work first and then reading the cover story or poem. It took some time (and hunting . . . thank goodness that the internet was generally able to fill in the holes in my home library), but it was definitely worth it. Sometimes the original story or poem was a revelation, sometimes the cover story or poem was fantastic, and sometimes both really resonated with me (I loved the Ray Bradbury/Alice Sola Kim set, for example).
I'd recommend this volume to anyone who has the time to follow a similar approach to mine, as it's a great way to revisit some old favorites and/or discover some new ones.
I was a bit methodical in my approach to this issue, reading the original work first and then reading the cover story or poem. It took some time (and hunting . . . thank goodness that the internet was generally able to fill in the holes in my home library), but it was definitely worth it. Sometimes the original story or poem was a revelation, sometimes the cover story or poem was fantastic, and sometimes both really resonated with me (I loved the Ray Bradbury/Alice Sola Kim set, for example).
I'd recommend this volume to anyone who has the time to follow a similar approach to mine, as it's a great way to revisit some old favorites and/or discover some new ones.
October 26, 2021
McSweeney’s is back after a hiatus caused by financial difficulties, and what a nice edition this is. The concept is that writers ‘cover’ short stories from others the way musicians sometimes cover songs. There is quite a variety here, and I found it interesting to look up the original stories to fully appreciate the creativity and approach each author took in their versions. My favorites:
- The Tell-Tale Heart, Anthony Marra’s version of E.A. Poe’s story of the same name
- Falling Faintly, Jess Walter’s version of ‘The Dead’ by James Joyce
- Once, Lauren Groff’s version of ‘Wants’ by Grace Paley
- If You’re Happy and You Know It, Meg Wolitzer’s version of ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’ by J.D. Salinger
- The Argentine Ant, T.C. Boyle’s version of Italo Calvino’s story of the same name
As in past editions, the ‘Letters to the Editor’ section at the beginning has many clever submissions and is well worth reading. There are also sidebars with great speeches from history compared to the tweets of Donald Trump, and, wisely, Eggers shows restraint and avoids selecting Trump’s angrier and less coherent tweets. Smart, sophisticated, and clever.
- The Tell-Tale Heart, Anthony Marra’s version of E.A. Poe’s story of the same name
- Falling Faintly, Jess Walter’s version of ‘The Dead’ by James Joyce
- Once, Lauren Groff’s version of ‘Wants’ by Grace Paley
- If You’re Happy and You Know It, Meg Wolitzer’s version of ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’ by J.D. Salinger
- The Argentine Ant, T.C. Boyle’s version of Italo Calvino’s story of the same name
As in past editions, the ‘Letters to the Editor’ section at the beginning has many clever submissions and is well worth reading. There are also sidebars with great speeches from history compared to the tweets of Donald Trump, and, wisely, Eggers shows restraint and avoids selecting Trump’s angrier and less coherent tweets. Smart, sophisticated, and clever.
September 13, 2017
Kudos for a fantastic theme this issue. The idea was having authors write "covers" of classic short stories. I knew many of the classics referenced, though not all, but my knowledge of the reference had little bearing on how much I enjoyed the stories in the issue. One story blew my breath away, some were just okay, some fell flat. One story inspired me to go back and read the original, which was a great experience.
July 15, 2017
In a remix issue of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern all the stories and poems were based on classics that have come before. I hadn't read all of the classics, but I found this collection of stories to be amusing, thought provoking, and down right entertaining. I am eagerly awaiting the next Quarterly Concern, and I'll be sharing this collection with my literary friends.
October 9, 2017
I like the idea of having contemporary writers "covering" or "remixing" classic short stories. I'll admit to having read very few of the originals, but all of these tales stand well on their own. My favourite is Megan Mayhew Bergman's take on The Lottery, but they're all pretty good. I'm glad to see McSweeney's is back at it again.
July 9, 2017
This was a wonderful collection of contemporary stories all based on classic short stories. Some of them were delightfully creepy. It includes some wickedly funny side bars and some lovely poetry. I only wish I knew who sent it to me. Whoever you are, thank you!
January 22, 2018
It was...okay.
Perhaps if I knew all the original stories that were "covered" in this issue I'd have been more entertained. As it was, I had a hard time maintaining focus. Not bad, not at all, just not very interesting.
Perhaps if I knew all the original stories that were "covered" in this issue I'd have been more entertained. As it was, I had a hard time maintaining focus. Not bad, not at all, just not very interesting.
August 10, 2019
As the title says, Contemporary writers reimagining classic tales. A grouping of stories that I wouldn't otherwise have read but thoroughly enjoyed. Bradbury, Poe, Joyce, Beckett, Munro, Salinger, etc. reinvented.
January 2, 2018
Some good stories and I read it very slowly ... a creative experiment and I liked the riffs on some classic stories.
August 4, 2017
I really enjoyed the little poem series "Great Speeches from History vs The Tweets of Donald Trump " that threaded throughout the collected stories.
September 6, 2017
The conceit of cover stories is interesting and I guess well executed but doesn't seem to deliver fiction that could really be as good as its predecessor.
June 6, 2019
Solid collection of short stories all based on other famous short stories. There were several excellent ones and overall it was a quick collection to read.
March 29, 2020
This is a really good issue. Strong stories from start to finish, and it has poems, too, which I was happy to see.
January 21, 2021
I have only read one of the stories "covered" here, so it would have been interesting to have read the others for comparison.
February 22, 2022
Really enjoyed this. The stories are enjoyable whether or not you're familiar with the original versions they 'cover'. Also some good poems (also covers) in this issue.
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May 26, 2017Fiction M1755 2017
November 8, 2017
highly recommended, ask me to borrow
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews