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9 Stories on the Magic of Cities
Nine stories on the magic of cities real and imagined by authors including Jane Bowles, A. Igoni Barrett, A. N. Dever, Mariana Enriquez, Steven Millhauser, and more.
About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction. Recommended Reading is supported by the Amazon Literary Partnership, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For other links from Electric Literature, follow us, or sign up for our eNewsletter.
About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction. Recommended Reading is supported by the Amazon Literary Partnership, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For other links from Electric Literature, follow us, or sign up for our eNewsletter.
212 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 9, 2018
5 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Brockmeier
40 books496 followersBorn and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Brockmeier received his MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1997. His stories have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of an O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 12, 2020
"City" books are among my favorite things to read, whether the fantastical (Lovat, New Crobuzon, Holy Terra, Metropole, an otherwordly Prague), historic romps (Döblin's Berlin, Goodwin's Istanbul, Rodenbach's Bruges, Rezzori's unnamed Austro-Hungarian locale), contemporary visits (Fei's Beijing, Satyamurthy 's Bangalore, Barrett's Lagos) or even bland suburbia (
Little Sinners and Other Stories
). An excerpt from Barrett's Blackass is included in this anthology so I decided to pick it up.
My favorites pieces were "The Dirty Kid" by Mariana Enriquez (Buenos Aires) and "Secret Stream" by Héctor Tobar (Los Angeles), which were exactly what I was looking for. I visit Philadelphia a lot and liked Michael Deagler's portrayal in "Gogarty," even as the characters themselves didn't much interest me. Other stories like Buzzati's "The Time Machine" and Allingham's "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" were merely okay, although the latter was creative in how it fit the theme. "Everything is Nice" was the worst of the bunch. It had nothing to do with the urban motif and seems to have only been included because of editor's Lynne Tillman's embarrassingly over-the-top praise. ("To some of us writers, Jane Bowles walks on water.") It's mostly a character study.
Decent read overall.
My favorites pieces were "The Dirty Kid" by Mariana Enriquez (Buenos Aires) and "Secret Stream" by Héctor Tobar (Los Angeles), which were exactly what I was looking for. I visit Philadelphia a lot and liked Michael Deagler's portrayal in "Gogarty," even as the characters themselves didn't much interest me. Other stories like Buzzati's "The Time Machine" and Allingham's "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" were merely okay, although the latter was creative in how it fit the theme. "Everything is Nice" was the worst of the bunch. It had nothing to do with the urban motif and seems to have only been included because of editor's Lynne Tillman's embarrassingly over-the-top praise. ("To some of us writers, Jane Bowles walks on water.") It's mostly a character study.
Decent read overall.
April 1, 2019
A lovely collection
Nine stories that take the reader to different places, eras, and moods. This collection is well worth the journey. Thank you Electric Lit!
Nine stories that take the reader to different places, eras, and moods. This collection is well worth the journey. Thank you Electric Lit!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews