McSweeney's Issue 52: In Their Faces A Landmark: Stories of Movement and Displacement

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #52

by Dave Eggers (Editor), Nyuol Lueth Tong (Editor)

In this splendid new edition of McSweeney’s, guest-editor Nyuol Lueth Tong curates a collection of seventeen remarkable new stories from immigrant and refugee writers, the likes of which include Novuyo Tshuma, Maria Kuznetsova, Meron Hadero, and Eskor David Johnson. Inside are stories of home and family, of punctured soccer balls and misused Rolexes, of code-switching and generational divides and burying loved ones and prank-calling 911.

Editor's note (Nyuol Lueth Tong)
There is a genre called migrant literature. It covers works by immigrant writers, often about the immigrant experience. Among its chief concerns or themes are displacement, movement, belonging, homecoming, departure, arrival, assimilation, bilingualism, and so on. I suppose we can fairly assume this collection of stories by immigrant writers belongs to that tradition. As immigrant writers, creative spirits caught between worlds whose boundaries are ever shifting, often resulting in more displacement and migration, it is comforting to know there exists a coterie to which belonging is conceivable.

That said, we should embrace this veritable genre with caution, for despite its liberating possibilities, it also preserves the very logic of our exclusion, namely our “foreignness,” our “otherness,” often deployed as a mark of inferiority, marginality, and disposability. In other words, it relegates our works to the periphery of provincialism, outside the so-called canon of world literature. Migrant literature is not only a constitutive part of global literature but also arguably its most vital, exciting, innovative element, concerned as it is with exploring themes and questions that are universal and timeless, yet urgent and humane. All the pieces in this issue exhibit this irreducible quality.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

317 pages, Hardcover

Published March 27, 2018

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

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. More collections like this, that purposefully forefront authors we wouldn't see otherwise.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong enough collection in this installment from McSweeney’s, featuring a diverse set of authors and a theme of the immigrant experience, though a little uneven.

My favorites:
“I Pledge Allegiance to the Butterfly”, by Maria Kuznetsova
“Five Petals Proud”, by Aya Osuga A.
“The Wall”, by Meron Hadero
“Cappuccino Please”, by Edvin Suasic
“The Cobbler and the Acolyte”, by Ilan Mochari
“Chinese Girls Don’t Have Fairy Tales”, by Rita Chang-Eppig

My favorite quote, from “Many Scattered a Bench Along the Banks of Coralville Lake”, by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, about a funeral:
“Their voices tintinnabulated in that death-still afternoon, seeking those soprano peaks and contralto watersheds and tenor valleys, relentless, relentless. They dragged out sorrow as though it were death or its occasion that had given them the wisdom to mine our deepest pits of woe and reflect them back to us in songfuls of unbearable feeling, imploring us nevertheless to bear it. And it was beautiful to hear, and awful, too, so very awful.”

[Brandon Forsyth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe my least favourite McSweeney’s yet. I feel like I could always count on McSweeney’s to give me a few stories with wit to it, a certain slyness that was reflected in the packaging. The packaging is still unbelievably unique and creative, but it feels like the Trump era has made the editorial board reach out for earnest stories - sometimes painfully earnest - that speak to important issues about discrimination and diversity, but are lacking a sense of humour. It feels like in these times, we could use stories that approach these issues with a knowing smile, but I get why you would go the other way. This book took me almost five months to finish.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The half-page, two-paragraph editor's note rang through my brain while reading these absorbing short stories, amplifying their power and my critical thinking. Acknowledging both the importance and danger of naming "migrant literature" separate and apart from the larger genre of "world literature." It seems like an important moment for McSweeney's to publish a volume of work by immigrant authors but the cautionary note about how to read that is just as important.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

While perusing various summer journals at the local book store, I picked up this solid bound collection. The editor’s note hooked me.

While the stories were hit or miss to my personal taste, all had a fresh quality to them and elements that shine. Perhaps because it’s “migrant literature” or just that it’s a large range of people and places concentrated in a tiny volume.

These are the ones I loved.

Five Petals Proud
The Wall
Cappuccino Please
Brandon

[Jim Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of short stories, this time all written by authors who have moved to a new country. There is great diversity in these stories, as we are reminded that the immigrant experience is never the same. It's a very timely book to read.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection!

[Isla McKetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection more than any other McSweeney's I've read. Partially because it's about being unmoored and myriad, but also because it's full of some great fucking writing.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories which all had a through line around migration or the immigrant experience.

[Rowena]

~2.5

Started out strong, but felt like it petered out a little.

Favorites:
"I Pledge Allegiance to the Butterfly"
"My Mountain is Taller Than All the Living Trees"

[Mills College Library]

Coll.