Granta 132: Possession

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #132

by Sigrid Rausing (Editor)

In this issue, Oliver Bullough travels to Ukraine and Crimea in the wake of revolution; Kerry Howley writes about cage fighting and giving birth; Molly Brodak remembers her father, a compulsive gambler and failed bank robber; and Bella Pollen describes being visited – repeatedly – by an incubus. Here are fifteen takes on the human drive to possess – a person, a home, a territory – and the many ways we become possessed – by ideas, by desires, by spirits.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Poetry, Anthologies, Literature, Essays

216 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2015

About the author

Sigrid Rausing is Editor and Publisher of Granta magazine and Publisher of Granta and Portobello Books. She is the author of History, Memory and Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia: The End of a Collective Farm and Everything is Wonderful, which has been translated into four different languages.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman]

Rating and review is solely for the novelette-length short, "Los Angeles" by Ling Ma (2015), where
‘My 100 ex-boyfriends and I hang out every day.’
Free online at https://granta.com/los-angeles-ma/ -- and worth a look. Entertaining, short and the price is right. I was taken by the time-share jet from LA to Sausalito, "where moody conifers grow on steep hills, and the expanse of the deep bay laps at rocks along the shore. It’s pretty here, but the only place to shop is Bennetton."

My first exposure to this author, a writer hailing from Fujian, Utah, and Kansas. More here: https://lingma.tumblr.com/

[Sara]

I haven't been back to Granta in a long time and was a little taken aback by how pat a few of these pieces were, one in particular that got off to a great start. I say this as an unsophisticated reader for whom Granta used to be a struggle and a pleasure to read. For me to put down a piece and think, "Really? That's it?" makes me wonder if some of the kvetching from the Guardian over the past decade is true.
4 to 5 stars to the following...
After Maiden by Oliver Bullough
Bandit by Molly Brodak
This is New by Marc Bojanowski
Possession by Bella Pollan

[K]

Wrapped up

[Liviu]

Granta has always been an on and off interest of mine (same with being a subscriber to it or reading it here and there - in a bookstore or a library) and this issue absorbed me from the first piece (visit from an English journalist to Ukraine and Crimea just before and after its incorporation in Russia) to the last (memoir of a a daughter about her law breaking father born in a concentration camp) with some superb picture of Indian couples in between

[Nathan]

An excellent selection of stories. Glad I finally got round to picking up a copy of Granta. Will definitely be subscribing after this.

[Adam]

Granta - the usual.

[LaDawn]

Only one story kept my interest.

[priyam]

read: about her and the memories that belong to her by mieko kawakami, translated by hitomi yoshio

[Eric]

A slightly more emaciated issue than usual, but some good stories. The opening essay, reportage in the Ukraine, "After Maidan", is excellent. "The Buddhist" is rhetorically interesting. The final story, Lucy the Liar, is an excerpt from a now published novel. I don't really care for when Granta publishes excerpts - I feel cheated of a cohesive story or essay - but it did make me interested in perhaps reading the full novel, so it succeeded despite my annoyance. "This is New" is well constructed and "Possession" is entertaining.

[Susan Emmet]

Not one of my favorite issues of Granta in part because of the darkness of so many pieces. But dark they are and understandably so because of the issue's theme.
Most detailed and intriguing and disturbing for me were:
Kerry Howley - cage fighting and childbirth in Texas - The Cage of You
Greg Jackson - twisted tale of Hara and Lyric and their attempt to put a puzzle together - Epithalamium
Molly Brodak - memoir of her father, dark and deep - Bandit
Max Pinckers - incredible photographs of people in India seeking a private love - Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty
Bella Pollen - incubus drives the will to write - Possession
Hanan al-Shaykh - a young woman breaking loose from Islamic tradition - The Mother of All Sins

The will to "own," to possess the self, a people, a place, a country, an idea -

[Rebecca Schwarz]

A solid issue. It felt a little uneven to me, as the pieces either really grabbed me or really left me feeling "meh." I could appreciate most all of the pieces even when they didn't move me. So, it really comes down to taste. I especially liked Bullough's rambling travelogue on post revolution Ukraine. Also, Howley's "The Cage of You" which combines her feelings about being pregnant with her research on cage fighters. Weise's "Poem Conveyed" was meta with a light touch. The issue finished off with a couple strong, short pieces. Unferth's "Open Water" reduces a whole relationship into one preemptive stream-of-consciousness thought, and al-Shaykh's "The Mother of All Sins" is a jewel-like view into a very specific world.

[A-ron]

Another great issue of Granta. All the prose was of high quality. The photo essay was fascinating. Molly Brodak's "Bandit" about a woman dealing with her criminal father, Bella Pollen's "Possession" about her visits by an incubus, and Kerry Howley's "Cage of you", comparing MMA fighting and childbirth were all obvious standouts.

[Lawrence]

One of the better issues of late. Each piece was interesting and I was fully engaged. Have. It felt this way about an issue of Granta in a long time. Even the poetry worked for me, especially the women is a construct.

[Amy]

Turns out I didn't review this after I read it, and now can't recall anything about this one. Demoting to two stars!

[Charlotte]

There's a cracker in here about fighting and childbirth.

[Emmapettitt]

Usual Granta - some good stuff (the piece on Ukraine), some not so good. Always worth a read, though.

[Superstine]

3,5 eller kanskje egentlig 3,8 (altså 4). Et av de bedre nr av Granta jeg har lest.