Tin House Magazine, Volume 17, Issue 4, summer 2016: #68 Summer Reading

Tin House #68

by Win McCormack (Editor), Rob Spillman (Editor), John Ashbery

Whether on a picnic blanket or a porch swing, the fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in Tin House will help you while away the hours.
Tin House is your literary companion for the dog days of Summer. Whether on a picnic blanket or a porch swing, the fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in Tin House will help you while away the hours.
Featuring new work from Miller Oberman, Michael Dickman, and Malerie Willens.

Genres: Fiction

217 pages, Magazine

First published May 30, 2016

About the author

Win McCormack is an American publisher and editor from Oregon.

He is editor-in-chief of Tin House magazine and Tin House Books, the former publisher of Oregon Magazine, and founder and treasurer of MediAmerica, Inc. He serves on the board of directors of the journal New Perspectives Quarterly. His political and social writings have appeared in Oregon Humanities, Tin House, The Nation, The Oregonian, and Oregon Magazine. McCormack's investigative coverage of the Rajneeshee movement was awarded a William Allen White Commendation from the University of Kansas and the City and Regional Magazine Association. His latest book, You Don’t Know Me: A Citizen's Guide to Republican Family Values, examines the sex scandals of Republican politicians who espouse "moral values."

As a political activist, McCormack served as Chair of the Oregon Steering Committee for Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign. He is chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon's President's Council and a member of the Obama for President Oregon Finance Committee. McCormack was also chosen as Alternate Delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He currently serves on the Oregon Council for the Humanities and the Oregon Tourism Commission. Additionally, McCormack sits on the Board of Overseers for Emerson College, and is a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Liberty Hill Foundation

Reviews

[ryan wilkey]

Tin House is a nationally recognized literary magazine, which I had a hard time believing when I read the first story. It wasn't until I got to John Ashbery's poems, which I tend to enjoy, that I started really enjoying the work within this volume. Everything from Ashbery's poems and on was very enjoyable both in language and subject matter, which has deeper meaning than what is read face-value.

My favorite short story within the volume is by far Josh Weil's "The Elk-Calf."

I also really liked the "Lost and Found" section. It contains novels that have been "lost" from the literary realm or haven't had the most appropriate attention as felt by the writer submitting it to the magazine. Each submission contains a reason as to why the novel is a literary gem, and most have a little personal anecdote that goes along with it. I found myself adding some of the novels mentioned to my "to-read" shelf.

Overall, I'm giving this volume 3 stars because it took a really long time for me to get into it, and by long I mean half of the magazine. Once I hit the John Ashbery section, it got 100 times better.

[Michael Kitchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

By Sydvest Station by Dorthe Nors - 3
Body Electric by Malerie Williams - 3
The Dress of Honey by Jean-Phillippe Toussaint - 2
The Chicken Run by Sasa Stanisic - 2
The First Full Thought of Her Life - by Deb Olin Unferth - 4
The Tsuchinoko by Michael Braunschweig - 3
The Cat by Jackson Tobin - 4
Trojan Whores Hate You Back by Eric Puchner - 5
The Elk-Calf by Josh Weil - 5
Visitation by Sean Ennis - 5

[A-ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great issue with lots of very good short stories. Highlights include Dorthe Nors's "By Sydvest Station", Malerie Willens's frightening portrait of eating disorders "Body Electric", Jean-Philippe Toussaint's "The Dress of Honey" which was lyrical, satirical, funny, simply a great story, Deb Olin Unferth's excellent somewhat meta-fictional first-person look at an attempted act of murder "The First Full Thought of Her Life", Marin Sardy's non-groundbreaking, but totally solid essay on gymnastics and Svetlana Boginskaya, "Lightening, or Feathers, "The Cat" by Jackson Tobin was an incredible and deliciously weird story of teens and drug addiction among other things, was entertaining to boot, Eric Puchner's funny portrait about getting the band back together, "Trojan Whores Hate you Back", "The Elk-Calf" by Josh Weil was slow-moving, but had such rich detail and plot was beautifully plotted, it was grower, "Visitation by Sean Ennis was also pretty good. Wow, that's quite a list of highlights. Check this one out.

[Pearse Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, Tin House Mag, I understand your acclaim. Sometimes, you can read like a loading dock for a bunch of Iowa grads' anthology's table of contents, but that can be fine, at least the fiction is usually good. I didn't love Marrow Island's synopsis when the book came out, so I skipped the excerpt! But finished everything else. Oh, but maybe I skipped "The Cat." I don't remember it. By that point I had stumbled upon a few underwhelming pieces, like The Tsuchinoko and The Chicken Run, so I wasn't feeling it. Deb Olin Unferth's piece was great! And Trojan Whores Hate You Back, WOW! Visitation and The Elf-Calf were the same story: a conflict in a father's son's life is reflected by the father, an isolated man who thinks a lot, obsessing over a detail of the natural world. Why did you put these stories next to each other, Tin House? Interesting. "Body Electric" was powerful too, and "Mud Man Punk Rocker" was fun. It's always good to read about authors talking about their favorite books, so the Lost & Found section was well-deserved. Poetry I can't analyze. I just can't. Some didn't hit me. But the design of this book is tight and I read it really quickly. Good good. Excited to pick up "Poison" and "True Crime" issues later. Or the one where Abbey Chung got into!

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very strong collection. The fiction selections are all superb, but I particularly enjoyed "Body Electric", "The Dress of Honey" (hilarious!), "Marrow Island", and "The Cat". Essays on John Clare, Emily Hahn, Brook Hayward, and Ann Petry all invite further exploration of their work.

For poetry, "Christmas in Berlin" is pleasantly cheeky.

[Roberto Iacobacci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent selection of short stories. Particular favorites were Trojan Whores Hate You Back by Eric Puchner and The Elk-Cal by Josh Weil. I did not fancy the poetry in this issue. Overall very good read.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there's a little bit of writing to appeal to everyone in this publication. I particularly liked the story about the bulimic person on the train, the story about the cat (as strange as it was), and the writing about Emily Hanh (who I had never heard about).

[Rajeev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couple of Short stories in here are masterpieces

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a good issue. Then again, they always are. Not exactly a huge difference from most of the issues, though fresh and interesting as always. As usual, I got into reading.

[Bonisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of strong translation