Granta 145: Ghosts

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #145

by Sigrid Rausing (Editor)

Published in book form four times a year, Granta is respected around the world for its mix of outstanding new fiction, poetry, reportage, memoir, photography and art.
Margaret Atwood, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Julian Barnes, Roberto Bolaño, Jeffrey Eugenides, Nadine Gordimer, Nick Hornby, Kazuo Ishiguro, Han Kang, Stephen King, A.L. Kennedy, Doris Lessing, Ben Marcus, Lorrie Moore, Herta Müller, Alice Munro, Gwendoline Riley, Will Self, Zadie Smith, Rebecca Solnit, John Updike, Jeanette Winterson - the voices that define a generation have all appeared in Granta.

Genres: Literature, Fiction, Poetry

240 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

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

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wildly uneven. From an overwritten attempt-at-edgy piece about Robot sex(Ivy-bound kids building sex robots. Ooh! No. Yawn) to Eugene Lim’s brilliant story in which the economic damage inflicted by such technology is brought to light in a meaningful way. Cooper’s piece on losing his lover to AIDS while battling an Ambien-induced eating disorder was another standout.
But don’t get me started on Dunn’s Yokosuka Blue Line. A foreigner hits the bars and gets the ladeez amid smoke and ennui. And let’s accessorize with a colorful map of the Tokyo train system. Thank you, Granta, you’ve just published every tedious piece dragged in to the Tokyo writers’ workshop by young would-be Henry Millers of Japan. We usually give those a good drubbing.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This issue of Granta is about time and about ghosts - the ghosts of our past selves, the shadows of past injuries, the ghosts of history, the ghosts in the machine.

Granta magazine is always a collection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and photography based loosely around a theme. In this edition, we read, for example, about Andre Aciman's fleeting encounter on a bus in Rome the memory of which lingered and influenced for a long time. We read a conversation between Amos Oz and Shira Hadad which discusses Oz's time at a kibbutz and his negotiations to get time for writing. These are just the first two articles.

As with all Granta magazine's, this is an interesting collection to read. Some articles I was less engaged with than others (and there is an extract from Sandra Newman's The Heavens which I have already read in full, so I rather skimmed through that), but that is only to be expected in such a diverse selection and my choices will be the opposite to someone else's.

[Susan Emmet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue lives up to its title: Ghosts. And they're internal and external.
Don't have time today to address all pieces - fiction, memoir, interview, poetry and photography - so will mention those most moving to me.
In Freud's Shadow (Andre Aciman) - to be captured by place and fudging the truth
A Room Of One's Own - interview with Amos Oz full of important revelations about his past, the kibbutz movement, his poverty and desperate need to write, the sacrifices his family made so he could write, his guilt over so much
Speer (Sheila Heti) - much to chew on again about Hitler and less evil Nazis like Speer. The banality of evil.
Stalingrad (Vasily Grossman) - Blown away by this story in light of recent decades of economic and political disparity
The haunting pictures of Hazara people in Afghanistan by Monika Bulaj
Turn the River (Cortney Lamar Charleston) - pithy insights on racial "problems"
I Will Never See The World Again (Ahmet Altan) - true and now and utterly moving

I was dumbfounded by "No Machine Could Do It" (Eugene Lim) and "Radical Sufficiency" (Jess Row). Dark, unnerving, caustic and horrific, at least for me.

[Gerard de Bruin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aangenaam onevenwichtig. Voor elck wat wils.

[Caroline Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some stunning stories here. Loved this issue. Favs:
André Aciman's 'In Freud's Shadow' about his connection with Rome.
Bernard Cooper's 'Greedy Sleep' about sleep-eating, and its connection with his dying partner's illness.
Maggie O'Farrell's 'All Hail the Holy Bone' about her sacrum. "We think we know our bodies, these shells of blood and muscle and tissue and bone, but they lead lives of their own, they keep secrets from us. We inhabit them but they remain unknowable, elusive, brave, carrying on with the business of living, despite our accidents and choices and incursions and foolishnesses." - p 123.
Ahmet Altan's 'I Will Never See the World Again'.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue of Granta deals with the past stories as can be seen from the title. While the stories are good and you can clearly feel the grey skies the authors are conveying to you, the stories, I felt we not as memorable as the future issues like the ones in issue 147 & 148. Stories by Maria Leva's "Letter of Apology" and Bernard Coopers' "Greedy Sleep" stood out from the rest and were a joy to read.

[Mateus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it wildly inconsistent, unfortunately.. The foreword was promising and hinted at various different interpretations on the theme of "ghosts", however most of the stories felt bland and uninteresting to me, with a couple of radiant exceptions

[Paul Dembina · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most disappointing issues I've ever read. Low point was the short story about robot sex

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more experimental pieces by Eugene Lim and Jess Row were the more interesting parts of this issue.

[Martin von Haller Groenbaek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, a pleasure to read once every quarter great curated list of writing that I would otherwise never have got my hands on.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Granta keeps getting better under the new editor. Great way to seek out new writing and writers.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent issue. Sheila Heti and Steven Dunn set the tone right off the bat.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

[Emmapettitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a vintage issue, in my opinion.

[Johan Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dit nummer viel me wat tegen, met uitzondering van Ahmet Altan en Eugene Lim en een zozo voor Anne Carson

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Patchy. The ones I enjoyed were Bernard Cooper’s “Greedy Sleep” and Andre Aciman’s “In Freud’s Shadow.”

[dipandjelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

this collection was a real rollercoaster... i think loved some of the stories w as much passion as i truly hated some of them... another gr8 secondhand find @ blossom (love u)

[Ray Quirolgico · Rating 4 out of 5]

The metaphorical ghosts of our pasts are the focus of this volume: memories from our past travels, past relationships, past imaginings, past hopes.

[Chris]

I value this issue for providing introductions to Amos Oz, Ahmet Altan, Jess Row, Maria Reva, Sandra Newman and Maggie O'Farrell's "All Hail The Holy Bone" which, maybe, will save my life.